The Cult of the Ugly

Author
Steven Heller, an American art director, journalist, critic, author, and editor who specializes on topics related to graphic design.

Source
Eye Magazine, no. 9, vol. 3, September 1993

Keypoints

• Context - this essay was written during the 90s where Post Modernism was on the rise and gaining exposure. It is a critique of the new wave of ugly design. Heller explains why ugly design has no basis and cannot be considered as design because of its superficial qualities.
• The pinnacle of bad design and where many examples can be traced to is by Cranbrook Academy's desktop publication, Output 1992.
• Heller states that this bad design "leaves the reader confused as to its purpose or meaning" which goes against modernist principles such as ones defined by Jan Tschihold.
• Heller states that it is the growing number of graduate programs that allow for a "labratory setting and freedom from professional responsibility", which leads to the justifying the word experiment to a "multitude of sins". This is caused when experimentation is fueled by too much instinct and not enough "intelligence or descipline".  He ends this point by stating that the work produced due to these conditions are "driven by instinct and obscured by theory, with ugliness it foremost by product". 
• “fashionable experimentation” is a term that Heller uses to encapsulate the exposure and growing popularity of ugly design. This can also be an appropriate term in describing the trendy experimental design that is gaining exposure in the design world today that is evidenced in www.trendlist.org
• Heller tries to locate the origin of swiss punk design. Stating that the mid-1970's punk movement’s rebellious spirit can be responsible for the urge to challenge typographic rules. 
• Swiss punk wasn't criticised so much for its "ugliness" but for its symbolism in "the demise of Modernist hegemony". 
• Despite arguing against the existence of ugly design, Heller does provide examples of where despite the chaotic design, there is still elements of order, just in a way that forces the reader figure it out themselves, unlike in modernist examples where communication is paramount in order to clearly communicate the information to the reader. He uses Art Chantry as an example which in Heller's view uses "ugly forms" but yet results in good design. 
• Heller illustrates the downfall of experimentation in post modern graphic design. This visual identifiers that made the movement recognisable, were "inevitably reduced to stylistic mannerisms which forced even more radical experimentation", unlike the form and function of Modernism.
• From another perspective, Heller offers a neutral standpoint in analysing Segura's programme/announcement for the 1993 How magazine "Creative Vision" conference.  Using Ralph Emerson’s "The secret of ugliness consists not in irregularity, but in being uninteresting" quote in The Conduct of Life, Heller explains that the programme/announcement should be read from a "variety of levels" however Heller concludes that the resulting work can only be described by pretence. Which also supports his points on how the alternative design offers a alternative solution to the cold, systematic typefaces favoured by International Style. 
• But ultimately he concludes his essay by stating that ugliness on its own is a problem when it follows its own virtue, i.e. following personal expression, because it does not follow form nor function. And as such it diminishes all design.

A key point in forming the argument would be to analyse designers who do stray from the modernist style on first glances but yet is based on ideas of balance and harmony as shown by Paul Rand's work. This will be a supporting argument to the encouragement of experimental new wave design, given that it is designed with similarly modernist principles in mind. 

To argue against the new wave design, examples that demonstrate personal expression that favours discordance and disharmony does not allow the design to be a viable visual communication as explained by Heller, which should be paramount in Design. Heller uses Edward Fella to explain this point. 

From Hellers critique of ugly design, it can be deduced that there is an extent to which the legitimacy of ugly design can be accepted as a accepted form of new design ideology. The designs themselves must be based on objective rationales for it to align with the principles of good design.  

Thinking in terms the practical outcome alongside the essay, it will be interesting to see how ugly design produced objectively will differ from a subjective perspective. It could be a way to further legitimise new wave design as a new paradigm in graphic design by trying to rationalise the chaotic nature of ugly design.