Oh, You Know,

“Likewise, good design history is not just a roster of names, dates, and objects; it is the history of how we have come to believe what we believe about design. The biggest difference is this: Bad design history offers us alternatives to having ideas. Bad design history says, here, this is nice, use it. Good design history acts as a catalyst for our own ideas. Good design history says, this is how designers thought about their work then, and this is how that work fits into the culture. Now, what can you do?”

–Tibor Kalman, J. Abbott Miller, and Karrie Jacobs, Good History/Bad History March/April 1991.

Earlier the essay states that we (collectively) need more thoughtful, critical writing and fewer coffee table books. In 1991 the authors probably had no idea (how could they have?) how the internet would have changed the way that design ideas and particular aesthetics are propagated, much less culture itself. The insight of their thesis remains, and is even more important than ever; so many blogs, portfolios, image bookmarking sites, etc. present the present in just the same way as the authors lamented the presentation of the past: sans context and with no critical comment. Nothing is presented as learnable, save for a style or visual devices.

The internet’s design coverage is, with rare exception, a giant coffee table book or (worse) a catalog of things to buy. It is harder to present things with some degree of actual critical content (since there’s some actual effort involved), and sometimes “look, this is cool” is really all one wants/needs to say (especially when presenting one’s own work). That said, merely presenting the past or the present with no background, no context, and no criticism is not taking the profession, its practitioners, or its practice any closer to thoughtful, considered, or intelligent.

I’m as guilty of this as anyone. And not everyone should have to be a professional design critic to maintain a blog or image collection. That said, starting a habit of a little evidence of thought, analysis, etc. (even just an answer to “so what?” or a reason “why?”) aside from the “look at this, its cool” implicit in posting an image could go a long way towards getting more designers more intellectually and critically involved in both their own work and in looking at (and subsequently creating) design as a whole. Think before (and as) you post. Let’s all start some better habits.