Why All Products Look The Same: Industrial Design Trends
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- Industrial Design trends are heavily influenced by online social media platforms. This video talks about the implications behind the phenomenon of algorithmic populism. Product design and culture will never be the same again. But that's not necessarily a bad thing!
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John Mauriello has been working professionally as an industrial designer since 2010. He is an Adjunct Professor of industrial design at California College of the Arts. All content was written and edited by John Mauriello.
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Enroll in my online industrial design course, Form Fundamentals. bit.ly/335vsqO ...I'll teach you about visual storytelling, design language, and form. It will ultimately make you a designer that is better prepared for the professional world.
Funily enough, youtube sugested me to watch a guy telling me that algorithms are showing everyone the same design style
I have also realized the irony of this ;)
exactly what i thought
The 'algo' wields vast amount of power of the direction culture takes, it is fully analogous to our collective subconcious.
RUclips recommends me videos talking about how everyone should stop using RUclips and that Google is evil😂
Oh the irony
When i watched futuristic movies i used to find quite unrealistic how everything in the future was depicted as being aesthetically homogenous, but now it seems like it's where we're heading to.
Great point.
@Narja Minority Report for example, where everything in the future has the same clean, clear aesthetic.
And those movies probably influenced a lot of the designers of today!
Design tends to be homogenous as a result of the profit motive. It's risky to try novel aesthetic designs and generally more profitable to be conservative, and take ques from the competition, offering only slight differentiation. Especially as companies move from small scale passion projects to large scale enterprises, the function of the company changes to being about returning profits to shareholders more so than creating innovation. I've worked in studios where I've developed better designs that were cheaper and more sustainable, and these were rejected by the client simply because they wanted to copy what they'd done the previous year.
@Narja we are in dystopia already though only at baby step
Alex I'll take _Neoliberal Consumerist Democracy As An Aesthetic_ for $500
I’m really hoping there can be a resurgence of intricate beauty in design. Think of old world furniture and pottery, with little flowers and vines painted on nearly everything. Think of the hand carved wood and stone. No one was thinking, “what’s the most cost effective way to do this?” but rather “how can I make this beautiful?” There was some faint echo of that in the arts and crafts movement, but where have we gone since then? So many of these new trends are sickeningly bland and devoid of that human factor.
more synthetic and less of that human detail eh ?
It's a shame how easy it is to make things using modern tools and sculpt things easily and yet instead of going for more intricate models we turned 180 and thought "how can i save cost on this" to make simpler models.
I guess ease is a curse in this situation.
If one just speaks of form, it is also easier to clean simple ones
Give me your phone, I will happily draw on it.
If I could change a word I think that what we want is intrinsic beauty. Art is good. Some art in design, for beauty and cultural relevancy is important. When did our profession become the enemy of art and artistry to worship itself on the alter of minimalism?
Just one thing. Revival Furniture. Its not that intricate cant be mass produced and an aestethic that was never the issue.
* while showing a rendering of a mechanical keyboard: *
"Community of obsessively passionate users"
Boy could you ever not be more right...
As someone who just got into the custom keyboard scene, I thought the same thing and had a good laugh about it
tbh RAMA's product advertisement videos are just nutty to watch
There's also an aspect of globalization. The ability for designers from all over the world to easily view the most popular global design diminishes local variation.
Very true. Algorithmic populism is really only one piece of the puzzle. In truth, it's many things.
Exactlly the same problem in the music industry. Spotify, Apple Music, etc., all promote tunes that the average listener picks, meaning a narrower and narrower selection of music is offered to a new listener looking for somethingh on a platform. We used to have Radio DJ's in big music cities, and college radio DJs, that made their life's work exploring and finding new things that they thought had a chance, and exposing them to people. Losing that is a real setback.
I love this comment. Thank you
Check out Merzbow and the harsh noise genre if you'd like something new
I disagree, most people used to listen to the major radio stations. And those stations typically played the same lowest common denominator crap, most radio dj's was and are hired because they can keep people listening and not for selecting the music. You can still find people talking about and exploring music online today.
As a devil’s advocate, today places like TikTok are serving that purpose more and more
I disagree. Spotify is recommending me loads of small bands with less than 1000 listeners a month
I've definitely had my eye on this phenomenon for a few years now. It seems like we've now hit the point of a serious feedback loop. I've always had some problem with "designing for instagram" vs "designing for purpose", and I wonder how a few classes of designers in the coming years viewing and adding to this, will change how we approach the creative process. I think the most damning thing to our industry and searching for ideas or inspiration has been our commodification of 'likes'. Even the top designers and brands on instagram and similar, are all looking for new engaging content, and even the biggest at times (ex. Yanko) will post pretty garbage ideas and processes but will still get thousands of likes and interactions. How is a young designer supposed to see through that and understand that just because something has thousands of likes, doesn't mean it's good? Does a design with 25-100 likes mean its bad? I guess that's something the next generations of designers will have to decipher and understand for themselves, but I think there's a conversation to be had, especially in school, about how industrial design may evolve in the next 5-10 years.
