design in decade 99-09

8/8/2019 Design in Decade 99-09

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32 printmag.com

I Mad This Just f Yu:

A Bif Histy f Dsig,

1999–2009B y C o l I n B e r r Y / I u s t a t i b y n o n - F o r M A T



no ct ob er 2 00 9



34 printmag.com

it wAS A DECADE of CoNtrADiCtioNS:

Authentic self-expression and self-

absorbed foolishness coexisted, rebellion

and well-honed skill established an un-

easy harmony, and both the individual

and collective instincts ourished. The

era showcased personal empowerment

along with the wisdom of crowds. In fact,the prevailing design trend of the 2000s

was no trend at all—anything goes, ev-

erything went. White was hip before

black was back, orange was in, then

green. Like a reworks display, memes

ignited and exploded with a ash and

bang, while others are still pinwheeling.

Still others have vanished in a trail of

smoke and ash. What began as the I/me/

mine decade has emerged as an us—a

we—during ten years of what felt, some-

times, like cognitive dissonance.These ten-year increments aren’t pre-

cise measurements, of course, and in

hindsight the 2000s arrived a little early.

In 1998, Apple rolled out its egg-shaped

iMac, a computer so personal it came in 12

different avors. The iBook followed, and

by 2001 the personal-pronoun juggernaut

was rolling: iPod, iTunes, dozens of i-apps

built into Apple’s OS X and, starting in

2007, the iPhone. “My” appeared on mil-

lions of web pages, including MySpace,

My Yahoo, myAOL. And in 2005, threefriends in California launched the rst

successful online video-sharing site,

YouTube. It was like the old joke: But hey,

enough about me, let’s talk about you—what

do you think of me?

In 2007, a Pew Research Center report,

“Portrait of Generation Next,” identied

today’s 18-to-25-year-olds as the “Look at

Me” generation, upgraded from the 1970s

“me generation” with the added expo-

sure that vanity media and the internetfoster. Marketers have called it “personal-

ization.” The belief that we’ve become

masters of our technology, rather than

slaves to it, has empowered us: 10,000

songs in your pocket . The millions of i-apps

and my-pages reiterate the customization

that younger folks demand.

The aesthetics of the decade reected

this shift to the personal with a revival of

something that required no technology

at all—hand-drawn illustration, with eachunique line displaying the creative DNA

of its maker. The trend appears to have

begun around 1999, with the titles for The

Virgin Suicides and Freaks and Geeks—Geoff

McFetridge’s homage to Pablo Ferro, and

to teen art made with a ballpoint pen—

and with Stefan Sagmeister, whose image

for a Detroit AIGA lecture poster pictured

the New York designer with the event’s

details carved into his chest and arms.

The hand-drawn look spread quickly,

turning up on the cover and pages of

Flaunt ; in lm titles for Napoleon Dynamite ,

Juno, and Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist ;

and on the book jacket for Everything Is

Illuminated . Before long, it could be found

on corporate reports, Bank of America

ATM screens, Microsoft ads, television

promos, and Popeye’s commercials.

The belief that we’ve

become masters of our technology,rather than slaves to it,has empowered a “Look at Me”

generation.

riGHt Apple iPod ad-

vertisement. Created by

TBWA\Chiat\Day.

-

BELow Packaging for the

iPod. Created by

Apple Design Studio.



no ct ob er 2 00 9

Much of the obsession could be pegged

as a backlash to the oft-cited “clean” de-

sign of the 1990s, when designers rst

began adjusting to life inside the monito

The mark of the hand, by contrast, looke

fresh. You can doodle on a napkin over

coffee with a friend. Blogging on Design

Observer in 2004, Michael Bierut notedhow, “in an age where computer-genera

ed this and special effects that are within

the reach of anyone who can afford a cop

of Final Cut Pro, it takes real restraint, no

to mention condence, to stick with a

simple idea simply executed”—by hand

Nothing characterized this condent

spirit better than the McSweeney’s mini-

empire. Dave Eggers’s prolic publishin

house and The Believer magazine merged

creative individuality with elaborate

craft—letterpress typography, die-cuts,elegant cloth covers—while giving expo

sure to authors like Neal Pollack and Lyd

Davis and the nger to anyone crowing

about the End of Print. Issue 16 of the

McSweeney’s quarterly came with its own

pocket comb; another comprised eight

small books nestled together in a box.

