Nov 29
2010
Millennials--roughly speaking, adults born after 1980--are an ascendant cultural force. They built and popularized Facebook. They were the reason Barack Obama got elected. Design played a pivotal role in both of those endeavors, and it factors into the sensibilities of millennials more than it did previous generations. How do the key characteristics of those projects--emerging applications for technology, new online social configurations, the promise of social change--reflect millennial attitudes toward design? Are millennials shaping a discrete approach to design--like, say, postmodernism, or the International style--with a recognizable set of values and aesthetics?
Are millennials forging a distinct new design ethos?
Max gave the final word
It has been noted that if there is a movement for the present day, its boundaries are still ill-defined. It may be that we exist in a moment without unified movement, or that the historians of the near-future will part the veils of time and see something definite in us that we couldn’t understand for ourselves. I’d say millenials- and the technologies we’ve grown up with and helped to define are not directly creating a design movement, because we are busy moving in all directions, and because we seem to embody a certain level of historical eclecticism. What’s more, it’s never an entire generation that writes the final word in any chapter of design history; it’s those who actually create things. That said, our generation, as much as any other, has a deep will to creation, and any distinct future movements in design will be indelibly influenced by our achievements- I like to think millennials will be known for creating something great, but for now, my guess is that we’re too immersed in the process of creation- creation of ourselves and our realities amidst the surroundings of a rapidly-changing world- to know for certain what that will be.
Tuesday, November 30 at 5:25pm
Keywords
Selected list of words appearing in this and other conversations.
Max Fowler Cohen
Executive Director, Parley Creative Group
1
Max gave the Final Word
I think that the mythos about my generation that has sprung up on the internet isn’t critiqued enough. We’re the first twentysomethings that had to grow up with the semantic web, and people project a lot onto us. We frequently join in and do it to ourselves. One thing I’d like to note is that while I subscribe to the ‘higher-quality less throw-away’ model of design and consumption, and while in the course of my daily life, I usually view this as a ‘millennial’ trait, I’m becoming increasingly aware that this is more accurately an upper-middle-class millennial trait. People with less money, and those outside of creative urban centers still generally have to fall back on repeat trips to Target and Wal-Mart in order to buy and replace cheap hold-me-over junk. The bohemian bourgeoisie seem to be the cool kids on the internet playground these days, and since (I like to think) I fit neatly into that coterie, I enjoy the benefits of the public narratives that are being woven about people my age, because these make me feel good about myself- but I’m unconvinced that these things are the final word. I think that the impact of the DIY ethic on design is a far more immediate and compelling overall trend than the high-quality ethic- It’s the difference between commitment and attachment- I’m attached to having nice things that are pretty and that won’t break, but what keeps me living and breathing- what I’m committed to- is my will to Do It Myself. Deprived of my nice things, I would go on living, even if I’d be a bit fussy about having to give up my futon and my bay windows and my stemless wine glasses. Deprived of my personal autonomy and individual will to create, on the other hand, I wouldn’t recognize myself. I don’t think this makes a design movement, but I do think that it characterizes a generation, and that- among those of us with disposable income- our love of quality things that we can trust in and rely on stems from this character.
It has been noted that if there is a movement for the present day, its boundaries are still ill-defined. It may be that we exist in a moment without unified movement, or that the historians of the near-future will part the veils of time and see something definite in us that we couldn’t understand for ourselves. I’d say millenials- and the technologies we’ve grown up with and helped to define are not directly creating a design movement, because we are busy moving in all directions, and because we seem to embody a certain level of historical eclecticism. What’s more, it’s never an entire generation that writes the final word in any chapter of design history; it’s those who actually create things. That said, our generation, as much as any other, has a deep will to creation, and any distinct future movements in design will be indelibly influenced by our achievements- I like to think millennials will be known for creating something great, but for now, my guess is that we’re too immersed in the process of creation- creation of ourselves and our realities amidst the surroundings of a rapidly-changing world- to know for certain what that will be.
Tuesday, November 30 at 5:25pm