Hyper Consumerism: A Designer's Relation to Fast-Moving Industry Demands
By Nourhan Wahdan Co-Founder and Design Director of pew. Design Bureau
In the current era of hyper-consumerism, designers and creatives face a monumental challenge. The unrelenting pressure on businesses to produce more, faster, and cheaper has created an environment characterized by relentless demand. The design industry now operates in a cycle of perpetual acceleration, driven by ever-intensifying competition. Hyper-consumerism has established a new standard, demanding that businesses keep pace. Consequently, designers find themselves working in a high-speed, high-expectation environment, marking a formidable challenge.
Challenges posed by clients who ask for novelty only exacerbate this situation. Initially, businesses embark on branding endeavors with aspirations of an image that is "out of the box," "innovative," "never seen before," and appealing to the younger generation. However, when faced with these innovative brand identities, they quickly revert to familiar visual languages. The narrative shifts from "let's explore something new and futuristic" to "this feels too unfamiliar," or "let's introduce some conservatism." This constant shift places designers in a challenging position, demanding perpetual production rather than fostering creativity.
This situation presents a dilemma for designers. To achieve success, they must continuously operate at full throttle, inevitably leading to burnout. Yet, taking a step back risks rendering them obsolete in this ever-evolving landscape. In this overwhelming scenario, designers often find themselves gazing into the mirror of their smartphones, equipped with countless options that make choosing a path forward feel impossible, resulting in an infinite brain meltdown, which undermines their creative core.
Designers are also grappling with the sameness of aesthetics resulting from abundant references and constant internet connectivity. An interesting question to ask, as mentioned in a report by Design Threads, a New York-based design agency, “What does originality mean in today's post-modern, post-web, post-social, and post-AI world?”. Designers find themselves in a bind where clients often ask for reinterpretations of existing design ideas instead of fresh, innovative concepts. Their work is increasingly measured based on engagement metrics like likes, follows, and clicks, promoting safe and familiar designs rather than groundbreaking innovation.
Labeled the "mood board effect" by renowned designer Elizabeth Goodspeed, this phenomenon describes how design is endlessly shared and remixed on social platforms, and has led to styles that operate less like trends and more like memes. It's resulted in narrower thinking and shallower visual ideation, stifling true creativity and innovation.
Design has recently been stifled and hindered as a result of the consumerist agenda of corporations. What starts as a creative endeavor by a designer slowly shifts more towards “how can we maximize efficiency?”. Design is meant to be a thoughtful process, however, it is leaning now towards an absence of experimentation and following strict frameworks that allow these ideas to get pumped out at an accelerated rate at the cost of ingenuity.
Moreover, as designers grapple with clients' shifting demands and the homogenizing impact of hyper-consumerism on branding, it becomes clear that building brands with careful consideration of cultural context is vital. Failing to distinguish their identities within this cultural framework results in a landscape where everyone appears the same. Both local and international brands operate within a shared framework, reducing the potential for originality in terms of business ideation and brand differentiation.
To break free from this cycle, designers must recognize the importance of creative rejuvenation. Designers require respite to allow their minds to stretch and generate innovative ideas. It's not just the speed that's the issue; they are also losing sight of the origins of the content they work with. The concept of "context collapse", coined by Dannah Boyd, where different audiences occupy the same space without preserving the original context, further contributes to desensitized and disoriented attention spans.
The confluence of these challenges necessitates a fundamental shift in the design industry. Designers must prioritize rest, deeper thinking, and cultural relevance over rapid adoption and empty trend-chasing. This shift can empower designers to harness their creativity, break free from the shackles of hyper-consumerism, and redefine what originality truly means in the modern creative landscape.
This fast-paced nature of the industry is taking a toll on creativity. Designers describe their work as a constant rush, likening their minds to a muscle that never gets a chance to relax, causing creative fatigue. This constant pace not only strains their creativity but also hinders their ability to generate fresh, innovative ideas.
In today's creative landscape, the importance of cultural context cannot be overstated, as exemplified by the sagacious words of Marcel Duchamp, "Taste is a bad habit. Beware of its danger." Creators have long grappled with the challenge of remaining relevant while transcending the confines of prevailing trends and public preferences.
Marcel Duchamp, a prominent figure in the 20th-century Dada movement, recognized the peril of succumbing to trends, understanding that they often revolve around the subjective notion of "beauty" dictated by the prevailing public taste. The solution lies in a fundamental shift towards a more thoughtful and culturally aware approach. Designers need to balance their enthusiasm for new technology with an understanding of its true potential and limitations.
Prioritizing thoughtfulness over rapid adoption and focusing on cultural relevance over the empty pursuit of trends will enable designers to leverage the tools at their disposal to create innovations that not only shape the tech landscape but also contribute positively to the world at large.