Others pushed this handmade aes-

thetic further, creating ornate, elaborate

ligreed illustrations, letterforms, and

vector drawings. “Deanne Cheuk’s art

direction of Tokion fueled the whole fauxBaroque era,” says Jon Forss, half of

Non-Format, the studio known for its or

namental work (and the creators of this

issue’s cover and the artwork on p. 33).

Perhaps the most recognizable repre-

sentative of the trend was Marian Bantje

the Canadian self-described “lapsed

graphic designer” whose meticulous han

can evoke Islamic calligraphy, tree roots,

or Irish lace with equal grace. Organic

and jubilant, Bantjes’s art caught the pu

lic’s attention in 2004 with custom

lettering and illustrations for Details.

“The pendulum of art and design has al-

ways swung between austerity and

ostentation,” Bantjes says. “We’d been in

austerity for a while, and for whatever

reason, people found ornamentation

beautiful again.” Whether it was a reac-

from top

AIGA Detroit poster,

1999. Designer:

Stefan Sagmeister.

-

Cover of Flaunt magazine,

2003. Illustration by

Vault49.

-

Still image from The Virgin

Suicides title sequence,

1999. Designer:Geoff McFetridge.

-

Still image from Fox

Searchlight Studio’s Juno

title sequence, 2007.

Created by Shadowplay

Studio.



36 printmag.com

tion to the digitally obsessed 1980s and

’90s, or a renewed fascination with or-

ganic forms, or another sign of the high

value placed on individuality, ornamen-

tation became a cosmopolitan signier,

manifest in London (Si Scott), New York

(Mario Hugo), Paris (M/M Studio), and

countless design and cultural centers.Other graphic forms evolved as well:

Grafti characters morphed into toys;

book jackets sprouted fur and spikes.

(Die Gestalten Verlag’s book Tactile: High

Touch Visuals captured the moment.)

Type turned sculptural. Quebec’s Paprika

and Berlin’s HO RT studios created elabo-

rate 3-D fonts, and Oded Ezer, an Israeli

typographer known for fashioning

an entire biology based on Hebrew and

Roman alphabets, turned type into

gures of bugs and animals.Some trends were complementary.

Sans serifs and scripts dominated again,

while old classics were retrotted to

mend mistakes in earlier digital versions,

notes Paul Shaw, a New York–based cal-

ligrapher and typographer and Print

contributing editor. Many designers

found a strong market in commissioned

fonts, which became as ubiquitous

as business cards. Cornel Windlin, co-

founder of the Swiss foundry Lineto,

points out how, after a decade of digitaldemocracy, type design reverted to

the realm of the expert: “Type is again

the domain of the ultra-specialist, a

master whose isolation is both technolog-

ical and aesthetic.”

Without a doubt, the most notable

typeface of the past ten years was Hoeer

and Frere-Jones’ Gotham, inspired by

New York’s Port Authority Terminal

signage and designed in 2000 as an ex-

clusive sans for GQ. Quintessentially

American, Gotham went public in 2004

to become one of the world’s most popu-

lar fonts, exuding a candor that nods

to the hardworking 1930s and a positive

future. The presidential campaign for

Barack Obama adopted Gotham as its au-

thorized font. “Originally, we were using

Gill Sans, but it appears stylistically

from top

Illustration for Details,

2004. Designer: Marian

Bantjes.

-

Poster for Theatre de

Lorient, 2007. Design rm:

M/M Paris.

-

Type treatment, 2008.

Designer: Alex Trochut.

