We’ve all seen it: the outfit that was so in style not that long ago is unfashionable today; the trendy paint colors or flooring of a few years ago have fallen into disuse; the building style that was so popular a decade or two ago is now outdated. Fashions evolve, trends change. It’s a part of life.
A couple weeks ago, I was talking with a friend who’s an architect. He made a comment related to this phenomenon. In designing a building, he said, the features that are most clearly tied with the trends of the day are the same features that will be the first to look dated.
I see this same thing in my work as a web developer. There’s always some new design trend to latch onto. But it’s only a matter of time before these new design elements become the signs of not how new a site is, but of how dated it has become.
Of course, with a website, if there’s a plan to refresh it every 2 to 3 years, it may not be that big of deal. But if you’re constructing a building that needs to last for decades (or centuries), your decision about how trendy you want to be today is a choice you’ll have to live with for quite a while.
Trendy may be cool now; but it can become dated very quickly. Which means, if we don’t want to become dated, we either have to
- Continuously be changing with the trends; or
- Choose to go with classic and proven solutions and principles.
This applies to not only creative work, but to all kinds of systems and beliefs. There are, and will always be, new ideas and trends and movements. From health and nutrition, to politics and business, to philosophy and religion. It can be easy to get caught up in what’s popular today, but how many of the trendy things we do or believe today will seem antiquated (or even ridiculous) to future generations?
The shorter the timeframe you have to live with your choice, the less important it is. But if the result is something you’re going to have to live with for quite a while, it’s important to remember that most of the things that are cool today won’t be cool tomorrow.
This doesn’t mean new and trendy don’t have a place. But you may not want to make them the foundation for something that needs to last a lifetime.