Occasionally, I'll ask my students to show me a design that they find especially great and tell me why they like it. A lot of the time, the design is total garbage from a usability perspective. There's no real way to know this from an image unless you have experience as a designer. I think that the ability to discern good design from design that looks good on social media (notice the distinction) simply comes with time.
I think that these social media platforms should be viewed as tools. They are unthinking and uncaring. The platforms simply respond to what gets engagement. They can be abused, or they can be leveraged. Speaking for myself, I leverage the hell out of social media as much as I possibly can. I deliberately pick thumbnails and choose video titles that I believe will get clicks. I'm not creative with it. I just copy what I see works with other channels. But I always make sure that the CONTENT of the video is meaningful and presents at least a somewhat thought-provoking point of view. My point in saying this is that I leverage the algorithm to the best of my abilities, but I don't let it dictate my creativity where it matters most. It's not going away any time soon, so you need to embrace it rather than ignore it. I think that's a healthy approach to social media platforms as it relates to design. Just my humble opinion.
@@Design.Theory I think having discourse or open conversations with students about the design world through social media is a great learning exercise. I agree with the thought that social media is a tool you can use to your advantage if you want to. There's plenty of ways to network and connect with other like minded creatives, and promote your own work. I definitely do it with hashtags myself. I guess it again just comes down to intention for me. There's nothing wrong inherently with finding success from badly designed, well rendered images, and there's nothing wrong with promoting it from a larger account. I just wonder how much of the zeitgeist will change over time. For HR, or people hiring designers at a company with no real design background, looking at design through the lens of these kind of social media posts, how will the hiring process change? Will we start getting portfolios with more flash, and less substance? Not being negative at all about it, but it is an interesting topic to think about, especially in a classroom setting.
@@SpudSpudoni This is a very interesting conversation. I'm going back to school next hear in industrial design, and this is exactly what I want to know before I even start learning to at least have a critical mind when it comes to inspiration.
One of the most crucial things my course leader said when I started my Product & Industrial Design BA last year was that our course is only ranked 6th in the world because in order to be ranked higher they’d have to meet the demands of the industry and they’re focused instead on the future, both in a personal and industrial context. I knew i’d chosen the right course at that moment.
Feedback loop. That's what I also noticed.
Consistently coming up with actually novel designs that are good takes skilled people and a lot of time. Even then it still takes more marketing effort than when adapting already popular design patterns.
As a user it's also an advantage when multiple brands produce similar looking things. This way when I already got a couple of things from brand A, the thing from brand B won't look out of place.
For a company creating a completely new design only makes sense if they think they will be able to sell an entire product line at a premium price. Strong brand recognition.
It's funny that after fighting against a dated looking future design we somehow all settled on a 1960s futuristic look, every piece of tech now is either extremely round or very square, nothing else and also two colors smashed together, can't remember the last triangle or octagon since the iPhone premiered, everybody bit them and Samsung later and never looked back
Yes, I've definitely seen this in my field as well. I've been a 3D animation and Motiongraphic designer for about 7 years now. And a lot of designers in my field have started to design things that do well on social media more and more. It, for instance, limits people to certain styles and projects that aren't too time-consuming. They start making more things like ''colorful moving blob animation-loops'' instead of projects like shortfilms that actually tell a cool/inspired story. Which in my opinion is a bit of a shame...
You can tell a story with colorful blobs. But I know what you mean. It’s very much focused on striking visuals. I think that the more this trend gets cemented, the easier it will be for others to stand out by going against it. Let the others follow the trend, and let the select few trailblazers carve a new path
Working in the 3D field myself I say it is a shame, but on the other hand: You, just like me, know how the industry works. Especially in this field if you want to gain attention, you kinda have to do what is trendy right now. And even though the job description says "motion graphic artist" or "3D Artist", we are still more often like designers in some way and always in dependency on what the customer wants.
A big big part of this is that instagram specifically tailors it's algorithms to favor frequent and regular content uploads. So, a person who works on a masterpiece for 2 years, will collectively WAAAAAY less engagement and feedback than a person who uploads twice a week for 2 years. The amount of eyes on the short term projects collectively totally outnumbers the long term project. And since the survival of a creative person currently depends on the engagement of masses of people (statistically increasing the likelihood of finding clients and getting paid), it only becomes feasible to focus on long term projects at two points in a person's life-- In the beginning, when there are no stakes, and at the end, when they have already built a secure life where they are allowed to spend years on something without immediate fruit.