-

Art for Tokion magazine,

2005. Designer: Deanne

Cheuk.



no ct ob er 2 00 9

aloof,” says Scott Thomas, Obama for

America’s design director of new media.

“Gotham was attractive but unassuming;

it appeared blue-collar yet dressed up

well. It was the perfect choice.”

Extra-large type families with sans and

serif versions also became commonplace.

Work in Progress’s Galeere—as used in Self Service magazine—and House

Industry’s Chalet married mod and mod-

ern with sexy curves and strong lines;

Typotheque’s History nailed the era’s ob-

session with layering in a design inspired

by the evolution of typography. In France,

Jean-François Porchez re-drew Sabon into

Sabon Next, giving it leaner lines and a

postmillennial attitude. There were disas-

ters (Canada Type’s Ronaldson), but

overall, designers such as Chester Jenkins,

Christian Schwartz, Matthew Carter, and

the creative entrepreneurs at Dalton

Maag and Font Bureau have set new stan-

dards for type design.

The decade also marked the moment

typography entered the cultural vernacu-

lar, best illustrated by a 2007 episode

of Wheel of Fortune, which included the

following banter between Pat Sajak andVanna White about type:

Sajak: “What font do you use on your

computer?”

White: “I use Arial and Geneva.”

Sajak: “Really! Anything else?”

White: “Helvetica!”

Even Vanna White loves Helvetica.

Are these the fruits of desktop publishing?

Is everyone a designer now? Actually,

yes. Among the most signicant develop-

ments in the past decade is the rise of

rst-rate software, which put design in

Cradle to Cradle:Remaking theWay We Make Thingsby wlla mcDnugh

and mchael Baunga(nh pess)

A DECADE OF DESIGN BOOKS

America (The Book):A Citizen’s Guide toDemocracy Inactionby Jn Sea and

he es The Daily

Show . Desgne: paula

Sche/penaga

(gd cel publsh

D.I.Y.: Design ItYourself by Ellen Lun

(pe

aheul pess)

Handwritten:Expressive Letteringin the Digital Ageby Seven Helle

and mk ilc

(thes & Huds)

Altitude:Contemporary SwissGraphic DesignEded by rbe

Klanen, Nclas

Buqun, and Claudamaes. Cve desgn:

Sabna Gll

(De gesle Vel)

Tactile: High

Touch VisualsEded by rbe

Klanen, Sven

Ehann, and Hahas

Hübne. Cve desgn:

pxelgaen

(De gesle Vel)

ABOVE McSweeney’s

Issue 16 (with comb),

2005. Designer:

Eli Horowitz.

-

LEft Photo from

the Berlin exhibition

“Naturschauspiele: Nor-

wegian Graphic Design

Powered by Nature,”

2008. Design rm:Yokoland.

2004

2002

2006

2007



38 printmag.com

the hands of the people. The successor to

PageMaker, InDesign rst appeared in

1999. Four years later, it came bundled

with Photoshop and Illustrator in Adobe’s

Creative Suite, a one-two-three punch

that sent Quark to the ropes. “It took until

2002 or 2003, but with its 1.5 version,

InDesign killed Quark,” says Armin Vit,co-founder and principal of the blog

Under Consideration. InDesign was also

the rst desktop-publishing application to

support OpenType, the cross-platform

font le format co-developed by Adobe

and Microsoft.

Something similar was happening

online. Typophile and Speak Up had be-

gun to create a locus where designers

could argue th e virtues of Daniel Eatock’s

Big Brother logo or commiserate over the

deaths of Alan Fletcher or Shigeo Fukuda.Like a neighborhood bar, the blogs were a

catalyst for conversation, where Paula

Scher and Paul from Schenectady could

weigh in with equal time, if not equal

authority. “All of a sudden we could talk

back, be part of the discussion,” Vit says.

“It created a sense of community that had

never happened before.”

