Exactly twenty years ago the How Design Conference distributed a promotional brochure that was just plain ugly. We know it was ugly because Steven Heller told us so. I mean, he really eviscerated the design, in an Eye magazine essay. It “obstructs comprehension.” Its ingenuity is “undermined by its superficiality.” And it’s “an artifact that is already ossifying into a 1990s design style.”
It’s difficult to imagine such strong language in our current, post-critical era. But back then, controversy was the norm. Design and typography were being fought over as if they had life and death consequences. And Steve’s “Cult of the Ugly” was one of the primary flash points: it incited quite a few fierce debates.
The most thorough response could be found in Emigre magazine, a propaganda arm of the “cult.” Issue 30, titled “Fallout,” was devoted to a series of four interviews meant to expand the dialogue. The first was with Steve, and the rest were with three of his targets: David Shields, a Cranbrook student at the time, and CalArts instructors Jeff Keedy and Ed Fella. You can click on each of their names to read their conversations.
Oh, and I was the interviewer.
Among Rick’s points of contention was that I hadn’t interviewed Carlos Segura, who’d designed the HOW material. But there were two reasons I didn’t. One, I wanted to primarily concentrate on perspectives from the so-called “hothouse” schools, the supposed sources of the “problem.” And two, I pretty much agreed with Steve’s assessment of the brochure.
Since next week’s conference marks the twentieth anniversary of Segura, Inc.’s notorious creation, I decided to get in touch with Carlos — better late than never, eh, Rick? — to discuss his handiwork.
In one respect it was groundbreaking: the first How Conference collateral campaign — ads, cards, a notebook cover, etc. — to be fully computer-generated. On a Mac IIci, to be precise, using Quark, Illustrator, and Photoshop. “We encountered many technical issues, all of which sound silly now, since everything is done this way. But back then it seemed everything was going wrong. We finally got it together and made it happen.
“By the way, the typeface designed for this event — called Neo — went on to become one of the first fonts we released via t26.com,” tells Segura.
The 1993 conference was held in Chicago and speakers included Michael Bierut, Clement Mok, Alexander Isley, Rick Valicenti, and Marshall Arisman. During one heated discussion a designer called Carlos a communist. “It was very entertaining,” he recalls.
I also wanted to know how Carlos viewed his booklet today, 20 years later. “It’s dated. Like almost everything else humans do. Some date better than others, but I would rather be criticized for trying something than not trying at all. It was just plain fun and I learned a lot — I wanted to conquer the digital possibility — which is why I did it in the first place.”
Below you’ll see the full brochure; what do you think?
Keep Reading: Related stories: “The Fuse Box: Faces of a Typographic Revolution” and “Words — and Images — on Ed Fella.”
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