Kitsch Is Cool Again
Kitsch Is Cool Again
For a while, the rules of good design seemed pretty clear. The grid had to be smooth, colors had to work harmoniously with each other, typography had to be used in a controlled manner, spacing had to be preserved, and the design had to look as clean as possible. Particularly in the world of digital design, minimalism has long become an almost universal indicator of quality.
Then the designers started messing things up.
Giant font sizes spilled out of the screens. Colors fighting each other were brought together. Comic Sans-like characters began to appear again. Gradients, stars, chrome effects, hearts, stickers, bad decoupages, pixel graphics, low-resolution images and aesthetics reminiscent of the 2000s internet are back.
More interestingly, all of this is no longer considered "amateur design".
On the contrary, a significant part of the creative world, from fashion brands to the music industry, from packaging design to social media, has deliberately begun to look redundant, strange, kitsch and sometimes ugly.
So why has design come to this point again?
Perhaps the answer is quite simple: When everything is too beautiful, being beautiful no longer attracts attention.
Need to Understand Kitsch First
The word “kitsch” is often used today to describe things that look overly fancy, tasteless, cheap, or overly sentimental. Plastic flowers, golden decorations, porcelain angels, glittering inscriptions, hearts, fake marbles, flashy frames and exaggerated color combinations can be considered classic examples of the kitsch world.
But contemporary design isn't bringing kitsch back as it was.
He uses it consciously.
The difference is important.
A designer using five different fonts without knowing what he is doing is not the same as deliberately colliding five different fonts. First, it may be a design problem; The second is the creative decision.
This is exactly the irony found in today's kitsch aesthetic.
It's not like the designer doesn't know the rules.
Because he knows the rules, he breaks them.
Did Minimalism Make Us Similar to Each Other?
To understand the resurgence of kitsch, it is necessary to look at the design world of the last 10-15 years.
With the growth of digital product design, brands have become increasingly simpler. Logos became flat. Sans-serif typefaces proliferated. Websites began to be built on white areas, large headings and controlled grid systems.
There were very logical reasons for this.
Brands needed to work on hundreds of screen sizes. Mobile applications had to be readable. Logos should be able to turn into small icons. Digital interfaces needed to be easy to understand.
However, this had an unexpected result:
Everything started to look alike.
Logos of fashion brands have evolved into similar sans-serif characters. Tech companies started using the same smooth gradients. Startup websites have gravitated towards the same big header, rounded cards, and pastel color systems.
Taken individually, they were well-designed works.
When we put them side by side, it became increasingly difficult to distinguish their identities.
Here, kitsch, maximalism and anti-design offer a very strong reaction against this sterile world.
Anti-Design: Not Making the “Right” Design on Purpose
The concept of anti-design may be perceived as anti-design at first glance. However, most of the time it opposes not the design itself, but the rules of design that are considered immutable.
Breaking the grid.
Rotate text.
Bringing incompatible fonts together.
Using overly large typography.
Colliding colors.
Overlaying elements.
Putting readability on the back burner from time to time.
Not making a button look like a classic button.
All of this can go against traditional UI and graphic design principles. But in the right context, it can create an extremely powerful character.
The goal of anti-design is often not “bad design”.
It is to prevent the design from looking too smooth.
This small distinction allows us to understand the entire aesthetic.
Camp Aesthetics: The Joy of Excess
One of kitsch's close relatives is camp.
Camp does not hide aesthetic exaggeration. On the contrary, he celebrates.
More shine.
More drama.
More colours.
Bigger hair.
More theatrical pose.
More polished typography.
In the world of Camp, the criticism that "it's a bit much" can almost be considered a compliment.
Fashion and pop culture have been using camp aesthetics for a long time. However, in the age of social media, this approach is spreading much faster into the design world.
Because it is no longer another design that competes with a beautiful composition that sits silently on the screen.
Videos, memes, influencers, notifications, ads, messages and hundreds of content that changes every few seconds.
In this environment, sometimes exaggeration, not subtlety, wins.
Maximalism: “Add Something More” Instead of “Remove Something”
If minimalism's famous approach is "less is more", maximalism almost counters it by saying "more is more".
Pattern upon pattern.
Text on the image.
Sticker on the text.
Another font next to the sticker.
Gradient in the background.
Star on it.
A little chrome.
A little noise.
A bit 3D.
And oddly enough, when done right, they can all work.
The success of Maximalist design does not actually come from randomness. Beneath good maximalist design there is often a very controlled composition.
Where will the eye look?