A design-it-yourself ethic had taken

over. Blurb and Lulu thrived even as th e

commercial book industry fell apart;

99designs.com churned out cheap logosand checked the blood pressure of estab-

lished designers. Made up of newly

empowered individuals, this design

r.I.P.—

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RICKVALICENTI/KENNETH FITZGERALD MR.KEEDY /ANDREW BLAUVELT

KALINIKITAS& DENISE GONZALESCRISP& LOUISE SANDHAUS JESSICAHELFAND& WILLIAM DRENTTEL /SHAWNWOLFE

THE READERSRESPOND

j

“ T K T K T K ”

76

special year-end issue

70hoursofmusic,pickedbyyour favoritestars!Plus,metallica’sdrummer cheatsdeath,50centinthestudioWitheminemandpink’slovelinesinside:tenfreesonGs

B r i T ne y s p e a r s Ma d o nna C h r i s T i na a g u i l e r a r i h a nna B e y o n C e p a r a M o r e J u s T i nT i MB e r l a K e J a y -Z M.i .a .Ma r i a h Wh i T e s T r i p e s g r e e nd a y r a d i o h e a d u 2 d a f T p u nK My C h e Mi C a l r o Ma n C e p e T e We nT Z l i l Wa y ne B i g g i e

B r i T n e y s p e a r s M a d o n n a C h r i s T i n a a g u i l e r a r i h a n n a B e y o n C e p a r a M o r e J u s T i n T i M B e r l a K e J a y - Z M a r i a h W h i T e s T r i p e s g r e e n d a y r a d i o h e a d u 2 d a f T p u n K M y C h e M i C a l r o M a n C e p e T e W e n T Z l i l W a y n e B i g g i e s M a l l sBriTney spears Madonna ChrisTina aguilera rihanna BeyonCe paraMore JusTin TiMBerlaKe Jay-Z M.i.a. Mariah WhiTe sTripes green day radio-

B r i T n e y s p e a r s M a d o n n a C h r i s T i n a a g u i l e r a r i h a n n a B e y o n C e p a r a M o r e J u s T i n T i M B e r l a K e J a y - Z M . i . a . M a r i a h W h i T e s T r i p e s g r e e n d a y r a d i o -

d e c e m b e r 2 0 0 8 / J a n u a r y 2 0 0 9

from top

Promotional postcard for

the exhibition “Everybody

Dance Now: 20 Years

of Dancing in Print,”

designed by Abbott Miller

using the History type-

face, which was created

by Peter Bilak in 2002.

-

Obama’s “Hope” logo

uses the Gotham type-face, designed by

Hoefler & Frere-Jones.

-

Helvetica documentary

“Meet the Cast” poster,

2007. Design rm:

Experimental Jetset.

Blender 1994–2009

The Face 1980–2004

Radar 2005; 2007–2008

Speak1995–2001

Emigre1984–2005

proletariat could be seen in the rise of

such divergent tools as Google Maps,

iPhone apps, and the suddenly ubiqui-

tous Wacom tablet.

While these advances allowed ama-

teurs to look more professional, designprofessionals evolved one step ahead

of extinction. Information design took a

quantum leap, led by The New York Times



no ct ob er 2 00 9

and Good magazine, and inspired wun-

derkinds such as Nicholas Felton, who

chronicled his travels, activities, and oth-

er nonvital statistics (“Michael J. Fox

sightings: one”) in his annual Feltron

Report. Jonathan Harris’s We Feel Fine

and Jonathan Feinberg’s Wordle retooled

the ways we gathered, organized, viewed,and processed information online.

