Degenerative Design
How to stand out in a derivative world...
It’s really hard to stand out these days … and with generative-AI (or should that be “derivative-AI”) taking over the design of almost every aspect of our lives: standing-out is only going to get harder.
This morning I noticed (in fact, my conscious mind barely noticed) Medium’s icon change as I flicked into some other app. But as my conscious brain caught up with what my subconscious had instantly noticed, it reminded me how important the old design-rule of grids really is …
.. and not just in design.
This article isn’t really about design - it’s about life.
Our lives are filled with grids of conformity in everything we do … and if you want your life to be interesting, your business to succeed or your family to thrive … it’s never been more important to identify the invisible grid that defines your environment … and put something ... subtly … out of place.
The Grid
Most good web designers, font designers or print designers will understand this but in case this isn’t your area it’s maybe worth me starting by explaining that the design of complex user interfaces is almost always constrained to an invisible “grid”.
You don’t see the grid – but it’s incredibly important.
The purpose of the grid is: to reduce the amount of cognitive effort required to process the information on the page.
Without the grid, looking at the thing becomes hard work and you turn away.
The same is as true for page-settings as it is for font design. It’s true for other things too… the flavours of Walkers crisps look good on a shelf together because the colours are perfectly aligned on a complex mathematical grid of colours … the windows of our buildings, the petals of a flower and corns on a cob … grids are everywhere.
Even AI … ultimately … is a mathematical trick to find really deep, complex grids.
Going Off-Grid
.. but life on a grid can quickly become very boring indeed and sometimes we need to stand out.
Which is why: going off-grid is still one of the most effective tricks in design.
… because when you’re presented with something carefully constrained to a grid, you cannot help but be drawn to the one thing that sits slightly off the grid.
With great web-design, if you look closely, the primary “call-to action” is almost always off-grid. This might be because the button is slightly out of place, the font is slightly the wrong size, the colour is different or the skeuomorphism is subtly shifted.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a carefully mis-aligned “Buy Now” button, a single window out of place on a whole building or the one soldier in a thousand who doesn’t constrain a yawn.
That’s what you’re going to look at first.
First: see your grid…
As important as this technique is, sitting just off-grid (in graphic design or in life) is harder than you might think.
First – the technique doesn’t work without a grid. Remember the little girl in the red dress, at the end of Schindler’s List .. or indeed the woman in the red dress in The Matrix … Those scenes wouldn’t work if the everyone was wearing colourful clothes.
The line between cinematic mastery and a Where’s Wally picture is pretty precipitous and if there’s not a clearly defined grid it’s almost impossible to stand out.
Second – if you go too far, it doesn’t work. Those scenes only work because they only changed one thing. Making the button too big or too out of place… standing out too much… it doesn’t work because it’s too obvious.
The real trick is to avoid anyone noticing that you’re out of place. You’re trying to appeal to people’s subconscious. As soon as people’s conscious mind notices you’ve kinda lost the advantage.
Then: make one small change…
So, in life, whether you’re designing a full-page advert in The Times … you’re dressing the window of your shop … or you’re designing your accountancy practice … figure out where the invisible grid is that defines what you’re doing … make sure everything you do aligns to that grid … conform to the grid carefully so as to take all of the hard work out of fitting people’s expectations …
… and then … find one, important thing … and take it slightly off grid.
Because in a a world of derivative design, of enforced conformity and artificial homogeny… it’s never been more important to stand out.