What would you say about a typeface like Helvetica? I'd say its greatness largely is derived from universality, not exclusivity.
Re:Flat UI, mirrored
by bluekeybox on Friday March 08, 2013 @03:06PM
(#5345436)
It's always a combination of universality and exclusivity. The latter creates a "gradient" which causes a particular design to spread. Watch the documentary "Helvetica". At it's peak in the 1960s, Helvetica had high-end "international" aura and small brands everywhere were scrambling to redesign their signage to what they perceived was a new customer-friendly yet high-end image (probably best visualized as a smiling and good-looking Swiss airline flight attendant with a noticeable accent).
Good Design doesn't sell. Great Design does. Great design will achieve exclusivity by iteratively attempting (and failing) to become universal.
> It's funny that the recent Flat-design trend was triggered by Microsoft's Metro UI, which is inspired by Modern Cities' signage
Which was probably inspired by Mondrian's experiments in exclusivity.