Processing, Ben Fry and Casey Reas’s

open-source programming language,

allowed designers to code their own

motion- and image-based digital sketch-

es. It was embraced by Los Angeles-based

production house Motion Theory, which

used the software in its inventive

“Hands” advertisements for HP. Other

designers used Processing to make

music videos for R.E.M., Radiohead,

and Modest Mouse.Meanwhile, version 5.5 of Adobe’s

After Effects gave pixel-pushers what

InDesign had delivered to graphic de-

signers—autonomy. Just ten years ago,

says Justin Cone, editor and founder

of the blog Motionographer, “motion

graphics” was still lumped in with post-

production. But after 2000, an explosion

in independent studios—the best being

MK12 in the U.S., Shynola in the U.K.,

and Lobo in Brazil—began pushing the

camera into 3-D space for ads, title

sequences, games, and animation. Theevolution of alternate-reality games

(ARGs), for example, can be reduced to a

single contrast: Microsoft’s hokey The

Beast (2001)—considered the best in its

day—versus E A’s immersive Dante’s

Inferno (2009).

Yet the special-effects world had its

contradictions as well. Among lmmak-

ers, Michel Gondry’s low-tech music

videos, commercials, and movies stand

alone for their dreamlike avor and

innovative design. (For proof, cue up theWhite Stripes’ “Fell In Love with a Girl”

or S teriogram’s “Walkie Talkie Man.”)

“Gondry’s vision of the naive, creative

soul, lost in a handmade analog wonder-

land, has come to exemplify a certain

emo-DIY aesthetic. I see it everywhere,”

says Jim Hanas, a former editor at

Adcritic.com. Adds Justin Cone: “The

last ten years in motion design have

been about the rise of the individual.”

Not everyone spent the 2000s staring

at a computer screen. In the music worl

designer Julian House co-founded theGhost Box label with edgy graphics and

font styles, and Kim Hiorthøy’s music

packaging for Rune Grammofon showed

endless invention. In Paris, Laurent Fétis

did a little bit of everyting—beautiful

posters for Beck, elegant art books, and

unsettling furniture. Out on the streets,

stencil art—Banksy was unmasked!—

and guerrilla sticker campaigns like

Bodhi Oser’s “Fuck” and Ji Lee’s “Bubble

Project” took up where the ’90s poster

king Shepard Fairey left off. And theOBEY giant himself went platinum, de

signing the “Hope” poster and eventuall

donating it to the Smithsonian.

