ONE SIZE DOESN'T FIT ALL: RETHINKING “GOOD DESIGN” ACROSS CULTURES

Summary from the TLDR Design newsletter

Ideas such as clarity, simplicity, restraint, and functionality are often treated as universal measures of good design even though they emerged from particular Western histories and cultural contexts. Design traditions excluded from the dominant canon can use decoration, complexity, symbolism, and craft in ways that are deeply functional within their cultures, challenging assumptions that minimalism is inherently more sophisticated or understandable. Evaluating design more broadly requires asking who established prevailing standards of taste, whose histories were documented and taught, and whether a design successfully serves its specific cultural purpose rather than conforming to a supposedly universal aesthetic.