What's this about a design fight?

On January 3rd an article was written and it sparked a lot of debate and childish name calling and virtual middle finger flipping. Also: (possible) crying. Seriously, folks. After I read some of the rebuttals and comments I immediately envisioned the authors giving their nearby peers handshakes and high-fives and then quietly excusing themselves to the bathroom so they could curl up into the fetal position and then have a "good cry" because lordamercy everyone is so damned fragile these days.

Let me take a step back. A journalist named Michael Cannell wrote an article about design, stating that design loves a depression. The article pissed some people off. People like Murray Moss, the man behind Moss, the retail store and gallery. Then some other people like Stefan Boublil and then Liz from Design Glut wrote rebuttals to Murray's rebuttal to Michael's article (thank God I don't have a cocktail in me). While I thought quite a bit about Mister Moss and what he had to say, equal time was spent digesting Liz and Stefan's rebuttals (to rebuttals to rebuttals...). I also very much enjoyed reading what Sarah Hromack had to say, and I was pleased that she was able to keep her post under 10,000 words. The comments in each and every post were equally amusing and insightful.

What I realized is that almost (we're talking over 80% here) all of the opinions I read had extremely valid points that I not only understood but also agreed with. Perhaps that means that design, just like any other industry, doesn't simply have one problem and one solution. Maybe it's entirely too complex and broad a field.

I had typed out this really nerdy and wordy response to all of this design drama. I had quotes and had cited important historic moments in design. I talked about Frank Lloyd Wright's 1949 letter to Fred Langhorst (not googlable. If you're really interested, read Nor Cal Mod by Serraino) and I even had a paragraph about Brutalist architecture. It was 15,000 words long. But then I deleted it. I realized that enough had been said by authorities and there wasn't much I could offer except some curse words and the possibility of a fist fight as a way to resolve all design drama. I mean, c'mon people.

So as I poured myself a double Hendrick's and tonic I wondered what I could offer to the conversation and figured "what the hell" I'd just ask random friends who were available for a quick chat on the internet. I'd ask some of them to read the article and the rebuttals. I'd ask others what they thought about design, generally speaking. Most importantly, I just wanted to know what a bunch of random people who were signed onto my buddylist at the moment thought. I mean, let's just be honest here, production and its consumption is not that complicated. Here is what some of my random friends had to say:

I asked my friend Stephen, a video game industry guy, to read the original article and then Murray's rebuttal. Here's what he thought:

Bingo, Stephen! Two different people talking about two different things. Design is complicated.

Here's Sarah (aka Shezilla):


A depression: Good for designers but bad for business?

Here's what Rawb, a computer guru (no, seriously. Dude runs the internet) had to say:

Rawb makes a great point: Why can't everyone just chill the fuck out?

I tried to get my mom to answer some questions, but she pretended to not be at her computer:


Mick works for an internet company that deals with music. Here's what he had to say:

Mick is just over it. Mick wants change. Mick is also very wise. Also, crazy.

Here's what Michael thinks about all the drama (Michael read all about it):

Michael loves function before form. I don't think design is simply function or form. I think it's about form, function, tradition, experience, and love.

I don't remember who said this but I really liked what they had to say about the NYT article:


Brandon, an internet wonder kid:

Fuck you, Brandon! Just kidding! Not everyone has to care about design.

This is from Ben, he's a television producer:


What have we learned today, my little lovelies? We have learned that this is too complicated a subject to condense all the problems and possibilities into one article and a few rebuttals.

Nashledanou! Ty jsi krasna!

p.s. for what it's worth, I very much disagree with what Cannell had to say.