What’s up with all the cynicism in this post? Charles & Marie and other lifestyle/trend-hunter blogs promote design to the informed-masses, and build hype for the products we create. All this negativity needs to be directed towards more productive purposes…
What I find more ironic about this post is how “designaddict’s” attempt at viral marketing have completely backfired. Anyone who reads this post and looks at the watch will have all the negative comments in the back of their mind. They probably will be less likely to buy anything from Charles and Marie now.
Moreover, anyone looking up Michael Young on google and hits this topic may change their opinion about him. After all, here is a guy that is supposed to be a top designer, yet gets bashed on a forum of product designers. The layman very well may think, “maybe this guy is more marketing than design”.
Lastly, it shows a total lack of understanding of the people on the Core forums. Note to “designaddict”, designers hate being marketed “designer” products.
I don’t mind being marketed to. But I don’t like seeing the same post in multiple sections as was done in this case. It’s rude. And at that point it feels less about a good product (which will take off virally on its own) and more about crap product (that needs lots of in-your-face spam to propogate). And if there’s one thing designers don’t like, it’s another designer’s ego in their face.
Don’t be so pompous about the power of these message boards. It’s pretty well known that the majority of the posts on Core’s boards are anonymous people with not much content behind their statements. Very few people value knee-jerk comments of an anonymous message board over the work of a well-respected and prolific designer who’s producing some really interesting work.
Charles and Marie - Spam junkies, check out Josh spear its unparalleled, and none of this special members area crap
Not to mention that the majority of designers brought up on this board get ripped by somebody here. The problem is that sometimes people here come off as critical babies, posting petty attacks instead of intellegent criticism.
As for as this “Trend spotting” crap. Doesn’t it seem to create a situation where designers and companies pander to these useless bloggers in order to become Flavor of the Month? It’s not about clever, utilitarian design anymore. It makes me wonder about anyone who claims to have their “finger on the pulse of cool”.
is that retarded viridian green on the C&M site supposed to be the new trendy color.
ok everyone change your folio backgrounds to vgreen!
Some of the bloggers, like the crew at http://www.productdose.com/
and http://www.coolhunting.com/
are cool. No nonsense posts about whats new. Others seem to be more in it for building their own image than promoting design.
The Charles and Marie thing is a bit artificial don’t you think? It was a great little concept, just not as practical or informative as some other sites. Maybe its better for non-designers?
What’s wrong with C&M is that it’s artificial. It’s marketing. And its ham-fisted pretensious elitism is off-putting. I read lots of product and design blogs, and what I’m interested in is reading about things people have discovered and genuinely like for one reason or another.
I am not interested in seeking out advertising. I think what’s really offensive about C&M (and some other blogs that are surreptitiously accepting paid product placements) is that it is co-opting a medium that is actually threatening the whole traditional advertising paradigm. It’s trying to assimilate and commodify something authentic.
When I go to the movies, I don’t want to see the lead character drinking a Pepsi with the label conspicuously oriented toward the camera. I see this phony viral marketing as being similar. It reminds me of Paris Hilton (someone who is famous simply for being famous) being paid to vacuously parade about town toting the latest cell phone or video game system.
I want a future where the product sells itself on its own merits.
Scott, there are aspects to the desirability of product that come from association. Plus, association can give a product greater social currency. That’s what good product placement and marketing do.
C&M seems to be clear elitism to us, but as Yo pointed out, we are probably not the target market. The average Joe Cocktail surfing C&M probably thinks, “oh yeah, I’ll be the first one in the office with a P2k Michael Young watch!”. But he is also going to have a piece of social currency to use around the water cooler. “Hey Erica, how do you like my new watch? Yeah, it’s supposed to be really “in” with the design crowd. It was designed by this cat named Michael Young”. Can you see how this works?
And, as I said earlier, while I hate that some dope confused us with his target market, I’m glad that design is becoming something that ordinary folk discuss. These means business for all of us, even if we aren’t cool prey.
you mean dick cheney has one of those watches?
Yeah, but business at what cost.
The idea of what you, as a designer, would have to do in order to show up on these people’s radar, is what sickens me.
It creates a situation where once these people start effecting sales, companies and designers will be pandering to them. What service do they offer? They wedge themselves between the consumer and the marketing, and create this alternate form of advertising. Look at the fact that we’re only having this discussion because somebody spammed this blog.
The entire elitist, jetsetting lifestyle image is disgusting too. Secret handshakes and passwords, to create this sense of belonging. Nothing on their site is about the function, or even the style of something, it’s about the image. Which the last time I checked is only one facet of design. They create the trends as long as people are too stupid to not discern interesting and informative from fluff advertising disguised as intelligent commentary.