The Tipping Point
06.25.18
Hi Friend,
Most of the change we experience is incremental, even invisible. We go about our day-to-day, plugging along at a specific task, be it in work or play, and then…breakthrough. Sometimes it’s only realized in retrospect, other times it’s in the moment. It doesn’t always happen — sometimes our progress really is a layering of competence — but realizing, seeing, and feeling a tipping point is magic. It’s something I think a lot about in my work: when does a brand go from not known to always been there? What’s the point where digital became default? Is there a way to predict that tipping point, or is it always a function of the present or hindsight? The articles and videos today in some way all address that tipping point and the magic it can create.
So, here we go.
1. The Magic Number For Creating Social Change
What’s the magic number of people needed to create social change? Gay marriage went from cultural pariah to normalized in a very short period of time. Recent events in the Trump Administration have galvanized culture, while others have failed to gain traction. But why? A few researchers set out to figure out just what that magic number of people way.
Read It
2. When A River Reaches The Ocean
This honestly blew my mind. I don’t know why but I’d never really thought about the fact that at some point, a river breaches its boundaries and touches the ocean for the first time. These two videos show exactly that moment. What’s crazy is how fast the change occurs. From a sandy levee to a gushing rivulet, the change only takes a matter of minutes.
Watch It
3. New Brutalism
Somewhere around the last 3 years, everything started looking the same. Thin fonts, full-bleed images, carefully arranged objects shot from top down. It’s lovely in its own way (and lord knows I’ve recommended some designs based on those things), but when everything looks the same, nothing is interesting. Thankfully, humans have a response to this, and the violent swing from minimal-pretty to maximal-ugly is in full force. Balenciaga has made atrocious looking dad shoes, interesting fonts are back in vogue, and, as this piece reveals, a new brutalism (echoing an earlier architectural response in the 60s) has taken hold. While it may not be pretty, it’s certainly interesting. And even my minimalist-loving heart appreciates the jagged edges and bright colors that this necessary pivot enables.