Branding and advertising got smarter

with Apple leading the way. “Ten years

EdwardJohnston

ontwerperAkzidenz

EmilRudolfWeiss

Henryv.d. VeldeFredericGoudy

MorrisFuller Benton

MoholyNagy

EricGill

ElLissitzky

StanleyMorison

Sjoerdde Roos

Oliver Simon

JosefAlbers

HerbertBayer

John Heartfield

PaulRenner

Bruce Rogers

KurtSchwitters

PietZwart

GerardKiljanPaulSchuitema

A.M. Cassandre

Jan van Krimpen

H.N. Werkman

Dick Elffers

Vordemberge Gildewart

BrunoMunari

Imre Reiner

HelmutSalden Jan Tschichold

MaxBill

MaxCaflisch

WillemSandberg

OttoTreumann

SaulBass

PietCossee Anthony Froshaug

SemHartz

CharlesJongejans

MartKempers

RichardPaulLohse

HansMardersteigHarryN.Siermann

Henryk Tomaszewski

Alexander Verberne

Pieter Wetselaar

Jan Bons

Hermann Zapf

ChrisBrand WimCrouwel

Quentin Fiore

Adrian Frutiger

HerbLubalin

MaxMiedinger

Josef-Müller Brockmann

EmilRuder

Pieter Brattinga

Alan Fletcher

Alber Kapr

DavidKindersley

Ruari McLean

GerritNoordzij

pentagram

PaulRand

Jurriaan Schrofer

Anton Stankowski

Jan Vermeulen

HansPeter Willberg

OtlAicher

AnthonBeeke

JaapDrupsteen

BobGill Milton Glaser

OotjeOxenaar

SwipStolk

Jan van ToornPierre Bernard

H. R.Bosshard hard werken

MichaelHarvey

Walter Nikkels

JamieReid

PietSchreuders

GerardUnger

Wolfgang Weingart

wild plakken

RuediBaur

Neville Brody

JostHochuli

MaxKisman

Hans-Rudolph Lutz

BrunoMonguzzi

Peter Saville

studio dumbar

Erik van Blokland& Justvan Rossum

DavidCarson

EdwardFella

Dan Friedman

PietGerards

Mieke Gerritsen

Tibor Kalman

Robin Kinross

Rudyvan der Lans

SuzannaLicko

Martin Majoor

RobertNakata

nes pas plier

LexReitsma

PaulaScher

FredSmeijers

ErikSpiekermann

Tessav.d. Waals

Jonathan Barnbrook

IrmaBoom

PaulElliman

fuel

grappa blotto

P. ScottMakela

Bruce Mau

RoelofMulderoctavo

tomato

CornelWindlin

2 x 4

75b

Jopvan Bennekom

bureau ThomasBuxó

elektrosmog

experimental jetset

goldenmasters

goodwill

gtf

m&m

mooren & vd velden

north

Roger Willems

LEGENDA / LEGENDINDEX / INDEX

O n t w e r p / D e s i g n

D a n i e l G r o s s / J o r i s M a l t h a / w w w . c a t a l o g t r e e . n e t / A r n h e m 2 0 0 2

K M

+ A M

A M

A M +

W B

één persoonone person

één persoonone person

drie personenthree persons

drie personenthree persons

twee personentwo persons

belang voor het vak importance to the profession

AM = Armand Mevis

KM =Karel Martens

WB = Wigger Bierma

persoonlijk belangpersonal intrest

ALLK M

K M + W B

W B

ALLE

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2 x 4 [ H4]75b [ H4]OtlAicher [ D5]

Josef Albers [ E5]o n tw e rp er A k zi d en z [ G4]

J on at h an B a r nb r oo k [ E3]Saul Bass [ B6]RuediBaur [ D2]HerbertBayer [ E5]

Anthon Beeke [ D4] Jo p va n B en ne ko m [ H4] MorrisFuller Benton [ F4]P ie rr e B er na rd [ E4]

Max Bill [ C5] van Blokland/van Rossum [ C2] Jan Bons [ A4]Irma Boom [ F3]Ha nsRud o lfBosshard [ E3]Chris Brand [ A4]P ie te r B ra tt in ga [ B3]N evi lle Br ody [ E2]bureau [ H4]

Thomas Buxó [ H4]

MaxCaflisch [ C5]DavidCarson [ C1]

A.M. Cassandre [ D6]PietCossee [ B6]

Wi mCro uwe l [ A3]

JaapDrupsteen [ D4]studio dumbar [ C2]

elektrosmog [ H4]Dick Elffers [ C7]PaulElliman [ F3]experimental jetset [ H4]

Edward Fella [ B1]Quentin Fiore [ A3]

Alan Fletcher [ C3]Dan Friedman [ C1]

AnthonyFroshaug [ B6] Adrian Frutiger [ B3]fuel [ F3]

Piet Gerards [ C1] Mieke Gerritsen [ C1] Vo rd emberge Gild ewa rt [ C7]Bob Gill [ D4]Eric Gill [ F5]

Milton Glaser [ D4]golden masters [ H5]goodwill [ H5]F re de ri cG ou dy [ F5]grappa blotto [ F4]gtf [ H5]

hard werken [ E4]SemHartz [ B6]

Mi ch ae lH ar ve y [ E3] Jo hn H ea rt fi el d [ E5] Jost Hochuli [ D2]

EdwardJohnston [ G4]C ha rl es J on ge ja ns [ B5]

Tibor Kalman [ D1] AlbertKapr [ C3] Ma rt Ke mper s [ B5]GerardKiljan [ E7]D av id Ki nd er sl ey [ C3]R obi n Ki nr oss [ D1]

MaxKisman [ D1] Jan van Krimpen [ D6]

R ud y va n d er L an s [ E1]S uzann aLi ck o [ E1]

