Saved by sari
How Silicon Valley helps spread the same sterile aesthetic across the world
Within the past few years, tech companies’ digital design all started to look the same: marginally, monotonously quirky; safe. From the sans-serif fonts to the muted pastel color palette, the stark white backgrounds to the curvy shape and hue of the buttons, most modern software blurs together into a familiar, squint-and-you’ll-confuse-it aesthetic... See more
Andreessen Horowitz (AZ) • Why We Crave Software With Style Over "Branding"
sari added
Through algorithmic digital platforms like Instagram, Yelp, and Foursquare, more people around the world are learning to enjoy and seek out similar products and experiences in their physical lives. Through their feeds, they are consuming similar kinds of digital content, no matter where they live, and so their preferences are shaped in that image.
... See moreKyle Chayka • Filterworld
For a long time, I assumed the Generic Coffee Shop aesthetic would fade, that it might just be an ephemeral trend. But it has only become more entrenched. As digital platforms have expanded, the homogeneity they cause has spread, too.
Kyle Chayka • Filterworld
I mention that Silicon Valley has been stuck within a primary aesthetic of knowing . And that Snap breaks this aesthetic and pushes towards an overarching aesthetic of seeing.
Digital technologies, like wood or concrete, are simply another design material we seek to bend to our will. To manifest and hold these ideas and functions and interaction se... See more
Digital technologies, like wood or concrete, are simply another design material we seek to bend to our will. To manifest and hold these ideas and functions and interaction se... See more
Reggie James • Designing: An Embodiment of Values
("JP") added
This theme isn’t just confined to bookstores; it sprawls throughout our urban fabric, notably into the realm of generic coffee shops. Both scenarios – bookshops and coffee shops – underscore a broader trend: our tastes and preferences, once diverse and eclectic, are being molded into a uniform, digitally driven aesthetic.
In this realm, what wins is... See more
In this realm, what wins is... See more
Just a moment...
James Stevens added
In the 2010s many of our public spaces started to be molded, physically and literally, by the market advantage of luring patrons looking for highly Instagrammable shots. Businesses that once paid large sums of money to have photographs taken for advertisements that cost even more to run now had access to an army of free labor, taking pictures for f... See more
Freddie deBoer • Review: Kyle Chayka's Filterworld
sari and added
So, there you have it. The interiors of our homes, coffee shops and restaurants all look the same. The buildings where we live and work all look the same. The cars we drive, their colours and their logos all look the same. The way we look and the way we dress all looks the same. Our movies, books and video games all look the same. And the brands we
... See more