I agree with you here Ray. I think there was a brief moment where there was a cohort of ID graduates that wanted everything to be minimal, put shapes, and matte/gloss white, black or red plastic (IE easy to model in CAD and render)… but most designers I know are into old things, things that patina, things that are made not manufactured, and a lot of us are always trying to squeeze that into production work… that sad thing is when it does make it, it can flop in the marketplace. A lot of the Polk Heritage product I worked on did not meet sales goals. Of course there were tons of other factors, the right distribution was not lined up, there wasn’t a deep enough targeted media buy to reach the right person, time was not spent free-seeding product with influencers… but on the end of the day it is a poor reflection on the design language, and when we toned it down, kept the form language but went back to black plastics, the sales went up… The only things I were able to save outside the forms were a slight brushed nice finish to all of the metallic (instead chrome or silver paint…) and some interesting textiles for the grilles (though that was a knockdown drag out fight to keep!)
I think there is a bit of a “safe” mentality when it comes to purchasing decisions. IE," I’m in Best Buy, and all of the other choices are black plastic rectangles, so that must be the right thing to get. This mahogany and white speaker must be the wrong thing to get…". Most people want product like that to blend in. When they are in a retail environment and all of the other products are black plastic bricks, that seems to blend in. When they come home maybe they realize their room is not made of black plastic bricks and that thing actually stands out now!.. a couple of years after the heritage launch I was able to bring the walnut finishes and white back for independent retailers, so they would have something different from Best Buy and Amazon, and they crushed with it. It was the right distribution channel with a true sales team and a nicer retail environment to help the user make sense of the product.