I myself am in the middle, like most people here. I need to keep working hard and creating sufficient engagement, so that I can eventually create a surplus of financial assets, savings, and reputation in the industry, so that I can take a step back and actually make something incredible. Of course, in the mean time I try my best to create stuff that I think is good, but it's crucial that I finish it in a manner of days, not weeks, months or years.
Really enjoying binging these videos since I discovered your channel earlier today! Subbed!
Thank you! It means a lot coming from a fellow RUclipsr. Just checked out your channel. Cool stuff!
@@Design.Theory Cheers!
Ayyy fancy seeing you here! We just got recommended this too 😂 really cool videos!
@@OrionAerospace Omg!
@@OrionAerospace was q
That bit about how finding design trends on Pinterest actually homogenizes our design styles because we all end up looking at the same images is a really interesting insight!! Thanks for sharing
As an industrial designer, i've been wondering if there was anyone who would do discussions like this.... glad i found this video. subbed!
Thanks for checking it out!!
Funny is that, as much groundbreaking the looks of the Cybertruck are, algorythms must also have helped them to forge the idea, as the trend of 80's retro-futurism has been hyped for the last 10 years. So it is wildly different, but also follows a mainstream trend.
I think a good idea that would solve this type of issue would be allowing a "diverse filter" to the search filters, showing you tons of different types of images.
Love that idea. I think AI and more complex algorithms could save us from this as well.
Also open stuff up in incognito mode
@@willbroadway True! But most things pushed to the front pages of any type of social platforms are very screened and seemingly hand picked / stuff that has a lot of algorithm traction. It's content that the algorithm sees is getting a lot of traction and thus it pushes it to the front, and continues to do so because that's what brings people in. Therefore it's not as diverse. But it does help a bit! Then there's also some platforms that straight up ask you stuff you're interested in when you sign up, which I think is kind of neat if they keep the algorithms more loose.
So, what you’re saying is…
Designers don’t use privacy-focused browsers like Brave and Firefox?
Most modern browsers, including Chrome and Edge, have robust privacy controls, including blocking fingerprinting and other tracking strategies; and just to note that Brave is also a Chromium-based browser. The thing is that you have to take active steps to use these privacy features, and doing so affects your browsing experience. In other words, some personalization and tracking is a good thing. In my opinion, it's more an issue about being intentional about how you use the tools you use than the tools themselves. In other words, just using Firefox or Brave doesn't make your experience inherently better or more private by default, and depending on context, you may want to enable some tracking, and disable it in others.
The point is to say, if someone has trackers following them around everywhere they go, they will get spoon-fed a prejudiced stream of content as opposed to 'the real internet.' Within the context of industrial design and trends, this is key to one's sense of individual creativity. The worm-eating-its-own-tail problem of cohort tracking within the context of creativity in design is the subject of this video.
Turning some stuff off or on, one will inevitably end up leaving a breadcrumb trail back to the data accumulators that are FB and AdSense, which then feed cohort data back up the chain. for those of us that seek to create content or objects for other people, Trackers belong off.
obviously login tokens and stuff are a normal part of existing
As a design engineer, I don't use Pinterest- what the hell is wrong with industrial designers???
You could say they're getting "oversimplified"
More and more of design is done in China for "no-name" brands, which are desperate to appear cool and hip. And if there is one thing the Chinese are good at...
My next video is about this
its communism. yep
Heh, finally somebody mentioned it. Instead of ripping existing products they may ripped a concept from online designer instead...
Nowadays very few industrial designers are raw and direct, most of them are pretentious and over dependent on software renders to make their product look dreamy instead of frugal and functional for so called "portfolio" enhancement. Gone are the good old days.
That's what my studio's design manager said a few days back 😢
Yeah, I think the new products are boring now
your follow the trends you become a part of the herd.
I think it is because of Over-simplification. I read a comment somewhere that in 10 years all we are going to see is circle and square as logos.
One of your best videos to date!!
Wow, thanks Nick!
You're definitely on to something. I always figured it was us becoming culturally stuck due to our idea of what futuristic/modern design was,most of that language comes from the 60's and 70's bruener and such. Mix that with how much cheaper these simpler form factors are to mass produce
For the rendering of mock ups, I completely agree. As an illustrator, I work with lots of private sector clients. They believe most of the time that the finalized rendering and draft are the same thing. They do not realize the amount of effort and cost that would create and isn't necessary as long as there is a final product I have made is up to a polished level they like.
