A Topology of 201X Aesthetics
An event on Monday, August 29th in NYC is announced at the bottom of this email.
Starting with Malte Muller's website electricgecko, this year I began to notice an increased usage of heavy, extended weights of classic sans-serif typefaces like Neue Haas Grotesk and Univers across the web. I casually wondered about this development, but when I noticed Tumblr use the style in its announcement of live video this June, I could not help but be captivated. Tumblr's design team has a well-deserved reputation for incorporating the leading edge of internet trends into its brand, and when I saw the gif below, I knew that this was no mere coincidence. Where was this visual trend coming from?
I asked critically-minded type designer Cath Schmidt about its origins, and she suggested that designer Richard Turley, whose work in recent years has featured similar styles, may be responsible. But as Cath and other new internet friends turned me onto an influential subgroup of graphic designers on Twitter I was previously unaware of, I began to see that Turley—and heavy extended sans-serifs—were only the tip of an iceberg.
Perhaps "ice shelf" would be a more adequate description of the enormity of this discovery. The bold sans-serif thing and other trends I'd noticed this year (styles inspired by notorious critical design practice Metahaven, a resurgence of outlined fonts, returning popularity of collage) were all connected. Each of these styles intersected, converged, folded into one another, spanning a loose connection of dozens of influential designers spanning the worlds of architecture, the Yale MFA in Graphic Design program, and critical northern European graphic design practices. Whereas before I envisioned an archipelago of disconnected stylistic islands, I now saw that I had in fact landed on the shores of an aesthetic Greenland.
The discovery of this New World, which I've crudely grouped under "Yale MFA / Metahaven," made me reconsider the other aesthetic continents I've dipped my toes into. My personal background as a product designer in the startup world, where design is increasingly coming under scrutiny for its homogeneity, single-mindedness, and even imperialistic tendencies, has given me a direct view into what indeed appears to be the convergence of modernist rhetoric and Silicon Valley libertarianism, masked by a thick veil of selectively progressive thinking. This is a subject I've approached before, one which I intend to write about more in the future. At the same time, in the last two years I've spend a significant amount of time immersing myself in the waters of post-internet aesthetics. I closely followed the life and largely over-reported death of vaporwave music and its accompanying imagery, even dabbling in rich pastel gradients myself. And through my friends Abi, Kathy, Emily, and Nicole, I've immersed myself in a community of artists who are at the forefront of post-internet visuals and thinking.
Reflecting on all this, I've come to see these three aesthetic movements—"Yale MFA / Metahaven," "Standard Digital Modernism," and "Post-Internet"—as the defining visual trends of our current time, at least of the last 5 years and perhaps through the next 5 as well. Over the past few weeks, I've brought these thoughts to the greater following of Ribbonfarm and to my new favorite online community, Learning Gardens, where we've dissected and discussed the proceedings. The result is this as yet simplistic charting of these trends which I would now like to share with you all. I implore you, brave reader, to comment with your contradictions, overlaps, examples, corollaries, and, if you've seen them on the horizon, glimpses of new landmasses.
..
This Monday the 29th of August, at the offices of Open Enrollment at 44 Henry Street, join me for Mondays, a rooftop salon and gathering of creative minds. We will discuss the various aesthetic trends mentioned above over a group internet-browsing session. Members of each perspective will be in attendance, as will be beers! For more information, check out the past Mondays events, and find me (Toby Shorin) on Facebook and add me as a friend.
..
Until next time.
..
Starting with Malte Muller's website electricgecko, this year I began to notice an increased usage of heavy, extended weights of classic sans-serif typefaces like Neue Haas Grotesk and Univers across the web. I casually wondered about this development, but when I noticed Tumblr use the style in its announcement of live video this June, I could not help but be captivated. Tumblr's design team has a well-deserved reputation for incorporating the leading edge of internet trends into its brand, and when I saw the gif below, I knew that this was no mere coincidence. Where was this visual trend coming from?
I asked critically-minded type designer Cath Schmidt about its origins, and she suggested that designer Richard Turley, whose work in recent years has featured similar styles, may be responsible. But as Cath and other new internet friends turned me onto an influential subgroup of graphic designers on Twitter I was previously unaware of, I began to see that Turley—and heavy extended sans-serifs—were only the tip of an iceberg.
Perhaps "ice shelf" would be a more adequate description of the enormity of this discovery. The bold sans-serif thing and other trends I'd noticed this year (styles inspired by notorious critical design practice Metahaven, a resurgence of outlined fonts, returning popularity of collage) were all connected. Each of these styles intersected, converged, folded into one another, spanning a loose connection of dozens of influential designers spanning the worlds of architecture, the Yale MFA in Graphic Design program, and critical northern European graphic design practices. Whereas before I envisioned an archipelago of disconnected stylistic islands, I now saw that I had in fact landed on the shores of an aesthetic Greenland.
The discovery of this New World, which I've crudely grouped under "Yale MFA / Metahaven," made me reconsider the other aesthetic continents I've dipped my toes into. My personal background as a product designer in the startup world, where design is increasingly coming under scrutiny for its homogeneity, single-mindedness, and even imperialistic tendencies, has given me a direct view into what indeed appears to be the convergence of modernist rhetoric and Silicon Valley libertarianism, masked by a thick veil of selectively progressive thinking. This is a subject I've approached before, one which I intend to write about more in the future. At the same time, in the last two years I've spend a significant amount of time immersing myself in the waters of post-internet aesthetics. I closely followed the life and largely over-reported death of vaporwave music and its accompanying imagery, even dabbling in rich pastel gradients myself. And through my friends Abi, Kathy, Emily, and Nicole, I've immersed myself in a community of artists who are at the forefront of post-internet visuals and thinking.
Reflecting on all this, I've come to see these three aesthetic movements—"Yale MFA / Metahaven," "Standard Digital Modernism," and "Post-Internet"—as the defining visual trends of our current time, at least of the last 5 years and perhaps through the next 5 as well. Over the past few weeks, I've brought these thoughts to the greater following of Ribbonfarm and to my new favorite online community, Learning Gardens, where we've dissected and discussed the proceedings. The result is this as yet simplistic charting of these trends which I would now like to share with you all. I implore you, brave reader, to comment with your contradictions, overlaps, examples, corollaries, and, if you've seen them on the horizon, glimpses of new landmasses.
..
This Monday the 29th of August, at the offices of Open Enrollment at 44 Henry Street, join me for Mondays, a rooftop salon and gathering of creative minds. We will discuss the various aesthetic trends mentioned above over a group internet-browsing session. Members of each perspective will be in attendance, as will be beers! For more information, check out the past Mondays events, and find me (Toby Shorin) on Facebook and add me as a friend.
..
Until next time.
..
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