Let’s just start off with understanding one thing. This post is for the old school pen and paper designers like me. I know, it’s 2018, social media is basically the holy grail we base everything on, it determines what food we should eat, what trends to follow and who to vote for. But for the ancient souls like me I think it took us a while to grasp the importance of incorporating social media in every decision we have to take. Its one thing using it to check out the news of London fashion week instead of my old school ways of using the web for the Vogue magazine coverage, but when clients state that the only functional requirement they have for their retail space is “ a wall or element that is Instagram-able” instead of worrying about customer capacity, staff functioning efficiently in the kitchen or electric sustainability it got me wondering if this is a trend or a rule of thumb.
I believe the web definition of Instagram-able moments is: “A reference to creating spaces that provide the ideal backdrop for that perfect social media post”
I’ve discussed it on a couple of designer forums and everyone agrees that for retail clients the first thing they do, even before determining spacial requirements, is come up with how they would turn the space into a social media haven. Whether it is by allocating the major segment of the budget for expensive materials, painting angel wings on a wall, a camel statue standing on his head, or just throwing “cute” decor pieces around the space. When did Neufert, the bible of Architects become less important than Instagram as a basis of design? Will “Instagram-able Moment” be a new design trend that would be compared with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s “Less is More”?
Having this discussion with a marketing or sales specialist didn’t turn out any different from having it with a designer. They also agree that the more Instagram-able the space the easier it would be to prepare their social media posts and hence easier to market and sell. So in conclusion all professionals working on a retail space agree that the quality of the product that they’re selling is not as important as how it would appear on customers mobiles. It makes me nostalgic for those hole-in-the-wall, family owned restaurants with laminated menus that serve the best food ever. They don’t care about you posting their pictures all they care about is having an efficient kitchen, maximum capacity dining area and optimised storage solutions, because they’re confident enough with the product they sell.
With new apps that keep appearing, and technology basically taking over our lives, my question is will social media end up being the only way the world judges our designs? Will our names as designers be known as “that designer that did the place with the yellow wall” instead of for our legacy or innovative design? Will the importance of Sustainable design be wiped out to make place for Instagram-able design?
Let me know what you think. That “social media moment” in design is a trend that would/should disappear or a platform to hang on toad celebrate in order to succeed?