Slow down
Photo by Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
This one has been making the rounds — and I think we’re all basically aware of how much graphic design has changed in the last 30 years with the advent of computers — but after reading Michael Bierut’s reminiscence, this paragraph in particular stuck out to me:
THE technology we have at our disposal is dazzling, and our efficiency is such that clients expect fast solutions and nearly instantaneous updates. We are proud to deliver them. Still, I wonder if we haven’t lost something in the process: the deliberation that comes with a slower pace, the attention to detail required when mistakes can’t be undone with the click of a mouse. Younger designers hearing me talk this way react as if I’m getting sentimental about the days when we all used to churn our own butter. [emphasis added]
I’m one of the younger designers he’s talking about, yet only because I am young. Despite my age and lack of comparative experience, I also wonder how much care is lost due to the speed of things these days. We want and expect everything now, yesterday, last week. I’ve talked about this before:
[…] computers and internets so often pull me away from other real life pursuits […]. I sit in front of my computer more than I sit in front of an open book; more than on my bike in front of an open road.
It’s the advertisers assumably understanding our busy life; the fast food restaurants nurturing that busy life; the social web catering to our attention deficit; the automobiles we drive to get from A to B as quickly and mindlessly as possible; et cetera.
Why do we let this happen? I think about this a lot because I constantly give myself over to everything I complain about. Sometimes things are just too damn convenient, and sometimes I am just too damn weak.
Some of my heroes in the world are people who have rejected modernity. Wendell Berry. Dick Proenneke. Chris McCandless. Michael Bierut? Insofar as I am able, I try to — and want to — emulate their ideals.
