Rules, Rules, Rules

“The advantage of rules is that they prevent mistakes. The disadvantage is that they prevent discovery.” These words, written by Matthew Carter in Paul Felton’s The Ten Commandments of Typography, resonate very strongly with me. Despite my efforts, I find that I am more concerned about screwing up than I should be. The more prevalent fear in great designers is a fear of not creating. If one does not take risks, one never makes anything remotely new. I worry that my work has become a series of safe decisions that happen to be visually harmonious.

Although it may seem to others that I take risks, I am actually very comfortably resting in mediocrity. Every day I do things that may seem scary to others. Public speaking, putting myself out there and even being alone - these are the common fears of people unlike me. I, on the other hand, primarily fear rejection.

I have seen people put their heard and sould into their “baby,” whether that be their work or something else. I have seen some people rise to success by investing everything into what they do. I have also seen people get their heart broken when someone tells them that they have an ugly baby.

I, on the other hand, don’t feel that I have ever done something so risky. My actions are responses to those around me. In a way this is good. I plan based on the situation and act accordingly.

Nevertheless, there is something missing in this equation. I have the logic of observation. But, as my message development professor always says, “where's the magic?” I need to take risks that actually make ME feel uncomfortable. I need to step out of my comfortable boundaries and take a look at my work and realize how boring it really is.

I don't expect to shake the design world. There are people creating innovative work every day. I just want to be one of them.

"Cool is conservative fear dressed in black."

I cannot take credit for this title. Bruce Mau, a man who has very strong ideas about what design is NOT, wrote these words. He believes that design is not cool, and I have to agree.

Cool is trendy, and it passes with the times. What my parents thought was cool is ver not cool at this day in age. I do not accept cool, partially because cool does not accept me, but partially because it is not worth very much.

Every Abercrombie storefront sells cool. It costs about $75, and that is just for the jeans! Cool won't pay the bills forever, cool does not mean intelligent, and cool is based on fear.

While I was looking for inspirational posters to spark something in my mind, I found a hell of a lot of cool. Every movie poster and clothing store had something to say about cool and why their product is cool. The sleek lines and toned muscles told us that if we are not a part of this, we are missing out - and probably will never get laid.

What I find much more fascinating is the ugly.

Ugly is something that can be so beautiful and fascinating if we let it take hold of our imagination. This poster, designed for the band Taxi Taxi, uses the ugly to grab our attention in a seductive way. Although the gradient in the back is pretty disappointing, the bloody bandaids have such a tactile quality, even when viewed electronically, that we can't look away.

Ugly comes in many shapes and sizes. Ugly also comes in many different shades of beautiful. There is culturally accepted ugly, such as the Windows Vista interface. There is also a brand of ugly that is entirely culturally unacceptable. An ugly woman will never be seen in a Victoria's Secret ad. That is just unacceptable - culturally, that is. Intellectually, I would find it very captivating.

Cool does not, however, rule out the ugly. Just by googling cool and ugly together, I find many pop culture icons. The first think that pops up is "The Family Guy" showing off his bulging belly. Does any one else find a double standard here?

The beautiful can also be turned to ugly with a slight shift. This woman, who is probably very beautiful, could be a model in a Victoria's Secret ad. It would usually be very culturally acceptable to see this woman naked, or in various forms of naked, across ads and in men's magazines.

The shift, however, lies in the composition. Her vulnerable position, and her "severed" feet, show the viewer a different picture.

Even without reading the words at the bottom, which I can't do because they aren't in English, you know that something very ugly is at the center of this subject matter.

My point is that beauty very often lies in the ugly, and vise-versa. Cool doesn't have much of anything to do with it. Cool, as Bruce Mau puts it so elegantly, is a display of fear, especially a fear of creativity.