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Aqua Mar.
24th
Don’t
take this the wrong way, because generally speaking, I’m one of the
Mac faithful. I love the approach they have taken to their interface design;
OS X is truly a thing of beauty. Bar none the smoothest UI on the market currently.
But when you have a good idea, copy cats are sure to follow, and that is the
point of this little rant.
The Aqua look has been abused to death. I’ve seen so many damn rehashes of this design, that it has lost all of its freshness. It’s got to the point that when I see another aqua clone, I am actually turned off from the print ad, or commercial, or business card; because it truly has become a signature move of someone who has no creativity. I mean c’mon people lets put a little effort into your work for crying out loud!
The worst part is the general public still really likes it. Because they don’t know where the idea came from, or how un-original it is to copy it. Which only propagates the practice even further, because it still sells. I believe this is a case of the downside of capitalism-not that I’m a Marxist or anything-but there is still a demand for it. So people fill that need; despite the fact it’s tacky.
I really believe
that it is our responsibility as designers to steer our clients away from
this trend. If you get right down to it, a very large portion of our job is
advising people on what looks good, and will represent them well in the market.
And I feel that copying an idea that has been copied a million times-even
if that is what the customer is asking for- ultimately will not serve them
well. So the next time your client asks, “Hey could you make it look
like that cool see through gel” tell them no.
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