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

J

K

L

El Lissitzky [ E5]RichardPaulLohse [ B5]HerbLubalin [ A3]H an s -R ud o lp h L ut z [ D1]

m&m [ H5] Martin Majoor [ E1]P. Sc ot t Ma ke la [ F4]HansMardersteig [ B5]Bruce Mau [ G4]RuariMcLean [ C3]

MaxMiedinger [ B3]B ru no Mo ng uz zi [ D1]mooren & vd velden [ I5]StanleyMorison [ E4]RoelofMulder [ G3]Bru no Munar i [ C7]

JosefMüller-Brockmann [ B2]

Moholy Nagy [ F5]Rob er tN ak at a [ E1]nes pas plier [ E1]

Wa lt er Ni kk el s [ D3]

GerritNoordzij [ C3]north [ I5]

octavo [ G4]Ootje Oxenaar [ D4]

pentagram [ C3]

Paul Rand [ C4] Jamie Reid [ D3]Imre Reiner [ C6]Lex Reitsma [ E2]PaulRenner [ D5]Bru ce Ro ger s [ D5]S jo er dD e R oo s [ D4]EmilRuder [ B3]

HelmutSalden [ C6] WillemSandberg [ C6]Peter Saville [ C2]PaulaScher [ E2]P ie tS ch re ud er s [ D2]

Jurriaan Schrofer [ C4]P au lS ch ui te ma [ D7]K ur tS ch wi tt er s [ E6]HarryN. Sierman [ B5]Oliver Simon [ D5]Fr ed Sme ij er s [ E2]Erik Spiekermann [ E2]

An to n S ta nk ow sk i [ C5]SwipStolk [ D4]

Henryk To ma sz ewski [ B4]tomato [ G4]

Jan van Toorn [ E4]OttoTreumann [ B6]

Ja n Ts ch ic ho ld [ C6]

GerardUnger [ D3]

Henryv.d. Velde [ G4] Alexander Verberne [ B4] Jan Vermeulen [ C5]

Te ss av dW aa ls [ E3] Wo l fg a ng W ei n ga r t [ D3]E mi l Ru do lf W ei ss [ G4]H.N. Werkman [ D7]Pieter Wetselaar [ A4]wild plakken [ E2]HansPeter Willberg [ D5]R og er W il le ms [ I5]CornelWindlin [ H4]

Her mann Zapf [ A4]Piet Zwart [ E6]

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typopath 1.0

LEFT

Mental Map of the Werk-

plaats Typography, 2002.

Design rm Catalogtree.

ABoVE

The Feltron 2008 Atlas.

Designer: Nicholas Felton.



40 printmag.com

LEft

Street art in Berlin by Blu.

-

BELOW

Street art in London

by Banksy.

-

BOTTOM

Poster for Barack Obama,

2008. Designer:

Shepard Fairey.

ago, there was scarcely a white package

to be found, for fear of getting lost on

shelves or looking generic,” says Christine

Mau, a branding expert at Kimberly-

Clark. What changed? “Mac. Its simple

aesthetic set it apart and set the stage

for white packaging,” Mau says. Deborah

Adler’s Target Rx bottle received near-

universal praise, while other projects that

were battered by public opinion man-

aged to survive: FutureBrand’s retooling

of Paul Rand’s UPS logo; Wolff Olins’s

emblem for the 2012 London Olympics;

Arnell Group’s new mark for Pepsi.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky made cool

campaigns for some of the decade’s best-

known brands: Mini Cooper’s “Let’s

Motor,” IKEA’s “Unböring,” and Burger

King’s “Subservient Chicken.” In 2008,

CP+B took its biggest risk, a $300 million

gamble with Microsoft to counter Apple’s

“Mac vs. PC” campaign. Whether or notthe “I’m a PC” catchphrase can be taken

off the Things You Would Never Admit To

list remains to be seen.

