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LM: #315: Anti-signaling
I was looking for a small-batch olive oil, and my reaction to what I found surprised me.
I came across a lot of websites that looked like this.
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At some point at or after peak industrial-food, it would have been striking to see a food company with a design like this. The colors evoke nature, the typefaces are friendly, and the layout says no-frills and hand-made.
But it made me suspicious because there was something pretentious and self-conscious about it.
The design was clearly “signaling.” It was careful in how it communicated carelessness, like when you’re in L.A. and everyone has “bed-head” on which every hair is carefully in-place.
The website of the olive oil I bought looked like this.
The typography is sloppy and not so easy to read. There’s no rhythm or intention to the white space and alignment of elements. The logo and label could have been made in Microsoft Word.
As a former international-award-winning designer, I feel confident in saying this company’s design “sucks.”
I want to call it anti-signaling, but that again implies there was something intentional about it.
The greatest irony of the contrast between these two olive oil brands was that the first one has a logo that’s “hand-written.” But this hand-written logo is made from an electronic font, and not even a good one. So the two “e’s” are the exact same.
And the olive oil I ended up buying has the harvest date literally hand-written on the label.
Notice when you’re feeling the urge to be someone else, and consider being yourself.
Aphorism: “I do not know a better argument for an optimistic view of mankind, no better proof of their indestructible love for truth and decency, of their originality and stubbornness and health, than the fact that this devastating system of education has not utterly ruined them.” —Karl Popper
Cool: Jeff Han’s 2006 Ted Talk shows you how blown away people were the first time they saw an iPad-like touchscreen.
Best,
David
P.S. Anti-signaling could be another reason why AI can’t bake.
