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Bringing the Avant-garde to digital experiences
When the average definition of an idea starts with “the Airbnb of X” or “think about it as the Uber of Y” it’s a sign that it’s time to bring some radical ideas to the table.
In a world focused on solving everyone problems and massively competing for seeing who solves the same problems in the most efficient, cheapest, and fastest way, we need to rethink our approach in the same way that in the early 1850s artists started to challenge the perception of beauty and the arts to bring a movement that would change the way society approaches life.
What’s the Avant-garde?
The term avant-garde comes from the French vanguard or advance guard (the part of an army that goes forward ahead of the rest) and it’s the name given to an innovative approach to the making of art that appeared in the mid-50s where artists pushed the boundaries of ideas and creativity to a more radical vision where innovation became attached to the idea of making art a tool to give voice to a society in need of a change. If you want to find out more about what’s Avant-garde check out National Gallerie’s article here.
The avant-garde challenged the status quo, primarily in the arts but also exposing it to the general public to promote disruptive thinking, social reformism, and how to control the masses for the benefit of the most needed of a change.
Why do we need to embrace the Avant-garde?
As designers, we have the power to influence people, companies, trends, and patterns. It should be assumed by default that whatever we focus our efforts on is meant to solve as many problems as possible and affect positively as many lives from the people making use of what we are designing as we can. We shouldn’t settle by less than that.
We are too focused trying to think of the next big idea that can turn into profits the fastest way rather than trying to fund ideas that would fix long-term known issues that affect us all.
