InternetCitizen

Its really important in a product to have a sense of the hierarchy of whats important, and whats not important, by removing all those things that are vying for your attention.

An indicator has value when its indicating something, but when its not indicating something… it shouldnt be there.

Designers generally do not think to design the “ordinary.” If anything, they live in fear of people saying their designs are “nothing special.” Of course, undeniably, people do have an unconscious everyday sense of “normal,” but rather than try to blend in, the tendency for designers is to try to create “statement” or “stimulation.” So “normal” has come to mean “unstimulating” or “boring” design.

It’s not just designers; people who buy design and clients who commission designers do not see “normal” as a design concept or even entertain the idea of creating a “new normal.” To dare, then, to design something “normal” within this prevailing scheme of design common sense raises the stakes; it makes for a consciously designed normal above-and-beyond normal that what we might call “Super Normal.”

Why super? Well, if our sense of normal falls within the realm of non-design, then the unthinkable attempt to undercut all the excesses and bold, brash statements recognised as design must conversely transcend them. “Normal” refers to things as they’ve come to be; thus “Super Normal” is the designing of things just as “normal” as what we’ve come to know, albeit in no way anonymous. There’s a creative intent at work here, even if that intent may be regarded not so much as designing, but simply not going against the inevitable flow of things as they come to be.