On a certain day during some month of some year in the 1950’s, an ad guy went to work. Let’s call him Phil. It was a day like any other for Phil, and on this day he was to design a poster for a client. No doubt he put the same love and attention into this poster as he had the 30 before it, but what he didn’t realize is that this particular poster had a slightly more remarkable future in store for it. It would soon be sealed into a dusty room in the London Underground and would be completely forgotten. This is a better fate than I imagine for most of my work.
As designers, we recognize our art is not destined for galleries. We know what we do has worth, but we wouldn’t be surprised at all to see our most beautiful and effective piece of work casually abandoned and/or stomped to illegibility on a sidewalk somewhere. Eventually, all our work ends up a rotting pile of pulp in a landfill somewhere, or is erased out of existence entirely (in this age of digital design). This is just how things work. Right?
While renovating the Notting Hill gate tube station, workers came across several incredible mid-century posters, still hanging on the walls. Apparently, the posters had been sealed away for years as a result of the lift closing and being replaced by escalators. What we’re left with are some beautiful, albeit grimy, mid to late 1950′s posters! Mike Ashworth, the Design and Heritage Manager for London Underground has more images on his Flickr account.
So, Phil’s poster’s life wasn’t quite over yet! It was found accidentally some 60 years later! And despite the fact that there’s no talk (anywhere I’ve read) of moving these posters to a museum, they have once again left a footprint on our culture. They emerged from the dark to inspire! Phil’s poster that he thought might have a shelf life of a couple months got a second shot to affect and inspire!
If we ever hope to be effective designers, our work should stand the test of time. These posters are clearly from a very recognizable period of graphic design history, but that doesn’t make them any less beautiful or important. They are now ambassadors of a time period – proof that amazing things were happening and that maybe things weren’t so different then, after all. They are relics. Artifacts.
Are you proud of the work you’re putting out today? Would you be ashamed to have that last project you completed plastered all over the Snooglenet (what I imagine The Internet will be called in the year 2070)? Is it a suitable future artifact of what our culture is capable of? If not, maybe it’s time to rethink some of your philosophies. We all make design to make money, and that’s okay. The question to ask yourself is whether the work you’re creating is perpetuating good design practices and, at the end of the day, our industry’s reputation and success. The work you do day in and day out effects the rest of us in very real ways. This isn’t a responsibility to take lightly.
So, do me a solid, okay? Be a strong ambassador of OUR time period in design. Go out there and do incredible things.
dan, i like your blog. your blog is mighty fine. erin.