You The Substance of Style by Virginia Postrel
Virginia Postrel attempts to identify why we are a visual culture, attracted by Queer Eye for a Straight Guy, Apple’s newest iPod, or Gehry’s latest structure. These things all have a set of design values according to Postrel: function, meaning, and pleasure. But what makes something visually appealing? How or why do we find pleasure in design? And how much of it actually means something? Postrel tackles many issues: style, trends, aesthetics, design, and art.
Quotes, anecdotes, and one-liners support her arguments, but few have citations. Statements like “Design has become the public art of our time, says a curator and designer…” were inspiring, but lacked credibility without a name attached to the voice. And I couldn’t get past the book’s familiarity. Had I already read this material in last years Fast Company, Newsweek, Time, G.Q., Vogue, People, The New York Times, Eye, I.D., Emigre, Fortune, and Advertising Weekly? The Substance of Style is a product of its time.
In spite of this, what Postrel does well is demonstrate how popular and visual culture are the best of friends. Through all of the layers, she even touches on their emotional attributes. The book has chapter upon chapter of how and why aesthetics stimulate us emotionally. No wonder some industrial designers now claim that form follows emotion. While most of us believe that good design meets communication or human centered objectives, Postrel campaigns for good design being pleasurable.
How does good and bad design—good and bad style—define us? Is Cooper Black evil? Is naming your child Keaton so very 1990s? Is the neighbor’s Audi cooler than my VW? Postrel believes that our aesthetic loyalties place us into social groupings. That which we use, wear, carry, or champion defines who we are. There’s the Calvin Klein tribe, and then there’s the Brooks Brothers tribe. Postrel uses this wonderful Anne Hollander quotation to elaborate, “If you always buy Brooks Brothers button-down shirts whenever you do buy shirts, if your income permits it, you will be associated with everyone else who does the same, whether that is what you intend or not… Going once a year to Brooks Brothers usually indicates that in order to keep shopping easy and safe you associate yourself with other safe, conservative Brooks Brothers shirt wearers and, further, that you do not wish to avoid being associated with them.”
And where does graphic design fit into all of this? While Postrel touches on everything from Brooks Brothers to baby names to industrial design to hair color, graphic designers shape those promotional materials. We’re the fingers that point to these products. As Stephen Doyle says, “The job of graphic design �is to make something that distinguishes itself when you see it in context.’” Designers merge substance into style. Or is it vice versa? No matter your pattern of creativity, Postrel’s book will give you insight into recent trends and how human behavior popularizes, dictates, or kills them. In the end, you’ll realize that there’s nothing wrong with privileging style over substance. Or vice versa.
The Substance of Style by Virginia Postrel
HarperCollins
Hardcover: 237 pages
ISBN: 0060186321
hmm,
virginia was keynote speaker at the y-conference in san diego last weekend and i must say i was quite disapointed in her presentation. it did not even seem to scratch the surface and the notion that graphic design is just presented as aesthetics seems so... well... wrong and uninformed. the examples presented and briefly touched upon seemed not to be explored deep enough but to be merely soundbytes. would have been good for her to stick around and actually hear some designers speak, but as it turns out she was gone right after her keynote. as for the book: i guess i'll have to read a copy to see if there is more substance to her style after all.
On Feb.02.2004 at 06:32 PM