Can you trust the majority to make your choices?

Want to base your choices and arguments on numbers? Have a look at these stats (all approximations based on different figures):
There are over 1 billion smokers and about 5.4 million die every year due to complications caused by it.
There are over 100 million drug addicts with 2.5 millionn dying every year due to excessive abuse or a ultimate consequence of it.
Both groups of people believe that either is good for them or helps them somehow, however twisted that may sound and however educated they may be or even however aware they could be of the side-effects.

They (the addicts) are a lot of people but would anyone with a sane mind say that they have made the right choices? To find comfort in numbers is a weak argument as much as it erodes one's individuality. It's what sheep do. The above 'facts' point to a true but disturbing trend in society- that more people are gullible and make questionable, erratic and illogical choices in life which comes back and bites them in the ass.

Advertising works exactly on this reality to sell crap to people and make them think they need it and they find a way to make it part of their lives. It works fundamentally on the premise that there are more irrational people out there and a only very few smart ones that will break down the facts, one by one. There are more gullible people than not. It is easier to find them and one can sell any product and make it worth their while. Once it sells in hordes, people will automatically think its a good product and their judgments would get clouded. Eg. a full restaurant will always draw in more crowds. Design does the same- a better designed perfume label is more likely to be picked than a lesser designed perfume label even if the scent is exactly the same.

There are many lies used in the business and the problems arises further when people spread these lies as truths and spread truths as lies. And people fall for it. And brand loyalty depends on this. Any consumer who gets bedazzled is hard to bring back to the realm of reality. They become sheep and lose their individual rational thought process. Relying on numbers to prove a point is illogical and stupid- as smokers and junkies' figures have shown.

Being part of the design world makes me a culprit too but I know it can be used for actually bettering people's lives. However, in a commerce driven world, opportunities are hard to come by. I believe that a lot of technology is making people dumber by the day. Look at the iphone or the ipad- thousands of useless apps that one doesn't really need but millions use it because Steve Jobs says that they need it. The fact that there are severe constraints on using these products (like no flash support, slower processors, bad reception, inferior cameras etc) gets hidden under the clever marketing of the products and sadly, a lot of intelligent people also fall for it. They would refuse to believe that something revered by millions can be actually an inferior product. These "fanboys", as they are lovingly called, will constantly harp on the numbers and more recently on the "most valued brand" tag that Apple has won- probably with help of their ga-gaing all over the place! They eat up whatever Apple feeds them and Apple has ended up becoming what they thought Microsoft was- a leviathan creating drones in a unremarkable world. Except that the Apple universe may probably look prettier but will be inhabited by millions of idiots who cannot think for themselves. Apple makes some nice products, no doubt, but it makes a lot of crap noone needs too. And it is this which sells and the company single-handedly proves that it is far easier to sell useless things that those which actually make sense.

Humans are ingenious beings and will find use for any product that comes along, so if someone uses the argument of some product leading to betterment of something, it is just man using his experience of hundreds of years of evolution and adapting to changing circumstances. If people really knew what is good for them, Pepsi & Coke wouldn't sell in the numbers that they do. Or potato chips. Or friend chicken. All across the world. People already had food and drinks and one did not need these but they have become a part of daily life and for some people, an absolutely necessary part of their daily life! And this is because of years of advertising telling people that life is incomplete without these things! As people became more aware of healthy living, out came zero calorie sodas, or organic chips or baked chicken- basically people evolved and tried to make use of something better. Not ideal but it is humans adapting.

If humans made such great choices in large numbers, corrupt or inept politicians would never get elected to office anywhere in the world. Or the world would not have the hole in the ozone. Or we wouldnt have depleted forests and animal life all over the world. People can and have come together to make things better but those instances are far and few. Why do the honest people feel it tough to break the ceiling? Why do the logical voices get subdued? Why are finances in the control of a "privileged few"? Mainly because people tend to look to their sides and see what the person on their right or left is doing. And copy it. Like monkeys. The majority may sometimes have valid points but that still has to be questioned without prejudice- which is what isn't done by the majority of society.

So really, do the maximum number of people make the most intelligent choices? I dont think so. If someone blindly worships any one thing or any one person, that person is almost as good as sheep and you are better off trusting your dog's opinion on things. We are all individuals and our individuality is based on the decisions we make that has little to do with conformity, hero worship and blind faith. It has to do with what is best for us, as individuals without stepping on other people's toes. Everyone knows this fact deep down inside and I know I am not saying anything new or path-breaking. I just want people to always look again- not at others but at themselves.

