Dirty Design

Design author, Steven Heller never fails to impress me with his accurate articles based on the modern day design world. His depiction of what contemporary design is takes into consideration the styles of the past and outlooks of the future. While the late 80's and 90's were a purely digital (and somewhat outrageous) design aesthetic, Heller states that we as designers are now in an era of what he claims, 'dirty design'.


Design was losing its realness and now we are grasping at everything real we can get our hands on. From the use of silkscreen, sewing, typewriting, crafting, letterpressing, ect. designers are yearning for tactile solutions to design. Humans are too real to be expressed purely through digital form. In my opinion, we are just trying to put a little bit of our true selves back into design.