The silver TV steel and glass stand

This is probably the piece of design I hate most in the world, right now. There's a high chance that you've got one of these at home.

There's a higher than high chance that if I came round your house and saw that TV I'd take an instant dislike to you. Instantly.

Don't worry, I'm sure there would be mitigating factors and I'd get over it. You read this, which is a start. And you've invited me round your house, which was very kind.

This design kind of sums up everything I hate about bad design in the naughties.

1. It's totally meaningless, devoid of any added value.
2. It's essentially a style that's been ripped off. Hugely derivative of something (probably from Ive) that was once good and then expanded and bastardised to death.
3. It triggers more poor imitations, and leads design buyers to say things like "I want it like they did it".
4. Everyone blindly buys one because everyone else has bought one. No one actually stops to think, do I like this?
5. It's so damn ugly and intrusive. Sat in the corner of your lounge looking shit.

It's changing now, as more and more people are buying "plasma" TV's. But still. You know what I mean.

Comments

[Dave Oscroft]

I hate these two. I don't have a TV in my living room and when you have to make an effor to go to another room to watch TV, it's surprising how little time you spend in front of it. That'll be more time for mucking about on computers and playing music then, oh yes.

[Dave Oscroft]

Sorry, that was a very bad typo –  "these 'two' not 'too'.

[Kevin]

MY TV stand is a $14.99 Ikea unit made from particle board, the steel + glass was a little out of my range.

[Bureau L'Imprimante]

Ooooh, I see a Flickr group coming called "My TV stand is not that bad - but I can't say it's nice".

[beth]

Thank you. I think these are an atrocity. I also hate their black and glass counterparts. They say to me "college apartment" and belong with stacks of pizza boxes.

I find that so much entertainment and media furniture is hideous. For my plasma tv, I found an inexpensive solution in a nice buffet from Ikea. It provides plenty of storage, matches my furniture, and if I ever mount my tv to the wall I can use it for something else.

[Gareth Procter]

1. Does a TV stand need to have a meaning?
2. The added value it creates is storage for bulky VCR's and Xbox consoles that were popular at the time
3. Everybody had one because they usually came free with the TV

I think you're thinking about this too much!

[Rob Mortimer]

Whats nuts is that the vast majority of people with HD sets have watched no HD content on it whatsoever.

Most of them are awful (I used to sell tv's so I can vouch for that). But I do like that Sony one at the top because at least its properly designed to match the tv, rather than just sitting under it.

The only other one I kind of like is a Panasonic one that also fits the tv and has its own style as opposed to standardised blandness: http://www.panasonic.co.uk/lcd%20acceessories/tys32lxd60/index.htm

[Ulysses or a newspaper]

I find plasma screens hung on walls like paintings to be more offensive, and I believe they would be more suitable for a damming crique.

I think you ought to come down from your elitist position, because you obviously can't see that: 1. Yes they do. 2. This is what happens. 3. Your damning people for wanting good design. 4. Either you have considerable insight into everybodies thoughts, or none at all. 5. Is this constructive, less shit please!?

I don't own a television and wouldn't invite you to my house with that attitude.

[lauren]

nice post ben! and i'm assuming you weren't doing it in oder to be invited to everyone's houses to assess their tv/tv-stand situation.

the plastic-milk-crate-as-tv-stand doesn't seem to feature as much in sharehouses here as it does in australia, which is a shame really. i suppose these steel things are the replacement.

[Coops]

What an awful, awful snob. Not reading this elitist shit any more. Gives graphic designers a bad name. 'Noisy Decent Graphics' is a really terrible name for a design blog as well (I'm a graphic designer too, by the way...).

Cheers!

[Coops]

Oh fuck this - this has got me riled! Somebody has actually typed 'nice post ben'!!

[Andrew Kingham]

Have you been babysitting again?

[patrick]

Oooh, grumpy! If I ever invite you round I'll be sure to get one of these in just to see your reaction.
I like the way that this post has obviously created an image of you in people's minds not unlike that caricature designer in the Ikea ads a while back. Come to think of it, you wear a beret, don't you?
Hope you're well.
P
PS Nice post, Ben

[Mike Towers]

Ben why don't you show us a solution to your problem, that's what designers do don't they? Or are you purely a design pundit now?

[Ben]

I really didn't expect this post to get much of a reaction...

Gareth - possibly. But these things just spark something off in me.

Ulysses or a newspaper - welcome back. I know what you mean about plasma's too. And I get very disturbed when people tell me how many inches they've got. But that's another post...

Coops - I don't write for popularity. But thanks for hanging out a little bit. Noisy Decent Graphics is an incredibly relevant name, but you'll have to work out why.

Mike - I hate TV in general, so I'm not the right person to design a stand. My solution probably wouldn't be another TV stand. But that's yet another grumpy post!