Yeah, a lot of it comes down to laying out expectations ahead of time. Usually with a proposal, I'll show them what each phase will look like in terms of fidelity.
Thats so true about high quality renders. We dont make these in practical & clients expecting these nowadays for everything. We have to explain thats not necessary to communicate ideas.
Elon Musk to his Tesla Truck designers: no, close the internet and go look outside at our factory 🏭
Ay least one car that looks interesting and fresh
But except the truck, all other Teslas look pretty much the same rip
@@TheKitMurkit yeah, it looks interesting, but it’s not practical at all, car design hasn’t changed much because there is not much to be improved practicality wise, you want the car to save money on fuel and/or go fast, you smooth it and make it aerodynamic; you want the car to be able to carry weight, you make it it as boxy as possible, the cyber truck has none, it’s midway between both with the addition of “cool post-apocalyptic look”, yet people will still buy it, no matter how bad the truck actually is, because people have created a blind fanbase to Tesla like they did to Apple.
At least he’s trying to be unique and giving people something interesting
@@da4127 I wouldn't say it's not practical at all. It's simple press braked panels are easy to manufacturer and maintain as a customer. I find it refreshing but then it's design is like Marmite.
In my opinion the problem is two-fold. Apologies ahead for the long comment.
1.) Consumers have gotten very attuned to each other's opinions such that any company that breaks the mold gets severely punished. Just look at how angry the hivemind got with BMW over a grille. They made a large grille and suddenly even car trend channels were talking about how BMW had completely lost the plot. Make two steps back and realise what a silly thing that is to get upset about, even in the context of car aesthetics. It is viral and toxic. Us designers are guilty about this as well. I think social media has had a great influence on the hyperawareness of what should and shouldn't be considered good design, to the point that, like you said, the only mold-breaking designs that are rewarded are those that get adopted by counterculture groups as a form of protest.
2.) Some designers have forgotten that aesthetic taste is maybe 98% a learned thing, just like you learn to like coffee or bitters or wine. The human brain is so incredibly malleable that it can be turned into a machine that does anything. Yet I've met people who truly believe that neuroaesthetics is a real thing. As someone who believes in the importance of diversity of aesthetics in art and design I am very concerned about this trend. Step back and embrace that aesthetics is a complete fabrication of the human brain. Make aesthetics lose all meaning. Only then can you be free. What is left is only the functionality which is what really matters. We agree on this.
Note: I do think some small part of aesthetics taste is probably incorporated into our physiology. The analogy for food taste would be how humans naturally like sweet taste because it has a survival advantage. For aesthetics it would be something along the lines of "does it resemble a snake or a predator?". But other than that it is all learned.
I also am a bit uncomfortable in putting so much blame in the shoes of the consumer. Aesthetic preferences are after all a very subjective thing and if consumers want a landscape of bland products that is absolutely their own prerogative. I do get a bit annoyed however at the relentless hyvemind bashing of anything that doesn't conform. I get a very creepy vibe as if people had stopped thinking for themselves and aren't able to look at individual designs in the context of design history. What was considered the peak of automotive design in the 1980s now looks to us all the same as the rest that came from the 1980s.
Thanks for the videos. I spend a lot of time thinking about aesthetics so I find it interesting to hear someone else's perspective, even when I don't agree. I wish I was a better writer so I could make these comments more concise.
TL,DR Aesthetic taste is a learned thing. More exposure means less openness to diversity. My theory anyway.
I sincerely appreciate your thorough responses. You make some interesting points. While I would agree that most aesthetic choices are dictated by cultural norms, many of those norms are deeply engrained over hundreds or even thousands of years. I think that's why a lot of beautiful things are viewed as beautiful even thousands of years after they've been made.
That's the truth. They have lost the plot. Their new stuff makes the E46 compact look absolute beaut. Gone are the hoffmeister kinks, here's grills big as beaver teeths, and then someone took stuff of highly questionable quality, given a sharp thing and told "swing wildly".
Here's how you design a BMW: simple lines interconnecting front and rear, hoffmeister kink, and reasonable sized grill with vertical vanes. And driver centric cockpit. WITH RWD (okay and AWD too)!
Instead of the Toyota Camry (which this model is trying something different), I'd say the design of all compact crossovers look the same to each other, Ford Escape, Chevy Equinox, Hyundai Tucson, Nissan Rogue, Mercedes GLC, Tesla Model Y they all look the same now
idk I kinda like it
(makes it easier to have a coherent style without having to stick to one brand)
Exactly why you shouldn’t spend time navel gazing. Look outside your industry, get a paper book, reference art rather than other products, etc
This has been going on with Pop (Popular) Music influenced and played on radios by corporations etc.
