{"id":2770,"date":"2014-05-13T05:28:14","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T05:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/13\/the_reflex\/"},"modified":"2014-05-13T05:28:14","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T05:28:14","slug":"the_reflex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/13\/the_reflex\/","title":{"rendered":"The Reflex"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know when<\/strong> you’ve been noticing something creep up on you over time? Things you begin seeing, filing away, forming into a pattern? Yesterday, I was looking at a bunch of projects by student designers, and a certain trend snapped into focus. It was so instantly, immediately clear the first time I saw an example, and by the 6th I was really frustrated that so many people had veered toward the same solution without thinking much about context. I worry about things like this in design — especially when I see it in student work — because I began to worry that a style becomes a tic, a reflex that may not be questioned or considered well enough.<\/p>\n

You try. Can you notice the pattern forming, the approach that has become a kind of template for a certain kind of work?<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

You already figured it out, I bet.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The thing is, these are all really good magazines — some of my favorites, actually, so I guess my consumer habits are part of the problem. When I saw so many covers based on this basic model, those were well-designed, too. When a certain trick hits critical mass, though, I think there’s a risk of designers not asking themselves why a certain solution was appropriate in the first place, and just following along to align themselves with a certain tribe. That’s exactly the time to look more deeply at the “why” and take advantage of the opportunity to contribute something new, rather than get more deeply entrenched in a habit.<\/p>\n

[Cover model: my pal Michi<\/a> from the Typejockeys<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know when you’ve been noticing something creep up on you over time? Things you begin seeing, filing away, forming into a pattern? Yesterday, I was looking at a bunch of projects by student designers, and a certain trend snapped into focus. It was so instantly, immediately clear the first time I saw an example, … Continue reading “The Reflex”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ultratypographic"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}