Style is no substitute for ideas and substance

In responding to my previous letter David Hyams’ reply (DW 30 October), offers no objective argument and misses the point by more than a mile.

Ideas have nothing to do with nostalgia.

Your other correspondent, Glenn Tutssel, in referring to my letter, talks about innovation (DW 6 November). When innovation takes the form of visual non-communication, in searching for a new formula for design, this is tilting at windmills.

The obsession with style as a convenient and facile stand-in for real ideas and true substance is taking design on the journey from obscurity into oblivion.

The sheer amount of pseudo-intellectual dialogue that is spouted in vain attempts at substantiating the “meaning” behind idea-less design, contradicts the fundamental point and purpose of graphic design to impart a visual message.

Besides, has it now simply struck everyone that this type of gratuitous design is just so monumentally boring to look at?

Patrick Argent

N Yorkshire YO11 2TL