Until someone breaks the Mold and everyone copies off that
Yup. I'm a musician and I have noticed it. There was a whole video called "the death of melody" on RUclips. You should check it out if you haven't already. It was the inspiration for my other video called the "Death of Detail"
Really interesting video.
Made me realize how there's also a parallel with trends in concept art. Where a certain skill level is achieved a lot of stuff looks really similar.
Thank you for watching! Another thing is that if we're all using similar tools, it only makes sense that the output/final product will be similar. That's why it's so important to diversify your skillset.
I think we lose when we don't talk about the mobilization of imaginary of a big brand. Since iPhone, apple used all their tatics and money to be a type of messiah and homogenized all general public design. To the point that some people think that the only way is the apple way, and it affected from products to ui and ux.
Agree. I notice many clients asking to "make it like apple"
I love classic electric switches and outlets; The design hasn't changed much in the last 100 years. All I care about for my customers is having a good quality part that can last the test of time; Care little for how the device looks but more about function. Whenever given a choice to consumers on appearance most typically can't justify the extra costs of having something designer than standard.
I’ve been a brand strategist and designer for around 15 years, and noticed the same trend towards ‘blandification’. There seems to finally be some pushback, as seen in examples such as Burberrys logo, as well as heritage maximalist brands in the luxury space. Given that many mid market consumer trends echo luxury directions, perhaps we’ll see a greater shift… love your channel by the way!
This is happening in almost every artistic areas. Music, Cinema, Poetry, etc... They are all suffering from this homogenization ditacted by the algorthims.
I believe this trend is more inline with what you mentioned near the beginning of the video: standardization of parts. The appeal is no matter what car or armchair or food processor you own, there will be a part you need to fix it should it break down. This is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it's great knowing that if anything broke on a product, it'll be very easy to analyze and repair. On the other hand, this leads to more homogenized designs. Vehicle manufacturers are probably the biggest culprit of the homogenization design trend, as nearly all new vehicles I see being rolled out for consumers look similar. Right now, it's hard for me to differentiate between car models in a parking lot. I don't mean "everything in the past was better", I mean designers are taking advantage of standardization to the point where designs become harder to distinguish.
Algorithm's = feedback loops that lead to a consensus on a topic for the majority of a population. The biases we introduce in these algorithms is a really interesting subject as well. Great video.
Agreed. I could easily do an entire series on this.
Great video John! Definitely agree with you - designers are a bubble just like any other and like all bubbles they slowly become homogenous due to the lack of new input. Universities joining social media and actively trying to grow their accounts are a big part of this as well in my opinion. When we sell knowledge via easily digestible "pretty pictures", we miss the point of education (and design for that matter). But essentially, our entire society is built around a constant stream of pretty pictures, glorifying average lives and average designs - I am going to stop myself here :'D
yeah, as you probably already noticed, I featured your work. So congrats on that. One thing I wanted to make clear is that these algorithms aren't bad, necessarily. It's easy to vilify them. You just need to accept them for what they are and use them as a tool. The more people rely on trends, the easier it will be for you to smash through the norms and do something crazy and different.
This is what happens when a non design inclined technology is out there determining what design should look like.
Hey Designers out there, be different. Be a real designer.
Totally explains to me why it was always about Renderings, high fidelity sketches in Instagram
Yup. It's what gets clicks.
All search/archive sites should be required by law to provide a few random, less popular results near the top.
Isn't this just what the fashion industry has been doing for the last 6+ decades? They literally release seasonal palettes to set the trend a year or more in advance. When I was in design school we were visited by a consulting agency that said coral was going to be 'in' the following year. Lo and behold the following year I am walking through the shops and literally every single clothing shop has front store displays saturated in coral. And this was like 10 years ago, so definitely nothing new. Echo chambers are a breeding ground for mediocrity.
Yes absolutely. This isn't anything new. There are many other factors as well. Form factor optimization. Risk aversion. Established manufacturing processes. Similar training and backgrounds of designers. Algorithmic populism is just one additional reason for why everything looks the same.
and car industry and some other industries too. at some point when technologies become so common (like in fashion industry) so speed get way fast - then you start to see cycles like with mobile phones, cars, etc.
my personal worry about that is we just generate ton of waste in pursue for better future
I love this discussion. We do need to talk about the impact algorithms have on our loves
It goes way beyond design, believe me!
AI is good at generating and presenting OPTIONS. But when it starts *deciding,* that is when it becomes toxic.
