Interurban Era

Back in design school for fun, I designed what I imagined a realistic and thoughtful modern rotary dial cellphone might look like. Smooth to fit in your pocket, still screen equipped for address book & caller ID. Presumably some robust bell labs grade voice-to-text feature instead of a keyboard. It was a really fun challenge.

What do you think?

The international harvester Metro is an iconic, nimble, and very useful city delivery van that was produced in one form or another from the 40s-70s.

I decided to update it as a 100% flat floor EV that has a standing height interior that you can wash out with a hose. All aluminum body is clad with molded heavy rubber bumpers and side/end paneling for urban durability.

Styling wise I wanted to preserve the 🍞 charm of the original without bothering to include the functionally useless grille. Split windshield makes it cheaper to repair broken glass, sparse, yet very easy to read and repair dashboard can handle spilling coffees and lunchbreaks. Top of the line fully manual adjustable drivers seat and sliding passenger side door round our the amenities.

I was having a lovely conversation with friends tonight, and this gem came up in response to a query I had about if something like "aesthetic impairment" exists, & in response was this beautifully written reply

Ross Edelstein writes:

"So, the reality is a lot of disabilities actually affect aesthetics. When you're talking train aesthetics which is what I'll focus on first, it boils down into neurodivergence and colorblindness first and foremost. However, I'm going to use this as an excuse to talk about other forms of aesthetic difference in disability, because it's one of the major ways that Disabled people are othered.

First, let's talk about design, and specifically train design. Colorblindness is the easiest to talk about with this, because sometimes a color doesn't look bad in contrast with different kinds of colorblindness. I recommend using COBLIS here to see what I mean; it is a free tool that can somewhat represent (although no disability simulation is the same as talking to someone living it of course) colorblindness and does a good job of showing the different kinds, as most colorblind people don't have full lack of seeing colors, just certain colors that don't appear the same for them. Here, you might see someone who sees a livery that most people reject and they genuinely cannot understand why it's bad, because that contrast simply might not exist for them, or at least not in the way that makes it aesthetically displeasing.

However, color blindness is not the main reason you'll run into people who like designs that others might disapprove of, or dislike designs that others typically like: neurodivergence. And in this case, it's really the whole gamut. For those unaware who might be new to this, neurodivergence encompasses all the different ways the brain can be formed. It's primarily used to describe autism, ADHD, and specific learning disabilities, but there's a lot of things in this category; and they aren't always innate. Traumatic brain injuries are one good example. Basically, neurodivergnece in some way shape or form affects the way you experience the world.

Design is an experience.

This sounds like crappy artsy fartsy talk but I'm literally an artist and I do experiences for a living, and it's a mantra that more designers of things need to pay attention to. Let me give an example: The weekend before last I went on the tri-state railroad experience with M (she/her) and the experience we had was impacted by a number of design choices. We were in the Silver Diner, a former Zypher dining car that was used by Amtrak, and the designs there were clearly something that affected our experience. Had we been on the Paul Revere, a former lounge/dining car, that would have been very different thanks to the different design choices of the car there. And if we had been in coach, because its design was to get as many people in as possible, that's a whole separate experience. Even if the main seats that we would have had in the Paul Revere were the same as the ones we actually had in the Silver Diner, namely in the form of table style dining car seats, the aesthetic choices were different enough that our experience would have changed significantly.

Neurodivergence affects all of this kind of experience, and how one percieves the world. For some, it might make associations stronger. For example, I associate CSX's paint scheme with tedium, and the G&W scheme with removing old paint schemes; even if certain people whom I love disagree because their favorite color is orange, I cannot budge on this because of these associations. Is it rational? No, not in the slightest. It also often means that those that are tied to good memories get preference, at least in many cases - are the new Metra paint schemes inherently BAD? No. But because I associate the old scheme with good memories, I cling to it, as well as the F40PH vibe even if rationally, I know it's obsolete and just make all the trains electric.

However, the other part is that a lot of neurodivergent people just don't necessarily care in the same way about what looks good; everyone has their controversial or "wrong" opinion. A lot of neurodivergent people simply do not care. They like what they like, and while they will be judged by others, they don't necessarily have the desire to work within societal bounds for enjoyment of paint schemes, or locomotive designs, or building designs, or whatever.

But let's talk about disability and aesthetic, because it's often one of the ways that Disabled people are singled out. A lot of Disabled people don't follow trends; in a lot of neurodivergent people, see the above, but it also goes to things like, wearing different clothing than the norm (I wear suits all the time if I need to be perceived) or holding onto things beyond their last bit of being threadbare. However, it also sets apart people who have more visible disabilities as well; a service animal, or a wheelchair, or a cane, or an assistive listening device is going to set someone apart and be a part of an aesthetic.

But it also affects people in other ways. Pants have legs. Not everyone does. The Disabled body is often decried, especially when you talk about people who might have other disabilities in conjunction (I am chubby in part due to the fact that I have difficulties controlling my eating appropriately due to ADHD and Autism, thank you seratonin stuff!) and a lot of "fashionable" clothes and looks don't fit; or perhaps the clothes are constricting. I highly recommend reading up on the work "Alison Lapper Pregnant"; it's one of the first things I learned about disability in the arts all the way back in undergrad, and it's a very interesting piece in that it contrasts the way that physical disabilities are typically portrayed, especially given it was in Trafalgar Square and a centerpiece of the London Paralympics. That said, to tie it up with trains, some people simply have different associations than others thanks to disability.

Oh, and I forgot to leave out some colors can actually physically cause discomfort to neurodivergent people thanks to light perceptions (one of the reasons I HATE G&W schemes) so there is that as well."

I cannot stop laughing!

This has to be the most post-modern telephone design I've ever seen. I wonder what the designer was thinking back in the 80s when it was designed.

It's a Webcor Desk/ Wall Mount Telephone with Jumbo Buttons, Model 767SW