I’m so tired of the fun getting sucked out design via overzealous feedback on legibility, golden ratios, and whatever new “rule” some design bro talked about in his money grab authoritarian keynote. Surely I’m not the only one who listens to their gut feelings? Sometimes ugly and wrong is interesting. Where did everyone’s imagination go?

You’re going to have a tough time selling a something ugly and wrong

First thing to understand: you arent an artist making art, on your own. Its business and commerce. Try to separate the two or its gonna tear you apart. Im not saying thats good, or bad, or anything. But it is what it is.

If you can demonstrate that “ugly and wrong” is the best solution for the people you’re designing for, then you get to keep it.

Blame it on tech and adapting to how developers work. I find most designers in the last 5 years only know how to work with best practices and established frameworks.

I think it’s a time and place for that. But if it’s a product that is going to be used by a wide range of users you have to consider accessibility. Sometimes wrong and ugly just can’t cut it especially if it’s a website or app. You want the experience to be seamless not having people guessing and struggling how to use the product. I definitely think you can have more freedom in print depending on the use and audience.

I guess being in design for so long it's the ugly and wrong that stand out to most people like us. Is that kind of what you're going for?

Agency. I get to design a lot of fun and interesting things. I think I’m just fatigued by the difficulty of selling work thats not the homogeneous digital norm. Or the lack appetite for risk. “Ugly and wrong” like David Carson was ugly and wrong. I definitely understand accessibility is important, and am all for that. I’m not doing product design. I’ve been a designer 10 years, it’s definitely a day job that I don’t look for personal artistic fulfillment from. The feeling of designing for ever diminishing attention spans with no room for nuance is just depressing sometimes. I think I just felt like throwing some frustration into the internet ether. Thanks for reading 🤠

There are some design agencies that do ‘ugly and wrong’ really well, also a good number of agencies and brands that favour brave design. Of course it’s much more rare and competition to work for these places is huge but it’s possible. Have you considered changing the agency?

Overzealous feedback is definitely a thing I heard from people who have nothing to say and need to fill the space with their own voices, it can be very frustrating when your intention is to create something different that ultimately will grab people’s attention. But we are in the business of communication and in this visually cluttered world, clarity is a must. It’s probably harder than ever to break the rules because you will force clients to take massive risks. If you want to break the rules you will need to work very very hard.