Great video and very well articulated points! I often find I'm easily influenced by algorithms on Pinterest and IG, so have been trying to source inspiration from nature and various industries. I think trying these form and cmf trends for practice exercises is harmless, as long as you remember to keep them separate from your design work.
I agree with you. It's good to know what's going on, but you shouldn't necessarily integrate it into your professional work. Sometimes it makes senses to, sometimes it doesn't. It's all context-dependent.
I totally agree. Our preferences are influenced by so many things. Both by what we are forced to experience and what we choose to experience.
It's true that algorithms are influencing our buying decisions but:
The market that dictates trends right now is China and Southeast Asia , here many of those social networks are not even available.
Usually designers are not employed by their popularity on social networks nor users really care who designed the product, products that are selling well are usually not famous on online portfolios.
Products that are selling well looks similar to others mostly because brands are outsourcing the development and manufacturing to companies that are specialized for certain products to reduce their production costs to minimum. Here, only a few local companies are manufacturing products for majority of global brands. The competition is huge and users are very price sensitive, there are not many ways to deliver good quality at affordable price in fast production runs.
This way brands are saving tons of money by giving responsibility to their contractors, Apple and Foxconn, many fashion brands and Luxottica are just examples.
Yes, I briefly gloss over this point around the 0:27 mark of the vid. Products and manufacturing processes are being optimized in terms of form factor and overall refinement. I could have given it much more attention, but I didn't want to deviate from the central thesis of the video.
I love the phrase “algorithmic populism”.
That's why Tesla looks like a cheap plastic Toy and Porsche looks like beauty in it's purest form. Because those so called "designers" have no creativity on their own. That's why they have to turn to "minimalism". Which in itself describes the problem head on. Because it's just an excuse for not coming up with something better than "as little design as possible".
Markets work with trends and plateaus. Once the big fish get comfortable, a Trojan Horse newcomer brings disruption and takes their marketshare, resulting on a new trend or period of experimentation as brands compete once again for a place under the sun. The smart whales buy the newcomers in order to absorb impact, the arrogant ones get comfortable and lose as time passes.
Another issue is the source of inspiration becoming unified through AI and algorhytmic platforms such as Pinterest or Instagram (which is particularly worrisome). If all creative minds use the same sources of 'inspiration' to create their own projects, the results will be pretty under whelming. Traditional contextualised research and experimentation has always been the seed for disruptive design and must be kept as such.
This is the issue of globalisation. It kills identity and actual differentiation - But doesn't need to, if it gets regulated properly.
I think that these questions are pursued in depth by various fields including critical theory, visual theory, film studies, lit studies, etc. This reminds me of questions posed by Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus school.
Thank you very very much. I was aware of the social media and algorithm dinamic, despite I was using it for knowing what is out there an diferenciating muy ideas from that. I suppose that unconsciously you are being influenced by them anyway. Looking for inspiration outside internet seems obvious, but I rarely do it, I should do it more often.
Great video by the way, your chanel is becoming an undismissable reference.
Glad it was helpful! Your positive comments are what keep me going :)
But that has not much to do with interwebs, we used to call this art styles, design trends, nowadays we are making much more goods than ever before, so design process has shortened, so it has to become more homogenous. Swooosh! That's all folks, the whole magic.
I would say it's the same for philosophy online.
stoicism
and MANY other things.
Sssshhhhhh, dont speak to Loudy about this or you'll awaken the AI behind all these algorthims
I just poor myself a cup of coffee and light a cigarette everytime I'm about to watch one of your videos because I'm about to absorb some great ideas and inspiration
Wow, thanks for that! I hope you enjoyed :)
Don’t make yourself poor now lol
Kindle has recently added a suggestion menu called "different from my recent pruchases" which seems great but is probably also different in the same way
I prefer the 80s electronics designs. Like angular lines, vents and red lights.
It just takes on the individual to think for them self....wait we lost that long ago.
everyone is trying (and failing) to copy apple, that's why.
Same thing going on in the 3D character artist community.
Makes me more appreciative for the outlandish design of the PS5
that's why my master taught me don't look for inspiration from social media like pinterest, insta, behance, dribble etc.
what you are seeing is other people's solution of their problems in design. try to figure out what's your or clients problem
& solve that with your very own designs, & if you can't get it then look for inspiration from nature, arts & music etc.
randomize your thoughts in design.
exactly!
great video as always. When I started to work, I was surprised that none of my colleagues took the time to create good renderings for the client. i thought they would waste a chance to sell the concept. Now that I am involved in numerous projects, often only screenshots directly from the CAD are used for communication. Guess i will need to rerender everything for my Portfolio xD
I just want to see more flamboyancy and color in the world because it's getting dull and depressed. DIY the heck out of anything you can and always have a purpose in anything you do.