[coops]

It's probably an anagram of something, I reckon. Still rubbish though.

[Rob Mortimer]

Anagrams:

A Prying Doth Sciences

A Scorched Penis Tying

He, A disconcerting spy...

A Decency Sorting Ship

[claire]

Ben, nothing wrong with posting about this. Dick Powell says that the best designers are those who are annoyed about something and want to find a way of making it better.

Coops, you need to chill out.

[Andrew Kingham]

I want to know if it's always annoyed you ben, or something's tipped you over? I'm enjoying coops alternate POV.

[April]

Apart from being 'notoriously difficult' now I know why you don't come round to mine. Ha ha ha

Ours came with the tv and as we didn't have alternative furniture to put the the tv on, it was quite handy. Not having many electrical sockets to suport the tv, dvd, digibox, aiport and modem thing the stand helps to keeps them neat and in one place, so it is actually quite functional. Ugly yeah, but functional.

And yeah, chill out Coops!

[Richard]

Yeh Coops, chill.

Ben, nice post; I agree. But then I hate those wide screen fuckers anyway. Bring back the black and white cathode ray tube! Everything looks better in black and white.

(Except colours of course).

[Ben]

Good bloody point. Don't get me started on those wide screen fuckers!

[Russellm]

Aww... It's the future now and the Jetsons rule, dude.

(someone ought to do a piece on how Hanna Barabara affected our idea of what 'modern' looks like.)

[Coops]

Ho ho! I'm back yer bastards! Totally agree with designers being annoyed about something and wanting to find a way of making it better. I do it all the time myself. And I don't disagree with the comments about the design of these 'TV' things that everyone keeps banging on about (although I do like some of the new sleek, slim designs). What I do object to, however, is pure snobbery and elitism. Live and let live, man! If you've got a better idea for a TV design, share it with the group!

Nowt wrong with TV either, it's popular culture afterall - something that all designers need to embrace and nurture, if only to rebuke, no?

By the way my lovelies, I am already 'chilled' thanks! Cheers!

By the way Ben, are you sure you're not Harry Hill? That silhouette bares an uncanny resemblance...

[rick fox]

Seconds on snobbery and elitism. There's so much to spend time on while on this earth. This kind of drivel is a waste of it. Yes, some people have uglier TV stands than you. I'd venture to say you have an uglier disposition than they do.

[Beerzie Boy]

We use a vintage armoire. It's nice because you don't have to look at the boob toob when you aren't using it.

[Clay]

A TV stand (and the TV itself) should draw attention away from themselves and to the screen. Anything else is fussy and decorative, completely out of line competing with the screen for visual attention.

So the problem comes in when these steel and glass stands are designed to attract attention. But half of the ones you show are actually quite self-effacing!

[Julian]

They really are ugly though...but then again so are t.v.'s. And whats the point of using glass? so you can see the wiring?

And whats this about 'ben' having to seek for solutions. The solution is to go buy t.v. furniture that is unlike these.

And since when are graphic designers qualified to judge interior design anyway? Reading FRAME mag does not make you bachelor of arts...

Having said this...they remind me of people who buy expensive cars and tv's and have one chair and no table and a stained pink carpet. Not to say i don't luv these people.

[Zoima]

Limit your opinion into graphics, you don´t know anything about product design

[Caspian]

Now this (http://www.tomballhatchet.com/tvpackagingstand1.html) looks like a design-led solution to your gripe on the TV stands.

[Gabrielle]

I completely agree with you, although I would add that however much I would question their taste, I wouldn't dislike someone on the basis of their TV stand. That's a little disturbing and sad.

I flat out refused to buy a glass and brass (or worse, glass and plastic) stand for our plasma TV and stubbornly kept the damn thing on a too-high sofa table until I could find a proper one. I didn't think they made such an animal, until I ended up finding some...at Circuit City, of all places,to which I refused to bother looking fo a long time, assuming the glass-n-brass ones were all they had.

However, I was in there Saturday, and voila...they had several rather nice ones made of wood, in variou styles. The salesman told me at the national convention, (yeah, they have them) the number one complaint customers had given their salesmen were ugly TV stands, so they commissioned a company to design and build wood stands in various styles.

We bought the first one of a brand-new model, cost $300 with tax, well within our budget. It's nice looking, wood, with clean lines, and works well with our Zen/quasi-Frank Lloyd Wright decor.

I feel completely vindicated after being ribbed for being a snob about those hideous brass-n-glass stands. Ours looks great and I didn't spend a fortune.

[Russell]

I've known you for 16 years ya cunt and you hardly ever come round to mine to hate my TV and TV stand! Hahahahaha

[Ben]

That's because for all of those 16 years you have never owned a TV let alone a TV stand.

[Timon Berg]

I have been getting a lot of useful and informative material in your website.
http://www.tvstandsmax.com