Which item will be seen first?
Where will color balance be established?
At what point will the chaos stop?
These are all still design problems.
Therefore, maximalism does not mean “let's throw everything on the page”.
Designing controlled chaos.
Social Media Has Changed Our Taste of Design
It is almost impossible to evaluate today's visual culture independently of social media.
In the early days of Instagram, flawless feeds, photos using the same filters, and carefully prepared grid systems were very popular. Over time, this perfection began to look artificial.
TikTok has grown the exact opposite.
Phone camera.
Screenshot.
Bad light.
Large subtitles written on it.
Instant zoom.
Low resolution.
Meme graphics.
Green screen.
Weird fonts.
The internet's own visual language began to overtake professional advertising aesthetics.
Because these did not look like "advertisements" to the user.
It looked like the internet.
Naturally, brands started to speak the language of the internet.
“Ugly” Design Stops the Scroll
There is an extremely important issue here in terms of advertising: attention.
On social media, users go through hundreds of content. Perfection becomes ordinary when every photo is professional, every product is well-lit, and every design is flawless.
Then you see a strange ad with purple Comic Sans-like text on a yellow background.
Your eyes stop involuntarily.
Why?
Because there is an abnormality in the visual system.
The brain realizes this.
For this reason, anti-design can be considered not only an aesthetic choice in advertising, but also attention engineering.
Sometimes the job of design is not to be beautiful.
First is to be seen.
Meme Culture Has Taken Over Graphic Design
Meme culture is perhaps one of the most underrated influences of contemporary graphic design.
Memes are often terrible by professional design standards.
Wrong font.
Bad resolution.
Strange crop.
White edges.
Screenshot of screenshot.
Write on it again.
However, it is incredibly powerful in terms of communication.
Because the user reads the idea, not the aesthetic quality.
This showed the designers something important:
Communication doesn't always have to go through beauty.
If an image is funny, weird, or touches on a cultural reference, poor production quality can sometimes amplify the message.
This is the basis for brands turning to meme culture.
But there is a dangerous line here. A brand that tries to create memes without truly understanding internet culture can give the feeling of "a corporate team trying to look young" within seconds.
That's the hardest part about kitsch.
It should not seem forced.
Why Is Y2K Back?
One of the important parts of today's kitsch wave is the Y2K aesthetic.
The internet culture of the early 2000s has turned into a design reference again today.
Chrome inscriptions.
Metallic surfaces.
Bright gradients.
Bubble typographies.
Pixel graphics.
Old computer interfaces.
CD and DVD aesthetics.
Stars.
Butterflies.
Pink.
Silver.
Transparent plastic.
Low resolution digital cameras.
All these elements, which once seemed old-fashioned, present a nostalgic and at the same time foreign depiction of the future for the new generation.
There is an interesting paradox here.
This is how the future was imagined in the 2000s.
In the 2020s, we are redesigning the future of the past.
That's why the Y2K aesthetic can look both nostalgic and futuristic.
7
Why Are Analog Defects Valuable Again?
With the rise of the AI era, another shift is taking place.
Digital images are becoming more and more perfect.
The skin is flawless.
The light is perfect.
The composition is flawless.
The product is perfect.
The background is perfect.
And that's exactly why some creative works began to consciously add imperfections.
Film grain.
Browser trace.
Photocopy texture.
Torn paper.
Wrong print.
halftone
noise
Risograph shifts.
Handwritten.
Bad decoupage.
Flash photo.
All of these add human imprints to the image.
In an era where the digital world is becoming increasingly smooth, flaw turns into character.
Therefore, seeing the return of analog design as just nostalgia may be incomplete. The defect no longer hides the fact that the image is “manufactured”; On the contrary, it creates the feeling that it has a physical history.
AI Aesthetics Could Further Empower Kitsch
The proliferation of visual production with artificial intelligence creates another uniformity problem in the design world.
Certain lights.
Similar faces.
Similar cinematic compositions.
Extremely smooth surfaces.
Familiar color palettes.
After a certain point, a distinct aesthetic that “looks like AI” emerges.
It's no surprise that designers are looking for visual languages that are dirtier, more analogue, weirder and more personal.
Maybe in the coming period, the way to look professional will not be to look perfect, but to maintain the feeling of being made by a human being.
Kitsch Also Entered Packaging Design
This approach is not only seen on social media.
In the packaging world, characterful typography, mascots, bright colors, illustrations, retro references and designs that look deliberately “too much” are on the rise.