Reminds me of something I read : "I don't want to look like a boy or a girl, I want to look like an arcade carpet."
And I think we should get more of that.
They are literally selling a brick
a too soft one at that
Plus big pages on social media with thousands of followers featuring surface level stuff that is clearly not thought out and takes heavy inspiration from already existing design/products. Definitely creates such a bad loop where we see the same thing over and over again with minimal difference. Not to mention the various examples of blatant plagiarism also being pushed in a way that was never before done!
Yup. But remember, the more people follow the same recycled trends, the easier it will be for you to do something new and different that stands out.
@@Design.Theory Great point! Absolutely!
You didn’t link your other youtube video in the description 🤨
I agree, everything looks the same, but it also has to do with standardization and the fact that we don't have a lot of new products anymore.
I remember an article lamenting the lack of creativity in cell phones like we had when they first came out, and made the association with how cars started to take on the same look as well. So that's part of it.
I think mass media influences, but also when your targeting the most amount of people, it makes sense to use the sum of the most well liked designs and common elements.
We also have been on a trend towards simplification since, well... Baroque? Art noveau, art deco, mid century modern... Every step has been a simplification.
Personally, I'm not a designer, but have a history with studying a very niche vintage market that emphasizes design. I'm also a woodworker who prefers to design his own stuff from my own sketches rather than a "get 'er done" or "follow the trends" approach.
Typically I say look to the past for inspiration. Art noveau is kind of on my radar recently (and may start trending soon, if my feeling is correct), so lately I've been wanting to pull aspects of it back into my designs.
Look at what's current, what,s missing, and REVOLT AGAINST IT!!! But still.... Make good design. :)
my favorite designs are made out of kested iron, painted dark green and let to rot in an old man's farm
I don’t understand the hate on this trend, all product does NOT look the same. If a design works is just used or achieved more often for certain products, it doesn’t mean that they’re identical, the difference are subtle and I like that, you look at details and not at the PUNCH IN YOUR FACE style of design that SCREAMS “I’m different”. Look back and Windows Vista, iPhone 3G, old Nokias, anything really before this trend, I wouldn’t like to go back to that, at all.
What I see is a lot of people just bored by minimal design, that doesn’t mean it’s bad and has to change.
I generally agree. This video just aims to explain why this trend might be happening (among many other things) and what we can do about it as designers
@@Design.Theory I was responding to the comments, far more aimed at hating the concept rather than discussing solutions, the video is interesting.
@@naeroforceofficial Yeah, I mean it's just how the internet works for some reason. I do try to present a balanced perspective (of course I still have my own subjective biases), but unfortunately outrage on the internet is inevitable. I don't think that algorithmic populism is wholly good, or wholly bad. But if we know that it exists, we can account for it in our own work.
Industrial design is turning in to smooth jazz.
Industrial design trends, and its consequences.
i dont know but, for me its like Fashion, design will change always like fashion will do, because right at the moment these design appeal most pleasent to us. This will change in the future, like it always has. This has nothing to do with algorithmic content.
but i think a lot of fashion that you're talking abt are couture. they're so far removed from day-to-day society (and from what a normal consumer can afford), that they aren't commodified and mass produced in the way that the products above are.
if you'll notice the fashion we have in fast fashion stores that are mass produced, they all look similar in one way or another since they're trying to cash in on the same trend cycles--it's one of the main criticisms against the fast fashion industry in general. it's also albeit similar to the issue discussed above i think
Amazing video - thanks for opening my eyes to this!
Glad you enjoyed it! I had a lot of fun making this one.
How to solve your issues ?
Start using Qubes OS or new VM for every new search, that way the search algorithm don't have data on you
well the law averages works on many fields, but especially aesthetics, humans like geometric shapes and symmetry and average-ness, some researchers did an experiment with human faces, and according to people, the face that looks the most average was considered the most beautiful. So this is not just the algorithm's fault, it just highlighted our most innate desires. It is the duty of a good designer to take this into account and build on it, not build from it.
I generally agree. I especially like your thinking around "build on it, not build from it."
They don’t look the same at all
Everyone is watching the same tutorial. That’s why.
excellent point
you're bringing very high quality, somewhat concise material (I hate the new trend of going near or past 20 mins for something that could be exposed in half or a third of the time). Also unique, I hope your popularity skyrockets soon
Thank you! I try to keep my content super densely packed and bite-sized, like a neutron star. I don't usually succeed, but sometimes I get close.
Thanks for your videos, I'm just a CAD hobbyist but I always gain some new knowledge or understanding of industrial design from you
That's the goal ;) Thank you so much for watching, I appreciate it.
