Horrible Design is Horrible

Redundant titles are redundant.

I can't help but be frustrated with companies these days who decide they need a rebrand, even more so with the agencies/design firms/freelancers turning out this work. This post is brought to you by Urban Outfitters.

Now it's important to understand I've done my research, and I'm aware it was done by Horrible Logos (no joke, real company, real person). This is a person who, for $5, will create a horrible logo for you to do with whatever you please. I support this intrepid designer 100%, and am very glad (s)he has found a niche in the world that allows him/her to gain beer money (self proclaimed purpose for the site). This post is in no way meant to bash on Horrible Logos.

What this post is meant so bash is Urban Outfitters' use of it. I understand leaving it up for a awhile to gain some PR, this kind of stunt is not unheard of, but we're going on two weeks now and the game is essentially up. It's time to switch back.

While bad design is good for a laugh, it should not be exalted to the point where a major company uses it as a permanent fixture. The problem is most people don't KNOW Urban Outfitters also thinks it's a horrible logo. When a major company endorses this kind of design work, it changes the general public's opinion of what good graphic design can be.

There's some corporate responsibility here that Urban Outfitters needs to accept, especially when they were previously considered a well designed brand. The general public, consciously or not, in addition to many aspiring designers look to them as an example. If they believe Urban Outfitters has released this new brand because they actually consider it good design, Urban Outfitters has given the public an excuse to create anything they want in Microsoft Word and use it as their logo.

People have a right to create and use horrible design for their companies if they really want to. With that in mind, let's gloss over a few of the many reasons why good graphic design is important.
1. It organizes information so messages are easily received.
2. It makes user product experiences easier.
3. In a world where we are inevitably bombarded by graphic design in the form of advertising, good graphic design makes the experience as pleasant as possible.

The slippery slope theory is a hard one to rely on because it's usually wrong, but with the slew of unintentional bad brand design out there I really don't think we need another one that's being done on purpose.