AN INSULT TO GOOD DESIGN

Taman Tun Dr Ismail denizens and the like, have you ever seen the above banner? It's been there for a long time, hasn't it? You see it when you are stuck in a little traffic jam heading towards Bandar Utama, or going to that Eastin area. What do you think it is? 

MAID HIRING SERVICE? NO. ~*~*~ DISCOUNT WAREHOUSE SALE WITH PRODUCTS 

THAT ARE ONLY INTERESTING TO GOSSIPPY HOUSEWIVES? NO~*~*~ BUT WHY IS THE WOMAN THERE, WE'RE NOT SURE.

My lovely UGLY MALAYSIANA readers, this is an advertisement for "Good Design", a design "evaluation and commendation system" based on the Japanese Good Design Award (グッドデザイン賞) — an association formed in the late 50s (now judged by people as fancy as Naoto Fukasawa). Basically, design submissions that earn place in the awards will gain a badge of honour for being a "Good Design".

The original logo from the Japan association:

Quite cute and minimalist ya?
For some of you, you may have seen the symbol in Muji catalogues or on the Daikin air conditioner brochure.

For the Malaysian version, behold, a butchered version of the Japanese logo, half looking like a 90s Versace motif, half looking like some half-assed Illustrator job from a fresh graduate who does not comprehend graphic design concepts such as balance and proportion:

Just look at the horrible spiral... It is an Illustrator stroke that does not look calculated. And is it supposed to look like a "G"? The Versace-motif at the bottom is supposed to be a "d" izit? Quelle horreur.

PLUS: The typography used reminds me of the Latin characters of a default Chinese font from Microsoft. It's sort of Times New Roman with very strange font   t r a c k i n g.

BEHOLD (#2): 

THE MALAYSIAN VERSION PUNYA LOGO

ETCHED FOR ETERNITY ON A TROPHY BEB:

SO UGLY I COULD SCREAM. 

IS THIS A JOKE? 

HOW CAN ANYONE WHO SUBMITS DESIGNS TO THEM TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY? 

COPYCAT + UGLY. 
I WOULD HIDE IT 
IN THE STORE ROOM 
IF I RECEIVED THIS TACKY ITEM.

Now please look at the following website screenshots.

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 2.

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 4.

Guess which webpage is from the Japanese association (there is one). No free gifts for the correct answer. It is too obvious. The marketing for 'Good Design Malaysia' is really an embarrassment. Often we at UGLY MALAYSIANA would celebrate tacky designs for its innocent amateurist approach, but in this case it's unforgivable.

Is it really that hopeless here? Is it really so "more is more" still, as ostentatious as it was in the early-90s when minimalism was only apparent among visual revolutionaries like Rei Kawakubo and Martin Margiela?

Can we not change the perceptions of the rich and powerful so that they can once and for all stop spewing out rubbish visuals, littering our fields of vision with very ill-conceived and ill-considered Photoshop fodder, making KL and PJ even more ROJAK than it is?

Are we to embrace all this instead? Do you even care! Do you want our roads to be lined with perfectly pruned ginkgo trees (ala Tokyo) or raintrees (ala Singapore) instead?

COMMENTS APPRECIATED.