Why do bland designs, whether it be cars or furniture or tech gadgets etc., tend to age better than striking adventurous designs which were more loved when they came out?

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Why do bland designs, whether it be cars or furniture or tech gadgets etc., tend to age better than striking adventurous designs which were more loved when they came out?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I’d speculate that what you consider bland was once very adventurous in the past, else it would be the case that retro objects would look exactly the same as “bland” designs of today – which certainly is not the case with cars, furniture, or tech gadgets.

I think what is going on has to do with a general phenomenon that can be found in many different contexts – survival of the fittest. “Adventurous” designs are called so because they are novel. Novelty introduces new features, however the features are not battle-tested. Some of what is created will stick and be successful, while some won’t. Here, success has to do with pragmatics – efficiency, economy, ergonomics, convenience; the stuff that often but not always makes things have mass appeal.

And so what is happening probably is that designers will produce these adventurous things and then learn what works and what doesn’t. What works is noted and then used for future designs, and as you get designs which incorporate all of these successful features the resulting product will gain mass appeal and also not require much change if good enough for the majority. The widespread prevalence of this successful design as well as its relatively low change over time leads to the perception that the design is common and “bland” – it is “bland” because you’ve seen it so many times.

It isn’t that “bland” designs are appealing, it is that the designs (derived from refinement of “adventurous” designs) are so successful that you think they are bland.

Here are some examples:

– [Monobloc chair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monobloc_(chair))

– [Unix interface](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix)

– Large, ubiquitous brand names such as McDonalds

– Common urban animals that have evolved to live with humans such as rats and pigeons

– [Labrador retriever dog breed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labrador_Retriever)

– Ford F-series / Toyota Camry / Honda Civic

– Levi’s Jeans

– [QWERTY layout](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY)

– 1911 / Glock pistol designs
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