I learnt something truly delightful last week: a greek paper, Eleftheros Tipos, was among the five best designed newspapers of the world for the past year. I’m glad E.T. design got awarded because I absolutely love its print design and I’ve been following its progress since its redesign first launched.
But when I recited the story to my family, my sister had an absolutely negative approach. She couldn’t believe how such a newspaper got an award, because according to her, E.T. is a very difficult to read and skim newspaper.
That brought back memories – noone cares about your design dude, remember?
Are we sure that what us, designers, consider a cool design, is a cool design for everyone else? No, I don’t think there is a perfect design that can work as a panacea and please all people, but still. A newspaper gets a design award, and a potential reader absolutely hates it. Why?
I don’t take myself off this – when I see something I can’t have a professional opinion on, for example some print ad or poster that’s considered well designed, 90% of the times I’m like, wtf. People like this? The fake Bauhaus effect and diagonal lines? These usually bore me to death. But other people seem to love them! What gives?
Where do we err? What should we do to design things that both our users and fellow designers will love?
Image courtesy of snd.org
