Face it: In terms of design, the 1980s was a wasteland. Postmodernism was cool. … And Panton went pastel, for crissakes.
But the decade’s lack of design sensibility is coming back more and more each day. And it’s bad.
Do your best: Please make the 1980s go away. Karl Lagerfeld knows what’s going on. Converse with him. Think about the future, even if it means drawing from the past. Nostalgia is an enervating pursuit.
Tags: design
I thought I would never ever, ever say this…
Whew! deep breath… ok, ok, I can do this.
The 80’s have some redeeming moments design-wise. WOW that feels good.
Granted 95% of them take place before 1984 and the last 5% is reserved for 89-99.
Now, what our modern society is borrowing from the 80’s could be bad or good depending on what they are trying to revive.
I think the things that WE ( like-minded artists ) create that have an 80’s flavour, will be better than the original 80’s versions they are inspired by. The reason is we look to the 80’s through rose tinted carrera’s. We cherry pick our favorite parts, or what we imagined was our favorite parts.
Our imaginations will glamorize the things we love from a certain era and will recreate a unrealistic but better snapshot of the time. Squeezing out all the mundane mediocre crap, and recreating a decade concentrate. This has already been done to death with 60’s 70’s.
I could go on, but who would want that?
Neville Brody, M & Co. Tibor Kalman, zine culture, Vaughn Oliver, Gary Panter, Raw magazine, Keith Haring… I could easily find things to love if I had to defend a decade. I think your “design in the 80s” judgement isn’t specific enough, too sweeping for me to go along with. Plenty to hate though, on the other hand. And the 90s ain’t any better.