Historic Preservation

An opposition to inferior change and cultural decay

Who to call

The National Trust for Historic Preservation

The Recent Past Preservation Network (mid-century modern, retro, vintage, googie, space age preservation)

In the business? Get the book: Preservation Yellow Pages: The Complete Information Source for Homeowners, Communities, and Professionals (published by the National Trust)

Also recommended: Historic Preservation for Professionals (a comprehensive full-systems approach)

Corporate Chains, Big Boxes, Franchises

“Fast Food Fascism” by Joyce Marcel shows how the corporate franchise chains are making everything ugly and bland

Design Preservation

HP is not just buildings and architecture … all manners of design are part of “cultural preservation” including the dumbing-down of logos and packaging and the doing-away with “outdated” or “old-fashioned” things for clearly inferior replacements.

Vivid example of the Bell logo’s descent from classic to bland [responsible parties?]

Ditto for the UPS logo: from classic (a famous design by Paul Rand) to unbelievably generic and bland.