Design can be a story

Lizard in Varanasi | India

In a time where everyone seems to agree that you need ‘a recognizable’ style, your Instagram feed should reflect that ‘branding’, I find this quote by Shamir Tharar, founder of @dishoom, so liberating: ‘Design can be a story’. His book ‘Dishoom – From Bombay with Love’ was beautifully designed by Dave Brown and in an interview on WePresent, he said something that I can totally relate to: 

 “I’m not a designer who has a house style. I take the brief and I immerse myself and then I throw up what comes out of that immersion.”

This would be the kind of designer I would choose for a project. This is exactly how I want to work. Both in my photography and my designs. I used to work with a graphic designer who has this ‘fixed style’. Doesn’t matter for whom and for what subject she designs, it’s all the same: same style, same colours. She is very proud that you can recognize her ‘branding’ in everything she creates. It totally choked me.

Reading this beautiful article on WePresent made me realize again that indeed: ‘Design can be a story’. Something you tend to forget, if you see everyone around you imitating each other, especially on social media such as Instagram. All these styled, filter bleached look-alikes. It’s horrible! They may well have thousands of followers, but are they creating anything at all? Apart from an audience?

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