Too many words

It looked promising. A little interior and decoration shop, nothing too fancy, perhaps not too expensive either. I walked in and saw it. Jars and bottles with words on them, yelling at me what I should put in them. Sugar, salt, pasta, flour. No creative usage of this container, please. Don't make a mistake of using it for something else. Other items had text on them too. Little "funny" things, or some uplifting piece. Words all over the place. I looked around, tried to find the wordless things, and gave up.

We, the humans, are slapping text on everything. More obvious targets are t-shirts and all those motivational images floating around. To me it seems like the laziest design solution. Uhhh, yea, this is a candle holder, so lets make it more decorative by writing CANDLE on it. All caps, just find a great font and that's the design. While you are at it, I'd love to see another quote. Make it smart and uplifting, relatable and cool. Ayn Rand, that old nutcase, quote her!

You are surrounded by airy, misplaced and often misunderstood quotes, of which nobody is sure who really said it first, and texts on things to tell you how and for what to use those things. No imagination, no effort, nothing unique. Too many words, too little meaning. Instagram is filled with photos, on which someone has decided to throw up writing. Another quote, a verse from bible, a single word that's supposed to make you feel all good and empowered. Blog posts are topped with images with the title of the post on it. I've done it too, and then, not that long ago, decided it's stupid and unoriginal.

I do like writing, I like text, and I don't like this web trend where everything, including the words must be images. However there's a big difference in writing your thoughts out and in plastering meaningless words and overused quotes on stuff to make that stuff look somehow cool and hip and smart. The meaningless words and overused quotes have been seen and done. Move on now. There's no need to quote and explain everything. You know it's a jar, without the word jar being written on it.

Mervi Eskelinen

Hello, I'm Mervi!

An artist, nerd and business sorcerer, dedicated to make world more beautiful and strange with art, illustrations and logos + to help you figure your sustainable business out.

Become a patron