Redesigns don’t make the red tops any better

Shame on you, Design Week! Your writer David Benady contacted me to comment on the revamp of the Daily Mirror and the Daily Sport for his feature (Stop press, DW 1 May). However, he clearly found my views unpalatable for his piece and didn’t include them.

Having now read it, I can understand why. How DW could give space, let alone a double-page spread, to what I can only describe as – well, let’s not mince words – shit! is beyond me. Yes, I know that DW is about representing a comprehensive view of design in the UK, but in this particular case I take issue with the word ‘design’. To link that word with the Mirror or the Sport is an anathema and akin to describing the latter as a campaigning force for feminism.

Let’s be honest for once. This type of design is aimed at the lowest common denominator and is a total insult to most people’s intelligence and to the world of design.

But on a more important note, they are a contributing factor in reinforcing the distorted view that women are mere sexual playthings. Nowhere in Benady’s piece was there any criticism of their impact in this area or on their morality.

So come on DW, don’t stand behind the parapet, tell it like it is for a change. Design should equal integrity, a desire to make things better, to help lift the spirits.

In my view, these publications fail on every point, giving their readers what they think they want, but never giving them what they didn’t know they wanted.

Mike Dempsey, Studio Dempsey, London WC1