Jive Modernism
Modernists used design in an attempt to change the world. Jive Modernism
steals the aesthetic of Modernism, minus the content, so the design styles are
the focus and the content is abstracted and extracted from the work. Style has
become a detachable attribute, a veneer rather than an expression of content.
Appropriating out of context, nostalgic imagery is jive because it steals a
style that offers instant legitimacy simply for commercial success. Jive
Modernism lacks the radical ideas behind Modernism. It cashes in on history
without reinterpreting it.
'Modernism was never a style, but an attitude. This is often
misunderstood by those designers who dwell on revivals of the form rather than
on the content of Modernism.'