The Big Experience

Suddenly, design is big. I don't mean that design itself is in, although it certainly is. No, what I mean is that the bigness now rules the design fashions of the day. Look no further than the Web site behind this blog, TypePad, to see the change. The promotional site just went from small and dense to big and open. You can see this bigness nearly everywhere you turn: glossy magazines,  Web sites, advertising. Big pictures, big typography.

Other bloggers have noted the same phenomenon. Why has bigness become so big? One factor: the supersizing of computer monitors and tv screens. But could there be other cultural factors afoot? Perhaps bigness embodies our escape from feelings of fragmentation, information overload, and global confusion, at least in some small way.