It's not coffee shops, it's everything. I read an essay last year on this topic, "The age of average" by Alex Murrell ( <a href="https://www.alexmurrell.co.uk/articles/the-age-of-average" rel="nofollow">https://www.alexmurrell.co.uk/articles/the-age-of-average</a> ) and it's stayed in my mind ever since. Cars, home interiors, instagram photos, skylines, self help books, franchise movies. The design of everything in our lives has become so relentlessly optimized we have a global culture that's stuck a risk-free local maxima.
The two comments/critiques I would have on the article are:<p>- Having a shared global design aesthetic also means there are likely open communication channels through which a shared global understanding might be achieved. If the citizens of the world can understand and appreciate each other through design, what else might they understand and appreciate about each other?<p>- Instead of critiquing existing designs - it'd be helpful to have a vision of what locally culturally distinctive designs for a coffee shop or AirBNB could look like. Help us readers envision what a better world - that's more "design inclusive" - might look like.<p>The advice to the author would be - "use your outlet to be the change you want to see." Highlight that cafe in Mexico City... or Morocco... serving coffee authentically that us readers should visit.[1][2]<p>[1] Mexico City coffee chain - Cielito_Querido_Cafe - looks distinct from a hipster SF coffee shop -<p><a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g150800-d2459156-Reviews-Cielito_Querido_Cafe-Mexico_City_Central_Mexico_and_Gulf_Coast.html#photos;aggregationId=&albumid=101&filter=7" rel="nofollow">https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g150800-d24591...</a><p>[2] Morocco coffee chain replicating across Asia - Bacha Coffee - also distinct from hipster aesthetics<p><a href="https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/restaurants/bacha-coffee" rel="nofollow">https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/restaurants/bacha-coffee</a>
> If you've ever wondered why every poster and every trailer and every TV spot looks exactly the same, it's because of testing. It's because anything interesting scores poorly and gets kicked out.<p>This is talking about TV but is applicable to everything; in the modern digital/computerized age, "data" is everything. Everything is measured and tracked, whether it's sales or Instagram likes. The result is always choosing what sells the best, trending towards the same, boring average.
There must be a reason why Clovis spear points looked the same all across North America, up until the comet strike 12,800 ya. It is probably because they were a trade good, so that anything different would be less tradeable. After the comet strike and its continent-wide wildfires, evidently the trade network broke down, and local styles drifted, freed from conformity.<p>People often talk about a "Clovis culture", but it is unlikely that a single culture spanned the continent. What we know about is just the spear points.
I think this also applies to the scourge of "modern" user interface design, with its low contrast text, bland color schemes, monochrome icons and excessive whitespace. I was wondering for a long time if there was something going on behind the scenes (e.g. due to social media) to cause this mindless conformity and here we have an explanation for it.
This is hipsterism taken to its logical conclusion, the true irony being that in an effort to be fashionable/unique, everyone else just copied it to the point it was no longer so.
It's a great time to be alive if you're into that aesthetic.<p>Personally, I'm not. And I find these spaces noisy and uncomfortable to be in, with their concrete floors and lack of any soft furnishings.<p>I miss the grungy cafes with couches and armchairs and rugs and wall hangings collected from wherever.
My parents recently suffered the loss of their neighborhood coffee shop, and they're absolutely crushed by this. They don't discuss emotions, but I can discern by their reaction that there is now a huge hole in their social life. And it's true. This place was the community hub for everyone who matters to them. They all converged there and met, every morning or every week. Mom and Dad both had their favorite dishes and drinks, and Dad would go nuts if they ran out of his bagel type. He would call ahead just to reserve it!<p>They absolutely thrived on walking up (about 8 blocks away) and hanging out there, just to read the paper and chat with other locals. They knew everyone. They were immersed in all the gossip, about how the place was run (by a pair of husbands) and the guy down the street and all their friends. They had a special meeting on Sundays with some church friends.<p>When I used to visit them, they'd still go every morning and invite me along. Once I came back with bizarre blood-sugar readings because I had been drinking an XL Vanilla Milkshake and cream-cheese jalapeño-cheddar bagel every single day. My parents introduced me around to everyone, and they were usually really nice. I spotted an ex-girlfriend there once, but she didn't notice me.<p>The owners had another location a few miles away, but I think that's been closed down, too. My Dad is now going by every day to glean some sort of news about what's become of the building, whether it's got new owners or tenants, and whether it's going to continue as a coffeehouse. Meanwhile, they've set up shop at a different place, two blocks away.
