Barry Katz, writing for the summer 2009 issue of Arcade, sees the economic downturn as a much needed kick in the teeth for the design world, especially in advertising. He writes:

All this means fewer products, fewer resources expended on making things and fewer designers engaged in conceiving and planning them. Fewer products to sell means fewer advertisements, which means less paper and more trees, less air time and more air. Suddenly there is less chemical pollution of the biosphere and less visual pollution of the semiosphere. People feel less assaulted by the relentless barrage of things and images and become more attentive to the spaces between them, which they will begin to call “nature.”

Katz suggests a new breed of unemployed designers will actually design more, introducing the concept of “un-design,” a process that, among many other restorative acts, includes dismantling cigarette machines and neutralizing corporate identities. Sounds like a good start…

Source: Arcade 

We crave stories, writes trend-seeker Lynn Casey in the Summer 2008 issue of Arcade. So much so, that the future of marketing belongs to the best storytellers. Internet commerce—with its seemingly endless selection and variable price points—has created a vacuum, Casey says, where things like real touch and real time are scarcities. “Those vendors who can imbue their products with story and feed the hunger in the coming generations for history and connection will thrive,” Casey predicts.