This is why I will continue to defend the Cybertruck design till I’m dead in my grave
Could’ve taken it a few steps further and designed it like a military truck with sloping angles, high elevation for mine blast resistance, etc. Musk already got the bulletproof windows, but those could use some work lol.
the cybertruck design is shit because it's ugly, just like these other modern designs.
Just because it's new and different, doesn't mean it's better.
I love these essay style videos! All really great points
I'm so happy you like them, Sam. I look forward to seeing more vids from you ;)
No! You can’t simply observe online marketplaces and say, “There, I’ve found my looking glass into how things work!” Everything online is gamified and manipulated and it has not much to say about the real world. It’s a distorted perspective. Only fools can take online to heart.
I noticed dumb logos have become a thing. In the past, however simple, logos usually had some clever twist. Not anymore.
Really good point, great video!! 👊👏
Thanks for watching :)
The big question: I also think it’s both. “Industrial designers” or “designers” really particularly ones with access to resources tend to come from the same elite , racially / ethnically /economically / typically gendered homogenous populations.
Algorithms have shaped the trends and influencing factors of the industry and are a direct reflection of the people who create them. But the resulting optimized consumable goods are also a reflection of audience base needs. Safe and accessible 🤷🏿♂️
I think this fact is often ignored.
And nowadays an Amazon checkout page looks suspiciously similar to the Google app, which looks really similar to the...honestly most of my examples after this are all Android apps, so maybe I'm overblowing how prevalent some of that design-blight may be.
Maybe that won't bother me if the interfaces all eventually wind up more consistent and understandable.
Yeah idk man If I compare the designs I see today compared to as a kid in the early 200's, HO MAN they are better today, idk what everyone was thinking with the over complex, cheap plasticy designs with bits of transparency here and there and just really undestinct wobbily moulds??
But, if I look back at designs of things like radios tv's reccord players from like the 30's 40's yeah like, what where thoughs guys on how come there designs were all soo fricken stunning?
You literally showed cars from the 50's that all look the exact same. You aren't wrong, but it's like watching someone see a king tide for the first time. They always think it's a huge moment that will change the beach forever, but then they find out it happens every couple of months and have been happening forever. We are just syncing, as we sync we unify, as that becomes more and more inline someone breaks the mold (you can only have a mold if it's uniform... hence the phrase) and everything changes. We are getting close, maybe 2-3 years and we will see another huge design shift. We (society) currently want that sci-fi look. Soon that will go away.
Like I said, not wrong about the similarity but wrong about the problem/solution/scale. IMO
So True, it happens in any direction you look.... I realize after the 90's cars in general look very similar, before cars makers have their own style, specially European cars.
Everyday products become homogeneous to compete with the innovate designs. In Films and music the situation is similar. But the are many many good New Design ideas unseen that we have to search for more and more . There are multiple Fantastic Films and Designs. So simple don't ask the algorithm what you are looking for search with your mind. If you Don't Use Your Mind... someone else Will.
The thing is there are maybe a couple of designers in the world that establish a trend. Something you have never seen catches on and then the Other companies go to a product designer and say. I want something like "THIS". But here the site tells you. HEY make something like this.
It has always been that way. The Problem with Pinterest, Dribble, etc. Is 99% of those trending products are over-engineered and overly expensive cost/production. They don't solve problems. They look amazing but will never hit production.
Other than those, another thing is how we are close to peak practicality.
Take phones and tablets, do you think a circular or triangular phone/tablet is practical? Or is the standard rectangle more practical?
Also, I can't stress this object enough, guns. Guns of modern era have peaked in practicality, guns from scifi like Halo, gears of war, even Titanfall/apex legends can't beat modern design in practicality.
Sure there are other things that can be "designed" while not sacrificing practicality, but those would be considered more as niche than useful. And unless you got them big extra bucks, you're likely just gonna buy the most practical design. There's a reason why Toyota outsells Alfa romeo, former is practical, reliable, and average, latter is filled with spirit, beautiful, but unreliable.
Great video and great take! I think this is absolutely true for a lot of things. There are so many photographers these days who only get their inspiration algorithmically fed to them and all end up creating nearly identical content. The sad irony of course is that they succeed at the behest of the very same algorithm and continue the cycle.
So true! I've noticed it across many fields, both creative and otherwise.
Well it's either this or a competition of "who's got the better marketing"
at this point idk which is worse.
this is why I've advocated for a kind of "design police/judge/enforcement center" where they decide top 10 products that may exist in whatever color you want and anything less functionally can go to hell as long as you're not buying it from an artisan, choice paralysis is real
900th like