Minimalist Design

[nemorathwald]

I just think these designs look better. It's my design philosophy. These are items you pick up and handle and use. They should not look like they belong on the wall in a frame. They should not depict. They should do and be.

But then I would get questioned for why I was hired as a designer if I was going to do so little. You have to make the design worse with lots of ornamentation to justify your pay. This is one of the reasons I would rather work on usability and legibility than design.

Also: What if Microsoft designed the iPod packaging? (SLYT)

Comments

[amanda_lodden.livejournal.com]

You're also talking about products, and products are their own world. Red Bull has the blue and silver quadrants going because it's striking and recognizable from far away. Corn Flakes and Toffifee show their product partly to indicate to new users what's in the box, but also to make it easier for former users to just grab the familiar box without thinking about it. Pringles uses color and design to differentiate flavors, and I suspect Schweppes does too. The minimalist designs might look better (to some; I tend to like the middle ones best), but they don't make me want to buy the product. The Toffifee in particular brings this to light for me, because I loved Toffifee as a kid but have a hard time finding it now. The minimalist designs don't do much for me, but the picture of the candy I used to love makes me want to go search out a box right now.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Yet further reasons why it is a good idea for me to get out of the design business.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

It occurs to me I have never bought even one of these brands, save for one or two boxes of Quik over the years. I think part of the reason marketing is a poor fit for me is that I so seldom buy things. Since I think people should stop buying things so much, I have no interest in getting better at persuading them to do so.

[moatn.livejournal.com]

I like the idea-- I love minimalism in most forms-- but I'm not crazy about their implementations. Most of these are just plain fields with text on them. I would hate to go into a store and see shelf after shelf of monochrome packages with just the title of what they are on them. I would prefer the Red Bull, for instance, to just have the blue and silver quadrants, possible with the red bull icon as well. I think these guys need to integrate a little bit of heraldry into their execution.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

You said, "I would hate to go into a store and see..." It interests me that you are more concerned about the point at which you spend money on it, rather than the point where you benefit from it. Do you not mind being manipulated?

[moatn.livejournal.com]

All communication is manipulation.

[pstscrpt.livejournal.com]

I like the Mr. Muscle on either end; the middle one looks terrible.

The condom box shouldn't look like an iPod.
The minimalist corn flakes and Nestle Quik just look cheap.
The Nutella looks good.
The Pringles look good, but maybe confusing.