In 2021, Hara partnered with Xiaomi, designing a new logo for the company, which was unveiled on 31 March 2021. Hara and his company converted the previous square logo into a combination of a square and a circle. He earned $300,000 from the project.
Reconsidering my life choices right now…
Obviously they overpaid, but it was the company’s choice in a form of conspicuous consumption.
I feel conflicted because graphic design is a necessary job, but just from skimming over Kenya Hara’s history and work he strikes me as an avatar of all the most pretentious and pseudo-intelligent aspects of the modern culture of art that I hate.
The claim that it took him four years to design the logo is, on its face, garbage, but for people like him the process and the story of making the logo is how he created and maintains a veneer of being deep and working on a heightened creative and intellectual level. Had he taken the contract and returned in a week with the exact same logo and said “Yeah I messed around a little in photoshop and I think it looks pretty nice.” then it wouldn’t be worth $300,000. Everything in the world of these people needs an overdrawn explanation and story of creation and meaning and it makes me want to projectile vomit on or near them.
Everything in the world of these people needs an overdrawn explanation and story of creation and meaning and it makes me want to projectile vomit on or near them.
If you haven’t seen the Pepsi logo redesign doc from 2008 or 2009… well I hope you haven’t eaten anything recently.
It starts off doing some weird stuff with circles, the golden ratio, and old pepsi logos, slowly building to a frankly cultish crescendo of absurd marketing wankery.
“Absurd marketing wankery”
You saved the best for last. Well done.
Hell yeah If I received this deck I would pay the firm every cent they’re owed asap and demand IT block their domain company wide.
Andy Kaufman tier.
Honestly, he ostensibly knows how to play the game and he has my respect for that. He just managed a corpo to give him a large amount of money.
The corporation wanted to give him all that money. They are both playing a stupid game.
I’d say I agree with the instinct to just get that bag, but the fact that such people even exist and the fact that they steer the culture of the art world drives me crazy. The CIA has done irreparable damage to art.
Hmm true
A more charitable possibility: there could have been an honest four-year cycle of design explorations and presentations of options, revisions… none of which will never see the light of day thanks to internal politics, and the company just non-deciding on a safe option.
Even if that is factual, the company went to this high profile designer because they wanted a story to go along with their logo.
Looks like he just saw an Android icon pack around the same time default icon style was shifting towards that same look. And just turned it in with a fancy story about how he “played with many shapes” (then show some quickly drawn or even some he did try) “before it just hit me” vibe. I wonder how many in-house employees might have come up with the same and just overlooked.
I have no doubt creating the design was much less intensive than his rambling story, but the company spent the money on him specifically and I’m sure they expected the rambling story.
That’s why I hate this part of art culture, the fakeness of it all. The obvious fakeness that people clap for because they think it makes them look more intelligent by nodding along.
As a small designer who puts a lot of effort into my work, I also hate shit like this. That amount of money would literally be life changing for me and they would have gotten something actually new out of it.
For reference. 90% of logo changes seem to be the bullshit “inspiration”. From Xiaomi: “Kenya HARA used the “superellipse” mathematical formula when designing the logo of Xiaomi. While there are infinite options between a square and a perfect circle, the designer achieved a visually optimal dynamic balance by adjusting the variables in the formula. Using n=3 struck the perfect balance between a square and a circle, epitomizing the core aspect of “Alive”, resulting in the brand new Xiaomi logo we see now. Compared with a right-angled object, a circle is a shape that is more agile, which is the perfect representation of Xiaomi’s flexibility, relentlessness and its will to move forward.”
It’s shit lol.
Wow, what a load of bullshit.
Plus I seem to recall my Samsung having squircles in like 2017?
In a couple years they’ll right the same shit about why it’s a square again
“Earned” is pulling a lot of baggage here