By late 2008, however, it was harder to

pay attention to all this. A truly global

recession revealed wide cracks in the

economy, in the health of American retail,

and in any remaining delusions that

mindless consumption and environmen-

tal irresponsibility have any place in

21st-century design. “Sustainability” had

become such a potent buzzword that

companies became susceptible to green -

washing by the middle of the decade.

“The ‘eco’ prex fol-lowed a path similar

to the ‘dot-com’ sufx,” says Brian

Dougherty, co-founder of Celery Design in

Berkeley, California. “What started out as

a meaningful differentiator lost its poten-

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cy as everyone applied it to everything.” A

fundamental transformation is under-

way, however, and designers are now

considering green issues as an integral

part of the brief.

Values-based branding has moved

from fringe to mainstream: Dow’s

“Human Element,” GE’s “Ecomagina-tion,” BP’s “Beyond Petroleum,” and

Gap’s “RED” campaign bathe their pitch-

es in an inclusive, collective aura. Let’s

build a smarter planet . “It’s all brand-

building,” says Dougherty. “Folks like

Patagonia and Ben & Jerry’s pioneered it,

and it’s made the leap to megacorpora-

tions.” Corporate sustainability reports

are displacing prot reports; Walmart is

poised to become one of the greenest com-

panies in the world. The corporate logo,

as the Times pointed out earlier this year,

reects a newly conversational and neigh-

borly tone. Civility is afoot. The cynical

may view this as desperation—a way to

lure business during the credit crunch—but it’s possible to see something bigger

happening. Design can either adapt or

perish. (And possibly thrive: Method, the

hip green cleaning line launched in 2000,

now boasts a $40 million market share.)

The mark for Repower America, Al

Gore’s clean-energy initiative, part of his

Alliance for Climate Protection, demon-

strates this recent marriage of good

design and collective juju. Created by th

Martin Agency and the eponymous

branding rm started by Brian Collins,

the logo reverses the omnipresent “Me”

to create a “we”—“me” is a part of

“we”—and grounds the omnipotent pro

noun on a bed of spring green. It’s ahelpful illustration of a n ew kind of

thinking in design: an emerging cultura

conscience. Even its name is empowered

“In the early aughts, I used the word

‘amplify’ a lot—‘amplify brand values,’

‘amplify meaning,’ ” says Brian Collins,

his company’s chairman and CCO.

“But that sounded a lot like screaming,

when what I wanted to do was resonate.

‘Resonate’ implies listening as well as

speaking, inviting other people into the

dialogue. It’s a different value.” This kinof resonant thinking can also be seen in

the rise of Good , where subscriptions hav

skyrocketed, and in Walmart’s Packagin

Scorecard, with which suppliers can eval

uate themselves relative to the comp-

etition based on green metrics.

“Many designers have troubled con-

sciences,” says Print columnist and desig

critic Rick Poynor. “There’s been a great

deal of discussion around the world in th

last decade about where design’s respon

sibilities lie. That can only be a goodthing. At this point, we can do without

spinners of false dreams.”

Designers are reacting to this. The

vanity and self-centeredness that seemed

to characterize the early part of the de-

cade now appear to be transforming into

self-awareness, at least in nascent form.

Designers are beginning to envision an

era in which good design can serve every

one, not just i, Me, or Mine.

Where to go from here? Where else?

Onward. Upward. Forward. Into the

teens. More surprises are in store, certain

ly, but for now, for everyone, we have all

the technology, tools and—if we keep

ourselves in check—the awareness neces

sary to create all the beautiful things this

ever-shrinking, fragile planet and its in-

habitants really need.

CLoCKwiSE from topCover of Good ’s “The

Water Issue,” 2009.

Design rm: Open.

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Target ClearRx system,

2004. Designer: Deborah

Adler.

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Logo for the Alliance for

Climate Protection, 2008.

Design rm: Collins:.

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Cover of Wired , June

2008. Creative director:

Scott Dadich; design

director: Wyatt Mitchell.

design in decade 99-09

Documents