The online design world has become cliquey, as if they were in High School. There are several groups and they all stick together and pat each other on the backs (like on the football team).
I have seen other people being run down on other Forums, just because they were not part of the group or didn’t design the way they did. There was even one design, which was completely torn apart on “Ultrashock” (they can go fly a kit), and later on this really cool 3D Web site was published in a magazine…the person was not part of the group (but I am sure he or her is smiling now), therefore threat and everybody was jealous…I am sick of it.
I am tired of such closed group, close-minded sites as k10k (sim city style), and their self-perpetuating clique additude, as well as design is kinky, or the infront (australian centricity).
When I started on the Web, way way back…I thought there was finally a place where people can publish and share all around the world…but yet it has become less open and more narrow minded then most mags I read. Now why is that? Perhaps the age groups…or what I believe, the passive aggressives, who I call the forum and email Nazis.
Why can’t people embrace and accept everybody’s particular style or the lack there of…its open source, freedom of speech…so just let it out.
Well I don’t travel much on design forums, well I don’t travel much on any other forum but this one, but what your saying is not surprising :-\
Many people can’t accept that some peoples idea of art is different then others. Usually the people that stick together like that are trendwhores and think they totally rock and everyone else sucks.
This is not the way people should think though. Being open minded is a main part of art. Art is an expression not a look.
People wanna be so they join groups that think they are . When in turn they are very :geek: and :flower:. we here at Kirupa are indeed actually though because we help everybody out and commend everyone for their work…
Call us inovators or just plain nice guys but I see it as… A big happy family… And that’s the way itshould be my friend… An ever expanding big happy family
Question: Do you know what the difference is between a “designer” and a “stylist”. Do you know that 90% of the so called designers are actually stylists instead? I’m not saying that I like Cliques, but there are a TON of piss poor web people out there CLAIMing to be designers when in fact they have no understanding of what it takes to do the job.
The quote I read recently sums it up.
‘when the distinction between style and design is lost, “we get meanlingless eye candy that gives beuty a bad name”.’
Jeffrey Zeldman.
I’d be willing to bet that the critiques made of peoples design skills are often accurate and well needed in this world of the common man ‘designer’. I see it every day here, and elsewhere, people ignoring the most basic of design principals. Is it cliquish to honestly relate that the site sucks if it does ignore these principals?
oh… and for the record. One of my first serious sites I worked on, we designed a fantastic looking navigation system. It seemed really easy to navigate to us, the designers. But, after receiving massive feed back, relating that no one had a clue how to get around our site, we were forced to go with a more standard design.
Was I the victem of cliquishness, or did I just do a crappy job?
I have participated in forums where people on site check said…“I cannot figure out how to use it…blablabla” and then I went there, and looked at it, and it was not difficult to find…some people just don’t get it…if you want it to be mysterirous and yoru accomplished yoru goal, thats fine (we are not talking sites for commercial purpose here.
Attention span, most kids on the forums have the attention span of a fly…so I am not surprised.
Are you trying to get into symantics with me now…or sentance analasys…I think you know what I am referring to…we are not talking about details, i ma talking ingeneral, how other people are being run down and ousted…DAAAAAAAVID:moustache
maybe you had dumb users? oh wait…the user is always right… musta been you =)
i thought you only lurked during night when at work…what do you do at work anyways if your always on here!! i wish i had jobs like you people who sem to be able to lurk the forums all day…spieing…and lurking…and lurking…and spying…but i am afraid of the Kirupian Secret Council, they have many defence systems installed in case lurkers try to take over!
uh oh, ak has figured it out!!! [SIZE=1]can i call you AK? sounds cooler and easier than your FULL LONG LONG 6 letter NAME[/SIZE]
dam right, we stand on top of roofs and let our dimes and quarters fall hurting oblivious innocents!!!
DIE INNOCENTS DIE!
and we lay mines for suckers to come and blow up on
[SIZE=1]we smiley cliques RULE!!! …although i don’t make smilies…i just use them…then when they are worn out i throw them out! (like condoms for those of you need need graphical and visual interpretation!!! )[/SIZE]
Are you trying to get into symantics with me now…or sentance analasys…I think you know what I am referring to…we are not talking about details, i ma talking ingeneral, how other people are being run down and ousted…DAAAAAAAVID
no… just trying to make people think. If you say your a designer, but you’re actually a stylist, and you get picked on for your claim, then you need more education, not less cliquishness.
Tell me… are the people who are in the cliques educated in design, or are they just offering their personal opinions in the area? If it’s the latter, then you can ignore them happily, or prove to them through source material that they are wrong. If it’s the former then they are probebly right.
All I’m really saying is that I don’t find this to be true, what you are saying… what I do find to be true is that 90% of this business is full of people who have NO business doing design work.
90% of this business is full of people who have NO business doing design work
I say AMEN to that.
prove to them through source material that they are wrong
Well my friend that is hard to do, because design is not like coding, often there are many solutions to things, and then when it is artistic license…how do you judge that or disprove that…sorry mister Van Gogh you were wrong…see the dilemma David…
well that’s my point about style. If you’re talking about what is asteticaly pleasing, then it’s a style issue, and you’re 100% right… it’s a matter of opinion and one should not be excluded, or ridiculed for works of style. (unless it’s just REALLY bad… and you know what I mean… there are some things that look bad… like mixing blue pastel with brown base tones. It just don’t work. )
The user/consumer is always right. Plain and simple.
One of the most simple things was changed once, a long time ago, and had to be changed back because the consumer didn’t understand.
Flip-top toothpaste didn’t stick around very long when it first came out. If you can believe it.
You know those BBQ starters? They’re better than matches, they last longer, they have more reach, they stay lit for longer. They’re infinitely better. So why are matches still around? Ritual.
You could make the cork on a champagne bottle better, but would you want to?
The point is, a designer/stylist can’t have his way all the time. An ingenious idea to a handful of people may be the opposite for others.
You have to adapt or you’re going to flow away in a river of failures. People who go against the current drown.
Yeah but what isn’t trendy or a clique anymore though really?
When talking about a designer and a stylist… You can really say one thing… A designer is all about doing what is functional and popular to more people and the stylist is all about bring beauty even if it isn’t popular.
Which is better? Ohh I dunno… I’m what is known as an artist… I can’t put together things that look right with fucntionability but I can draw very well with all of that… Probably why I started coding…
With coding… You have a couple of areas… You can be designated as a game coder, database coder, special effects coder or a os coder… The differences are all in what you wanna program and how good you are at recognizing things… I hate making things like scrolling text fields and flashy text thigns but I can sit here and tell you how to make a Doom style game off the top of my head…
I say… Go with what you are good with… If you are a stylist but can’t seem to get that designer edge… Than so be it… But I don’t think designer should be one step ahead of stylist… For there is a need for everything that is done
so they join groups that think they are 
but I see it as… A big happy family… And that’s the way itshould be my friend… An ever expanding big happy family 
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