How to tell the smart ones from the sheep? Easy, the smart dont have wool over their eyes!

Graphic Design in India: A brief analysis of bullshit

In one single post it would be hard to talk about everything that has been developing in India in graphic design. It has certainly grown over the past 10 years, especially more so in the last 5 years. The quality and variety of work has gotten better. But is it really getting much much better? Not really, unfortunately.

Designers here in India are quick to jump and say that the clients are conservative, the public is uneducated and that they cannot express their creativity in such a stifling environment. However, a lot of fault lies with the designers themselves that they do not want to admit.

I will be a bit too broad in my generalizations but it doesnt make it untrue. Here are the facts as I have seen over the last few years since 2006 when I started to really understand design in India. There are very few design schools in India. Most of the graduates tend to have the same style and seem to be lacking originality or the "thinking out of the box" mentality, even in explorations. Noone seems to be trying to push the client much because they are afraid of losing them.

However the biggest fault of Indian designers, especially the senior onces is the way they go about designing. Concept comes second to the beauty. They are too busy emphasizing on making something pretty and agreeable to the client rather than something conceptual. Most believe that they can plug a concept after they have churned out something "pretty". When senior designers give this brief to their juniors, the latter get influenced in the way they design then and in the future. This is more so because the levels of hierarchy in any office (even a design studio!) are too stark and people are too drunk on their position of authority. Designers have egos yes, but good designers are those who do not let egos come in the way of great work. And I have hardly met anyone in India like that while in New York I worked with really successful and talented people who could push aside their pride to push someone to do something amazing even if it went against what they believe in. And it shows in the work that comes out from the two countries.

The problem is that there is too much bullshit here. Sure, bullshitting our way through a presentation happens everywhere but I am not cool with backward thinking-" make something pretty and we will plug a concept later on"! That's absolutely horseshit. Everyone knows that once you have a concept, the possibilities are endless- even the pretty design will come out! Senior designers in India have to stop making their juniors design in this way because they are the future of Indian design. And this is why design hasn't yet matured yet. Sure, clients can be conservative but not as much as we think. The most successful businesses are those who have taken risks. If the concept is really strong and you believe in it, the client will believe in it too. That's where you really use your bullshitting powers! Bullshitting logical and valid arguments is a true art. And to dismiss our large population as "stupid" or "uneducate" is just making an excuse. If liberalization has shown anything, Indians have the capacity to take anything new, however bad or good, whole heartedly. Taste is acquired. You feed them your bullshit, they will be used to bullshit. So if they stupid, it is probably because you have made them stupid with your bullshit!

This mentality of "my way or the highway" when it comes to senior designers is highly negative. Junior designers, fresh out of school or those toiling under boring bread & butter work, need real leadership not dictatorship. A true leader will tell them it is imperative that they do one thing that has great concept rather than 10 pretty things with no concept. If the leaders are unable to think of the concepts (due to actual inability, lack of time due to other responsibilities etc) the least they can do is not stifle those who can. Or better, promote this thought process aggressively. Even if the juniors havent met the client (which ideally, they should to start work on the project), it doesnt make their points irrelevant. The doctor doesn't always know best.

Right now the youngsters have anyway come from a very guided design program and now their seniors tell them to design only pretty things. They all look at great designs in great books and just wish and dream that they could do the same things. These books become "inspirations" for their pretty designs and this is what they believe to be the only way to design in India. When they become seniors, they will thrust this belief on their juniors to maintain the status quo of crappiness in the thought process- without having contributed a iota of something fresh or revolutionary in it. All those years of work cited as experience amounts to nothing if one cannot sustain modesty, humility or even the basic romantic idea of free thought.

Perfection comes with practice. Indians love to show off their knowledge of the English language or just what they consider "knowledge" inculcated through their love of books which they believe makes them superior to anyone on earth who doesn't indulge in it. They will go around town quoting inspirational quotes by famous people but one wonders if they really believe in what they are quoting. Because, Indian graphic design, the babies of these very "intellectualised" designers doesn't seem to reflect that. Only when they come around, will the clients come around. Only when they push for concept out of their juniors, will really great work come out. Till then, blaming people is the easiest thing that they can do. We will always stay a nation of artists with work that have hollow souls and generic visual imagery borne out of some lame-ass bullshit shroud under the garb of "pretty design".

Wherever I am, I will keep fighting this mentality and I sure hope I am not alone.