Design “Memes”
Everyone loves a meme, even if we don’t know what the word means. Memes are viral, memes are fun. From the LOLcats to “that’s what she said”, memes can be very different things and have many different contexts. Memes are things that are propagated endlessly, and in this case, the most common vehicle for propagation is the internet.
So what does any of this have to do with design? I’d argue that many design elements, typefaces, certain colors, etc. are actually meme-ified quite often. Memes in design raise two top-level issues. The first concerns the topic of imitation vs. original concepts, and the second is about the validity of design that has been continuously borrowed from.
Let’s take a look at the most visible example: Helvetica. In Switzerland in the early 1960s, Helvetica was just another typeface. I don’t think Max Miedinger or Eduard Hoffmann ever thought it could be the most popular typeface in the world back then. Aside from being the most popular, it’s also the most parodied. It has spawned typeface re-draws (Coolvetica, anyone?), it’s own documentary, and has basically become a design style on it’s own. Helvetica is a design meme.
To see it’s level of meme-ification, look no further than this site. AnyoneCanSwiss (ACS) allows a user to input text and push a button, and just like that, it spits out a black and white poster that you can save as an image. ACS is obviously a joke, and was created by creative professionals, but it went viral and everyone ate it up. This is a testament to how much the public is aware of the style and typeface itself. Similar to ACS, this site generates posters that imitate the style of the Keep Calm and Carry On artwork.
Sure, sites like these are funny, but does it devalue the original designed pieces that spawned these parodies? These were legitimate styles at one point. I am able to distinguish between a meme-ified design and a legitimate one, but I doubt most non-designers can.
In summation, I think these sites exist for a reason, and that reason is parody. My only hang-up on the issue is the watering down of a visual style. Tools like this make styles seem simple and thoughtless, which they aren’t. My only hope is that these sites result in punchlines–not anything else.
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