Where did the design go?
Is the art in design fading away? If yes, why?
We think you’d agree- today's designs are a little too simple to be excited about. Is the art in design fading away? If yes, why?
People's tastes, cultures, behaviors, and technologies changed, which contributed to the design and aesthetic changes. For example, consider the Nokia N93i and the latest iPhone. Both are great designs for their respective times, but compared to the N93i, an iPhone might look a bit boring.
You see, designing things often comes as a package of lifestyle components—it's like a mood board. A wealthy person in earlier days would wear a double-breasted suit with shiny leather shoes, a proper timepiece, and a well-articulated car to complete the look. Today's cars, something like a BYD, would go with flat-colored drop-shoulder T-shirts, Nikes, and Apple watches. Everything is a bit artless, minimal, and in some cases too flat or boring.
With the rising trend of things taking a dystopian, post-apocalyptic look, like the Cybertruck, which goes with a worn-out iPhone fine-woven case, a smudgy titanium body—industrial look for gadgets and people doing body mods, having tattoos, and accessorizing themselves with geometric-shaped jewelry.
Long story short, design hasn't gone anywhere; it's just changed its style and isn't really evolving if that's what you're expecting it to do. It's exploring different styles, one after another, sometimes in a cyclic manner, sometimes changing its course along with war or a natural phenomenon, people's psychology, and lifestyles. Sometimes modern-day technology makes things too simple. Like a circular CD has evolved into a simple solid-state memory that is part of a motherboard, which has made the latest products seem pretty boring. Or instead of a roaring engine, we now have an empty bonnet for more storage in EVs. For better or worse, design is now a bit different than it used to be.
It's more about efficiency, minimalism, and mass appeal than sophistication, intricacies, and ornamentation. We love the old designs of products, so elegant and thoughtful. But they're simply not relevant today.
