
Over at Speak Up, there's an interesting discussion going on about "Truth before Trend" in design. When does a design technique become a trend? And why do designers choose to distance themselves from these styles as soon as they are deemed trends? Are we limiting ourselves if we never use the concepts that are most popular and will inevitabley make us more money?
All good questions. From my point of view, coming into graphic design as an older student (ok, an old broad) I just couldn't connect with a lot of the "hip" styles that I saw so much of, especially on the internet. I knew they were popular, de rigueur, but they were just not me. So it delighted me to no end when I encountered a fellow designer, a partner in crime, who though much younger than myself, also could not connect with all these trendy designs.
One day out of the blue, he emailed me this delightful image. From this one idea started a conspiratorial relationship in which we emailed each other our takes on the victims of TrenDESIGN. Stay tuned in the future for more fun TrenDESIGN pokes at the graphic design industry.
Yes, trends can be very attractive, and they can make a crap load of money, but that old adage still holds true in today's visual economy: you can have too much of a good trend.