Five Design Memes You Need to Know Now
It's time to turn the internet snark machine on ourselves.
It's been a big week for the 'ol World Wide Web. Sure, net neutrality is important, and we're jazzed that you can continue reading Lonny at whatever pace you please, but instead of celebrating by doing something productive like boning up on these historic events, we were occupied with dresses of blue and black (or gold and white, if you're wrong), nine back-to-back episodes of House of Cards, and the recorded escapades of a pair of very saucy llamas. But at the end of the day, isn't that why we love the Internet anyway? For its ability to bring us instantaneous, cheek-aching bits of sharable joy? For giving us the opportunity to bicker rabidly about vision and science and fashion tastes; freedom of expression...and freedom of llamas?
All of this got us thinking we ought to share some of that pixel-based bliss with you, dear reader, so we've pulled together five of our favorite design related Internet gems you need to know now.
1. Catalog Living follows the lives of an imaginary couple, Gary and Elaine, who live in the most ridiculously styled home decor catalogs. Get ready for lots of uber-vignetting and faux fruits with a side of family drama.
Read it if: You take issue with bowls full of lemons, twine balls, and book stacks.
2. F**k Your Noguchi Coffee Table calls us all out on indulging pretentious, played out, and totally nonsensical decor trends. (We design folk can laugh at ourselves, too!) Obsessions don't have to be sensible—oh hi there, books with all the spines facing in—and we're not ashamed to say we've pinned from this blog. Sue us.
Read it if: You never want to see another color-coded bookshelf as long as you live, and you prefer your memes profanity-laced.
3. #Floorcore may be a hashtag of our own creation, but your sharp eyes made it an Instagram phenomenon. Keep your heads down and your phones at the ready!
Follow it if: You can find beauty even in a public restroom.
4. The #Shelfie, as avid 'grammers know, is the interior design world's answer to the #selfie. Scrolling through this punny hashtag is both a free lesson in vignetting from some of the best in the biz, and—now that it's gone mainstream—a cautionary tale. If you're not sure which is which, you may want to stick to this.
Follow it if: Your bookshelves look like something out of Catalog Living.
5. In Memoriam: Regretsy and Unhappy Hipsters.
The site that gleefully delivered the most cringe-worthy items on crafty e-tailer Etsy, has sadly closed its browser permanently, but you can still catch all the magic of "DIY Meets WTF" in book form.
Read it if: You've ever LOLed at a crafting fail. #nailedit
Unhappy Hipsters is something of an inside joke for readers of Dwell and Wallpaper magazines—in which pretty young families notoriously live in hyper-design-y, minimal homes—but can no doubt be appreciated by design snobs of every ilk. Buy it in book form.
Read it if: You've artfully displayed a high-design toy.
