Permit me, if you will, for me to take a little wood break and rant for a while about the world of the internet. I know, you probably want to stop reading now, but when 100 degree temperatures keeps you in front of a computer in the a.c. all day, you start thinking about these things, ya know? But, as it is quite the rant, I’ll keep the majority for after the jump and spare you the front page details!

One thing that I’ve noticed when surfing around different Interior, Product, and Industrial Design blogs is the large amount of in-breeding. From site to site, you can see the same exact design, the same type of color palette, the same designers with their awesome prototypes, etc. etc. etc. It’s great in terms of individual firms or makers-in-general getting proper press for their creative skills, and it’s nice to go to a site and have fresh content. But it gets a little stodgy.

For example:

This image via Core 77, but the product has also been on LikeCool & Gizmodo. It is a completely great idea, so I can see the reasoning for all the hype, but it is the easiest example I could think of. If you peruse any number of like blogs, I am sure you have some understanding of what I am talking about, and maybe I am just preaching to the choir.

While this blog is a current stand-in for a website (which is always in the back of the Crafted mind, and will hopefully come into the light soon!) and not a product-awareness or look-at-how-cool-this-is type of site, I do from time to time post some of these inbred works that I have found on other sites, because, like I said, it is nice to have fresh content. I understand why it happens; there is a great deal of amazing stuff in the world, and the internet is a great way to spread the love. But after a while, it just gets tiring, and turns into a monoculture. I begin to understand the value of Google Reader, though I refuse to remember to use it.

Now to the point, which is really just a plug I guess:

I recently discovered A Continuous Lean, a blog chock full of amazing, old photos (see the image at the top of the post!), and all pretty much all original content (read: sans in-breeding). It’s not a major revelation or anything, but you have to give people credit where credit is due, and I suggest you check it out.  It’s always nice to have a breathe of fresh air when you’re swimming in the world wide web. There are plenty of other sites that do the same thing, and they deserve credit, I just happen to think about this post while look at ACL.

Image via ACL

So yes, that is my rant. Part of me feels like I might pull this at some point, but who knows!

Hopefully there will be more in progress stuff coming up in the next week or two, but until then, maybe an inbred post or two to keep the creative juices flowing. I am such a hypocrit.

Cheers,
Shaun M. Baer