Lost identities

Francesco Meneghello in a black and white portrait next to the B CRITIC logo

Francesco Meneghello writes for Il Bagno Oggi e Domani, sharing his thoughts in BCritic:

 

"The social-media era has inflated the authenticity of companies and designers, promoting the creation of watered-down objects and content that easily garner approval from a hyperactive audience in perpetual digital trance. How do we break free?

 

Companies and designers, like wild horses racing in a meta-racetrack, doped with (over)doses of ever-changing algorithms and instant addiction, sprint at full speed, blinkered by reactions that narrow their field of vision towards a fleeting finish line called 'fame.' And the race goes on, forgetting that the pleasure of running lies in the act itself, not in finishing first. But first in what? We face an ever-present and overexcited audience, uninformed and gluttonous for the latest form without substance, retelling it like a nursery rhyme full of hashtags to their @ followers.

Snap, post, like, repost, repeat. A nauseating merry-go-round; some faint every now and then. Let’s pause for a moment. Let’s reclaim slow thinking, design intuition, intelligence, and the courage to create new codes. Let’s rekindle curiosity and the viewer’s attention, critical debate, and the analog experience. Let’s reclaim the poetics of objects. Because design is poetry, it’s storytelling, and objects are books to be read in silence, to be understood and to understand ourselves. Let’s look beyond brands, logos, designers. Strip everything away. Let’s apply the captivating philosophy of 'subtracting to compose.' Let’s invent objects through reduction, not addition, giving value to their deepest meaning. Define the substance, and the form will follow. Let’s tell sincere stories.

Let’s put our soul and our past into it. Don’t seek approval; rather, create division within the audience. Let’s design the unexpected. And that’s how magic happens. That’s my perspective, in my small way, and it’s what I’ve sought to achieve through WE DON’T DESIGN, my new ambitious business venture, recently unveiled to the public. Stay connected. Or rather, don’t."

 

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