On the design of useless Irish things
Being a cut-and-paste job from a rambling email exchange, this may be a bit haphazard; you get what you pay for.
There’s a site, foundmagazine.com, that has loads of photos, shopping lists, tickets, etc. that people picked up and sent in. I tried doing the same here for a while, but there’s not much interesting about soggy Bus Eireann tickets and dirty Major stubs.
Being in London a good few times in the last couple of years, I kind of got to thinking that Ireland is ‘under-designed’. There’s not a huge amount of visual stimulation to be had, natural features excepted of course. In London, design is everywhere: buildings, bridges, posters, advertisments, exhibitions, graffiti, etc. I even noticed that the content of ads and billboards are much more sophisticated over there (although this could be a demographic thing).
I wouldn’t like things around here to become any more hyper-commercialied, but it would be nice if there was more of an aesthetic (good or bad) to what is around - like your ticket has.
And snips from the reply:
I think Ireland is in a period of transition. Chaos rules the roost right now, but look back in time, mid 20th century. Shop fronts, pubs, post offices, news papers, cartons of milk, bills from the ESB, Telecom Eireann phone boxes, clothes, attitudes, religious beliefs, thinking, attitudes, nationality of inhabitants, all recognizable as being Irish, very homogenous no doubt about it.
I am excited by what is happening in Ireland right now, but also very afraid that it could all go wrong. Look at all the American mall type crap jumping up outside every town. That roundabout outside Athlone is a joke. There was nothing there four years ago, now McDonalds, Woodies DIY… have all arrived. Sure, jobs are being created but there’s nothing worse than a huge eyesore built for the sole purpose of allowing people to blow their money on shite.
You are right though, an aesthetic quality to the simplest of things, the crap we find on the street, is important, because if what we nonchalantly discard is aesthetically pleasing well designed items then I think we are doing well. It’s like having the confidence to throw money away as if to say, plenty more where that came from. Maybe not?
Design in Ireland is in an interesting place at the moment. I would just as soon (or sooner) like to see a hand-scrawled, misspelled sign as a well-designed advertisment. I just hope we don’t get stuck somewhere in between, where character, stimulation and individuality are lost completely, and where you wouldn’t pick up a piece of rubbish out of lack of interest.
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August 22nd, 2005 at 2:58 pm
I have a feeling that there is a greater apathy here in Ireland about the importance of design, or consistency of appearance. It seems more common in Britain for things and concepts such as typography to be given much greater emphasis and import (London’s transport network is a fabulous example of this). In contrast, Ireland lags very much behind.
Just off the top of my head, there’s a pub attached to a hotel near the top of Talbot St in Dublin. Can’t remember the name of it; it’s one of those faux-oldie places, all back with gold lettering, antique-esque trinkets arranged in the front window. It looks fine for what it is - or at least it used to, before someone decided to stick some garish white vinyl lettering on the window proudly advertising the provision of Sky Sports within the establishment. The anachronism hurts my eyes.
And that’s just one example of many. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a brand-new shop front defaced by a cheap hand-written sign. What’s the point in spending all that money if you’re going to ruin the effect? You might as well build the place out of cardboard and blu tack.
But anyway. I know I’ve digressed somewhat from the point you were making, but it’s related nonetheless. What do you think?
August 23rd, 2005 at 12:50 am
A lot of things hurt my eyes over here in the US…A local town called Campbell, south of San Jose, advertises it’s ‘Historic Downtown’ district. Sadly, when you walk in downtown Campbell, the buildings all look like McDonalds pre-fabs, sickly beige and grey colors. The monochromatic nature robs all of the stores of any individuality.
I’ve had the (dis)pleasure of watching my home in the US turned around in this way. Petaluma’s “Historic Downtown” 18 months ago was truly old-worldy charm. In comparison to the Big Box malls of other towns north of San Francisco, Petaluma retained the old theater, the Victorian facade housing, the old warehouses by the river that rusted beautifully every year and trumpeted the industrial reason d’etre of the town. Now they’re tearing it all down, replacing the echos with bold statements of progress, a new cinema, art-deco and glaring, buildings of mauve and brown. And I can see what they’ve tried to do, to blend in, but like a poseur who pushes cool, one look in the windows shows the uniformity: another office block, and Petaluma, another “any-town”.
We are not cookie-cutter people! What is there for any of us at Home Depot on a Saturday??
And if that wasn’t clear enough, I will allow Mark Morford to step in a speak for me…
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/08/17/notes081705.DTL
August 23rd, 2005 at 2:31 am
that article is hard to read. the truth hurts. sometimes one feels powerless against progress here in the land of plenty. however, take to the back streets, the industrial estates, access roads, railway yards, truck depots, dank city alleys… you’ll find brick and steel in beautiful decay. what a joy it is to know that since this stuff has no commercial potential it will remain as is.