“I could’ve come up with that.”

I’d be willing to bet that most people who have watched commercials on television (or, for that matter, shows on television, and probably movies or books as well) have either uttered that phrase themselves or heard someone say it in a dismissive tone.

But when consumers are actually encouraged to create their own content, the end product is almost always abysmal.

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There’s a debate raging between the print world and the blogosphere over whether or not design-oriented blogs are contributing any real value in terms of academic and/or “thoughtful” criticism and analysis of design. If you look at the Internet, writing about design seems as healthy as ever, but if you look to the world of print, editors are complaining as of late that writing that “passes muster” (that is, peer-reviewed and/or edited) is increasingly difficult to find. Just read the introduction to Looking Closer Five by Steven Heller for the perfect example–the entire section is three pages on how the Internet “may” become the next big thing in terms of design criticism… but that it isn’t there yet.

This site, then, which is still a work in progress, is my contribution to the debate.

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