An interesting observation came up a number of years ago in one of my typography tutorials at the National Institute of Design while I was presenting some work. The T-shirt I was wearing featured deteriorated type on the sleeve. The print was worn, faded and some of the letters were even beginning to fall off, yet the T-shirt was brand new and in fact quite expensive on a student budget. It was fashionable to wear clothing that was falling apart or with badly printed patterns and prints, and for some reason I thought I would be quite fashionable back then. While this was quite obvious, the observations made were that this trend had occurred at some point. Manufacturing had developed to the point where we were able to make perfect clothing relatively cost effectively and consistently that the trend of making imperfect clothing had emerged. 

While collecting assets for a motion graphic mood board I’ve discovered this pattern is beginning to exist in post production and special effects. Pixelation and glitches you used to see if you had the wrong video codec are now being purposely added to adopt this aesthetic. It made me wonder how many other areas this could become a fashion. Will we ever be driving cars with doors missing or parts hanging off? Anyway, some interesting examples below, click on the image to view the video.

Chairlift: Evident Utensil by Ray Tintori.

Kanye West: Welcome to Heartbreak by NABIL