Especially for food, beverage, cosmetics and lifestyle brands that want to reach young consumers, packaging can now shout instead of looking quietly stylish on the shelf.
Because we face the same problem in the digital feed on the physical shelf:
Attention.
Among 40 products sitting side by side, the minimalist white box may no longer automatically look premium.
Sometimes an orange monster can sell for more.
The Fashion World Has Already Embraced “Bad Taste”
Fashion has been one of the areas that most quickly adopted the return of kitsch and camp aesthetics.
The advantage the fashion world has here is that it has long been comfortable with irony.
Something can be ugly and expensive at the same time.
It can be both funny and sophisticated.
It can be both nostalgic and new.
These dualities carry over into contemporary brand design.
The brand no longer necessarily has to look “serious”.
Sometimes being consciously weird creates a much stronger personality.
Is Kitsch Right for Every Brand?
No.
Perhaps this is the most important part of this article.
Filling a law firm's website with Y2K chrome fonts may not be a good idea just because it's trending. Likewise, in finance, healthcare or B2B areas that require serious trust, deliberately disrupting readability can damage brand trust.
Kitsch is not an effect.
It is associated with brand personality.
It can work extremely powerfully if your brand is in a fun, young, rebellious, experimental, cultural or creative field.
However, if it contradicts the nature of the brand, it turns into trend imitation.
The fundamental question of good design is the same here:
Why?
Why this font?
Why this color?
Why so many?
Why is it so strange?
If the answer is “because it is a trend”, it is not enough.
In order to break the rules, you must first know the rules
This is perhaps the most common mistake when it comes to anti-design.
Consciously breaking a grid is not the same as not being able to establish a grid.
Consciously subverting the typographic hierarchy is not the same as not knowing how to create a hierarchy.
Intentionally colliding colors is not the same as not knowing color theory.
Professional anti-design often has a very strong knowledge of classical design behind it.
Like the design equivalent of the famous idea attributed to Picasso:
First you learn the rules.
Then you learn when to break them.
“Ugly” Design Can Actually Be a Powerful Brand Strategy
There is a very valuable lesson here for advertising.
A brand does not always have to be found beautiful by everyone.
In fact, sometimes trying to be beautiful by everyone can make the brand completely impersonal.
Because strong identity can be a bit polarizing.
Some people love it very much.
Some people don't understand.
Some people hate it.
But they remember.
Memorability is extremely valuable in branding.
Therefore, “Does everyone like this design?” Sometimes it may be more accurate to ask the following question instead:
“Do people remember who created this design?”
Personality Instead of Perfection in the Age of Social Media
Today, users' relationships with brands are changing.
A brand is not just a corporate structure seen on a billboard.
Responds to comments.
Sharing meme.
TikTok is filming.
He's making a mistake.
He's joking.
He's making fun of himself.
Therefore, visual identities need to be more flexible and humane.
Kitsch, camp, maximalism and anti-design are therefore not just graphic design trends.
Visual responses to brands' desire to act with more personality.
So Is Minimalism Dead?
Absolutely not.
Maximalism is not rising because minimalism is bad.
The problem is not minimalism itself, but meaningless minimalism.
Apple's simple design language can be powerful because the entire system, from its products to its stores, from its photography to its packaging, carries the same idea.
Likewise, a strong maximalist brand can maintain its own world at all touch points.
The measure of good design is not how many elements we use.
We can also use an element.
A hundred elements too.
The main thing is to know why they are all there.
How Do We As Voldi Creative Read This Transformation?
As Voldi Creative, we analyze design trends not only by asking "what color is trendy this year?" We do not evaluate it at the level. Because copying trends may make the brand seem current, but it does not make it original.
What is more interesting for us is to understand why trends emerge.
The resurgence of kitsch, anti-design, and maximalism is driven by a backlash against digital monotony, social media culture, Y2K nostalgia, meme language, the algorithmic battle for attention, and increasingly perfect artificial images.
All this shows us how quickly design actually reflects the mood of society.
For a time, perfection meant progress.
Today, sometimes being too perfect means artificiality.
Maybe that's why a torn piece of paper, a misaligned headline, or a slightly poorly taken photo seems appealing again.
Because the flaw still tells us something:
There is a person here.
And in an era when artificial intelligence can produce flawless images in seconds, the human imprint itself will perhaps be one of the new luxuries of design.
This is why kitsch is cool again.
Not because ugliness replaces beauty.
Because it is one of the ways to look different while everyone is trying to be beautiful.
Nur Oğuz