domi-NO?
so everyone and their brother is emailing me to say "OH MY GOD! DID YOU SEE HOW SALON BASHED DOMINO?!?!". and i guess i felt that after the 14th email i should say something. i could go on and on about this for awhile, but i'll air my response simply: i couldn't disagree with salon more.
i say, read the magazine for yourself and see what you think. i happen to love domino and think many of you will. salon doesn't, so, more power to em. but hey, to each his own. i for one will be thrilled to get my next copy of domino in the mail. keep it up domino, it's just one writer's opinion and i like to think that this writer's opinion cancels it out in some sort of cosmic way. xoxo, d*s
posted by design*sponge @ 26.4.05
16 Comments:
I like Domino too, although I think some of the points Salon made about Lucky were valid.
I admit it, I use those sticky tabs to mark the items I want to buy!
I understand Salon's point, and admit that I was a bit horrified when I first heard about Lucky. No articles? What, do they think we are morons..? But then, after a couple of years of not buying a single fashion magazine, Lucky is now the only one I subscribe to. I don't need to read articles in Vogue about what celebrities wear or do, I don't care about the new Botox or the newest plastic surgery scandal. Let's face it: articles in fashion magazines are dumb. All I want now is lovely lovely items, sans commentary. I am smart enough to come up with my own.
I can't wait to get my Domino in the mail! If I want articles on architecture and design, there are plenty of places to get those... bring on the pages of lovely lovely items!
Hey, most people don't read Lucky for the philosophy. :)
It's the VISUALS!
and, btw, I love Salon. I highly recommend that y'all subscribe to premium. The article is good because it made me pause and think. Design mags are good because I can look and not spend...
my company had a product featured in Domino. we were less than impressed with their treatment of our product, and after picking up an issue of their rag at a local bookstore, i was embarassed to have even been a part of it. it's just more junk to fill your empty soul, more white noise added to the already cacophonous din of Western life. i feel apprehensive about the people of my generation, who are the target of this mindless consumer push. how are we going to deal with (or attempt to solve) the real problems of the world, when we can't even pick out jewelled flip-flops without the advice of some cool-looking person with a fake name who we will never even meet?
Now I havent seen Domino as of yet, but I have seen Lucky and Cargo and agree with Salon. I think these sort of magazines just ruin American design. It dumbs it down and just profiles any "cute" random thing they can throw at consumers rather than taking a stand and saying "This is a great design object and this is why". Instead they take the easy way out, as journalists. This might have to do with the fact that they just are design ignorant (which I believe from meeting so many so called design journalists).
I have had a bunch of our products featured in US and foreign magazines and am always so much more impressed with how our stuff is presented over seas and on most design blogs. At least they care about the object and its meritts rather than how much it is and where is the quickest place you can buy it.
I really hope that more American design magazines can put a critical eye to design and spotlight objects and people that really do interesting stuff rather than the next pink plastic lighting piece or the next porcelean cast everyday object. I think we are above that... aren't we?
A. Who would pay to read Salon?
B. It's conceivable that people could read The New Yorker AND flip through Lucky.
C. Zagats must also necessarily be a dumbed-down product
D. I was disappointed with the 1st Domino. Half the articles seemed like they belonged in Lucky. What if this shoe were a room! Could this table become a dress?!!! What's the little black dress of wallpaper?!!!
-adam
who would pay to read salon? Me. I subscribe to Premium so that they can keep bringing in quality authors and quality essays. I absolutely love 90% of what I read on Salon and it's worth what I pay for it, in my opinion.
Aside from that, I definitely think they had a point on the whole concept of "shopping magazines." They are little more than tools of our corporate-driven consumer culture. I don't need Conde Nast telling me what to buy.
I'm kind of tired of the type of comment where people criticise something because its a "dumbing down" of culture. As if this is replacing whatever else is already out there, as if there is some group of stupid people that needs to be defended from the influence of a magazine. If a magazine like Domino can make you dumber, or affect a culture so deeply as you think, then maybe it's not the magazine. Otherwise it supplements whatever else people do to shop, it does not replace it. Maybe I'm just an optimist about the intellect of my fellow human beings. And maybe I think magazines do not have to be serious. There are other places to get the serious design information you want if you are that bothered by Domino.
For those of you who said you agree with salon.com what do you call websites such as design sponge and apartment therapy that also feature product information and ideas?
domino isn't telling you what to buy...it's telling you options and giving you the confidence that you can do these things yourselves. Stop overanalyzing it so much and have fun with it.
There's more to life than buying things and trying to be cool. I appreciate modern design and architecture, but I'm getting sick of all the shopping mags and I'm also weary of the design blogs. I think Salon has some very valid criticisms of this genre, and I've already been curtailing my consumption of "design stuff" so I don't even get to the point of actually buying "design stuff" that I don't really need.
where is this much debated article? i can't seem to find it...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
sorry, i only removed the last comment because i don't really want to give the salon article any more voice on my website. i'm fine with people going to read it (you can use a guest pass), but i'd prefer not to give it any more air time in my house, so to speak.
i got into this whole discussion with ac last night, and it's lead me to believe i'm going to continue to stay out of it other than to say i disagree with the whole article, start to finish.
(although i'm not the biggest fan of the "turn this shoe into a room" section.)
d*s
Hope I'm not contributing more to a discussion you want to end, but I didn't even read the salon article. That said, I have two things to say:
1) I was SO excited to FINALLY receive my first issue of domino in the mail last night. I think I built it up too far. It is just an exact replica of Lucky, but for the home. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but for me, it's far too cluttered, and there's nothing really new or intersting to the items they feature. I think it just isn't my aesthetic. I guess I was expected something a big more progressive design-wise. That said, it was still decent eye candy.
2) As far as the ongoing debate... since when did consumerism/materialism and intelligence/critical thinking become mutually exclusive? Somehow I'm capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time, or in this case, enjoying pretty pictures of stuff, all the while feeding my brain elsewhere. I don't quite get how having both readily available is equivilant to dumbing down.
-breezeek, not logged in
I guess I'm missing just what exactly is wrong with "dumbing down" good design....
Are some people more comfortable if only the cool kids have beautiful stuff? I would think that anyone who truly loves good design would WANT it made accessible -- it means that when you look around you, you will see more lovely objects instead of crap -- and the creators of these objects will be better compensated for their talent.
Post a Comment
<< Home