Youthful Design Is Getting Old

Time to kill the bunny.

I went to the IdN Conference in Singapore a while back and came away thinking two things:

1.) It’s weird how all designers dress exactly the same. 

2.) If I see another killer bunny I am going to shoot myself.

Five years later and the pencil case doodle school of design is still with us, a mainstay of car companies, cellular networks, soft drinks and sports shoe brands looking to “humanize” themselves, or acquire an urban edge.

A more human brand

The never-ending resurgence of the ’80s may have given some of it a punk face lift, and the power of Adobe Illustrator can add a slick corporate sheen. But beneath the voguish black strips of reversed Futura Bold or pink vector art silhouettes, it’s the same tired old fashion.

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True, the added richness of all that illustration brightens up the anodyne Swiss school. But selling $40,000 cars using skateboard graphics? It’s a symptom of our cult of youth, an obsession that shows no sign of abating. The style may evolve, but the content remains the same: street culture filtered through a white middle-class art school sensibility, used to wrap grown-up consumer goods in cuteness or a fantasy of youth rebellion.

So now that street has become Main St. what is a self-respecting rebel or underground stylist to do? It’s not inevitable that powerful and subversive = raw and hand-drawn. Think of Peter Saville‘s work for Factory Records. Slick.

Where’s the new order?

Perhaps the rise of Obamanation and the “death” of capitalism will mean an earnest new generation of re-politicized youth. Content ascendant. Leaving agency art directors and their brands to follow suit and behave like adults again.

As for the killer bunny – it has entered the web culture lexicon as a fairly popular avatar. (Though not more popular than that grand daddy of subverted innocence, the killer clown.) Meanwhile, a mass of jejune designers have yet to tire of the twisted-cute cliché. It persists because the image of a machinegun wielding kitten or moody babydoll resonates with graphic designers, who see themselves as essentially powerless.

I’ll show you whose boss

Bullied by clients, assailed by the inherent redneckism of popular taste, the cute/killer figure is designers saying: “This is me. You may think I’m a nice shmuck with funky sneakers and a pliable manner, but in fact I’m a twisted fiend and I could kill you if I wanted.” The killer bunny and it’s ilk is the Columbine massacre writ in vinyl.

Personally, I think its time to move on. It’s a victim’s fantasy.

The original killer bunny