Crap.

Posted on 26 March 08, in web, design

Just when I thought I had moved as far away as possible from what's considered trendy, it now seems that my site yet again is part of a trend. C'mon, give me a break already...

Back in 2005, I launched the previous version of my website. It had gradients, drop-shadows, a glossy blue sky, and various other elements that around that time were getting popular. Before I knew it, my site was 'trendy'.

Trendy?

Now I've never particularly liked trends, in high school I was the weird skater kid with blue/yellow/purple/black (it changed almost montly) hair that listened to music no one liked. Not so much has changed since then. Well, there's not much hair to paint anymore, and I'm also less into baggy pants and studded belts than I was 10 years ago, but I'm still very much into my not-so-trendy music, and you certainly won't see me wearing croqs (or whatever else considered trendy these days) anytime soon.

The point I'm trying to make? I'm just really not fond of trends. Sure, I try to stay informed on what's going on in the design industry, I consider that part of my job, but personally, I just try to do my own thing.

So after what was soon after launch considered a trendy looking website, I decided to turn my back completely on what's considered trendy design. Instead, I returned to my own 'design roots': dirty/worn looking, (partially) handmade goodness that I do years ago, long before I got serious about designing for the web. Back then, I did a lot of photo-manipulations (or 'digital art', as some called it), and some flyers, packaging design and such for my own punk band and others. I was very much into all kinds of worn dirty looking design. I like(d) the darker, surreal style that you'd for example see in the work of Dave McKean, or, closer to home, Dennis Sibeijn and Frans Mettes. I also liked the collage/cut 'n paste style that reminds me of the early punk era, which you can for example see in the work of Eduardo recife and Thomas Schostok.

None of these very talented designers started in the past few years. They have been doing what they do for a really long time. Back when 2advanced was running the show, some even earlier. Some might be mentioned in current articles on what's (yet again) considered 'a trend', but that's due to misinformation more that anything else. Personally, I don't consider something that has never left, but always -more or less- quietly existed, a trend. Sure, back in 2004 there was the wicked worn look craze, which I enjoy a lot , but how much have you heard about what's now called 'grunge' (wasn’t that a musical genre, brought by bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam? Or am I just getting old?) since then? Not an awful lot, at least not outside the realms of personal sites or specific subcultures.

‘Grunge’ doesn’t equal ‘messy’

Finally, allow me to state that there's a lot of misunderstanding about worn looking websites. I've read comments on various sites stating that these type of sites are cluttered, non-usable, and even not suitable for the web to begin with. I'm not sure whether I should laugh at these type of comments, or feel sorry for those who state them. The reality is that whatever visual style is applied, it doesn't say anything about how usable or cluttered the site is. Take a look around this site, do you feel it is cluttered? Unusable? Yes, graphically it is quite heavy. Also, it is almost solely visited by web workers with decent broadband connections.

Now I am not saying you have to like the style. You can call it trendy. Call it whatever you like. But also try to look a little further and maybe cut back a bit on generalizing on the basis of a few poor examples. You'll find those in any category, and more than anything, they only underline my point: you can't judge a book by its worn cover.