Design Crit » minus ten

Stuck in Time

Max — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:35:45 +0000

Had a discussion about this with another designer the other day regarding my minus ten series…bottom line, stuck in time isnt always a bad thing…as it can sometimes mean…Defining the times.

See some posts that had imagery that were Stuck in Time yet defined it as well.

Memphis and Miami Vice

SGI and the era of boldness

minus ten July 1999

Max — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:50:04 +0000

“minus ten”. A look back 10 years to see what was going on. I’ll pick out what I feel got Stuck in Time, good or bad design that was clearly of the moment. Ahead of Time will be a look at something that had brought some insight to the future and finally, the Test of Time will soon be design classics, at least imho.

Hey how about that, my friend Paul Pierce’s work ON THE COVER! I wonder what he thinks of this thing now!

ID Annual 1999, there’s gotta be some good pickin’s for this post:

Stuck in Time:

group shots are always stuck in time…can you say big balls!

Ahead of Time

OK i may be biased, I lined up and paid extra to get this car…call me a sucker.

Ahead of Time AND Stuck

above, dated, below better, but those triangle buttons, dated, the concept of ebook readers….AHEAD

WAY Stuck in Time, actually BEHIND the times…

Memphis Group disbanded in 1988, this was designed in 1999…uh hello?

Test of Time

So this may not win a beauty contest, (oh wait, it did!) but this aesthetic has definitely stood the test of time for this type of product. You know what these colors stand for, yeah? Hmmm, seems like a new opportunity here to do something different.

So I’m a little disappointed that there weren’t more things that stood the test of time or were ahead of time. Some things that made this issue I had already covered…Karim for Issey Miyake but that’s about it. LOTs of stuff that got stuck, frog, lunar (me!), apple, ideo, phillips all guilty.

There was one product from Design Central that was way ahead of time, but only got a shitty black and white spot and honorable mention. They did a rubberized shoe, form fitting, all one piece, molded in tread…copied several years later, or uh borrowed or unmistakenly reinvented by the likes of fuseproject, crocs and any student who did a shoe project and knew how to use alias.

From ID Magazine July 1999

minus ten June 1999

Max — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:18:58 +0000

ID’s first cut at judging media in 1999.

Issue of ID before the Annual is always light, not very many ads from the consultants as they we all saving their pennies for the Annual. Regardless, I was able to find a couple of nuggets.

John Maeda was making jaws drop in 1994 with Reactive Square, Flying letters and in then in 1998 with Tap, Type, Write. This stuff is still great and WAY Ahead of Time. Its a shame that it only runs on a PowerPC.

Oh, and look at young John back then!

Heres something that i think i used to like. The Motorola iden phone was clearly a memorable design. But does it stand the test of time? I believe it’s Stuck. Those damned ellipses again!

From ID Magazine, June 1999.

minus ten – May 1999

Max — Tue, 12 May 2009 02:05:43 +0000

Karim Rashid’s work for Issey Miyake = Ahead of Time simple clean lines and forms, so clean that maybe even puts this in the Test of Time category. What year was it that he went the way of the blobject? I wonder if Issey was heavily directing the project? If you don’t think the square, simple lines were ahead of time…then take at look below, won’t find a sqaure or a simple line in what got stuck.

How many ellipses can you put on a product? How many ellipses can you use to shape a product? How many ellipses can you put together, to make other shapes, that, look like ellipses? Ellipses = Stuck in Time

And back to the sharp edge, this design from what I understand, put the Cadillac division in the black. 4 years after the concept, the 2003 CTS showed up in the Matrix Reloaded and whether or not you think this car started the chamfer/sharp/edgy forms, it was clearly Ahead of Time.

Oh and frog on the back cover, touting web design, for the SFMOMA.

From ID Magazine, May 1999.

minus ten – April 1999

Max — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:57:51 +0000

Here’s a new series that I’m going to try and keep up with call “minus ten”. It’s a look back 10 years to see what was going on. I’ll pick out what I feel got Stuck in Time, good or bad design that was clearly of the moment. Ahead of Time will be a look at something that had brought some insight to the future and finally, the Test of Time will soon be design classics, at least imho.

Stuck in time: Apple blue G3, man those colors…

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Ahead of time: Give Kodak credit for going green on this recyclable camera, BUT
Stuck in time: this design got hit with the ugly stick.

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Test of Time: Knifes, the dots are a bit stuck, and the colors are more neutral than they look above, but I wouldn’t be unhappy pulling one of those knifes out of my pocket today.

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Ahead of time: This aesthetic for the mini home was definitely ahead. It looks like it could have come out of Dwell magazine last year.

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Oh and give frog some credit for flying the Digital and Strategic flags back then. But that laptop, really stuck in time.

From ID Magazine, April 1999.