I think this is great. It proves how well good ideas can quickly replicate around the world and improve the quality of services and products that we consume.<p>Will they all look the same? Probably, but the market will seek next great novel idea and more rapidly replicate it to become the new standard.
I think this article is being really dramatic about how “bad” and “oppressive” this is supposed to be.<p>Is the Irish Pub a bad thing? You can find an Irish Pub anywhere. It’s a deliberate export [1]. But that’s not oppressive or exclusionary. The Irish Pub is just good design that has universal appeal.<p>I wish the article would just admit that this is an appealing, perhaps timeless style that appeals business owners across the globe. Its roots in minimalism equates to low setup costs. The aesthetics are pleasing to spend time in. What’s to complain about?<p>Then there’s the paragraph addressing the homogenous nature of the clientele. I have to push back on that one: I doubt that coffee shops in China or Japan with this aesthetic are mostly patronized by white people.<p>Also, you know, affluent people are allowed to have their own tastes and culture. That fact alone is not oppressive to anyone else by default. Affluent people who like expensive coffee, minimalism, MacBook Pros, and house plants are just <i>existing</i>, minding their own business patronizing a class of businesses they enjoy. In this case it’s not like they’re hunting endangered animals, they’re just drinking overpriced coffee.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/04/12/523653040/episode-764-pub-in-a-box" rel="nofollow">https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/04/12/523653040/epis...</a>
The author should check out the 2013 Edgar Wright movie The World's End, pointing out the growing uniformity of local pubs. Also, it has awesome fight scenes.
I've noticed that all new fast-food buildings (McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, etc.) all look very similar. I don't know the name for it, but square/rectangle with vertical "wood" planks outside, sparse interior with touchscreens and no registers inside. It seems designed to be as bland and uninspiring as possible. I suspect this "design" motif is due to focus groups and boardrooms though.
"It was the kind of cafe that someone like me - a western, twentysomething (at the time), internet-brained millennial acutely conscious of their own taste - would want to go to."<p>Is it their own taste, though. If the internet substitutes as their brain, then it's possible their preferences are not their own.
The author’s sequel to their 2016 essay on the Verge, “Welcome to Airspace”<p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12325104/airbnb-aesthetic-global-minimalism-startup-gentrification" rel="nofollow">https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12325104/airbnb-aesthetic-...</a>
Everything has a turning point, and when the “algorithm generation” find out the excitement and pleasure of discovering things by oneself there will be a comeback. That was the magic of the video store shelves, the bookstore, the “let’s eat here” and the: “I want the same as that men in that table”
Well written, good follow-up to the Airspace thing (won't buy the book though).<p>My question: doesn't this just open up opportunities for people with off-algorithm offerings for those that prefer that? Algorithm could even be a template for "things to avoid and replace with unique/local items".<p>The observations in the article are valid but people should stop complaining and offer or do their own thing, this is the golden age of DIY and creative self expression. Everything from craft, art, engineering, music is so much more accessible now, nobody says you have to produce according to likes, the problem only crops up if you start monetizing and at that point you will have to follow popular taste, even if that forces succulents or latte-art on you.
Is this a consequence of global optimized supply chains? Maybe we’re all manipulated in to wanting this because it’s actually what interior product companies can make a high profit on.
I differ from a few people here in thinking that everything is not gravitating toward the average: it's gravitating toward the <i>lowest common denominator</i>, which is usually significantly below-average.
So now the reason is "the algorithm" and not ubiquitous Friends reruns?<p>No mention of the contrast between the status quo and the rise of cottage industry tech was supposed to promise.
So the “problem” is that companies optimize their offerings to appeal to as many people as possible and the author doesn’t like the outcome? I would call that a hipster first world problem. The amount of “the world has to change to accomodate my tastes” narcissism demonstrated online nowadays is amazing.
I stopped reading when the author started to lean into how this must be a representation of "whiteness." No, how about it's an artifact of Internet enabled oligarchic capitalist technocracy like you started with? Ironically, the author's performative racism is part of the same trend.