From Voice ~ Topics: design thinking, journals
The N Word
While it is nice when peers say you’re nice–as in “that dude is really nice to children and small animals”–but to characterize someone’s design with the “n word” is worse than not nice, it is belittling.
Nice is a euphemism for “eh!” or “its just okay” or “it’ll do.” Often when the word is spoken, it is accompanied by a melancholy glance, a slight shrug, and a half-hearted smile. Something that is deemed to be nice is certainly not bad, but it is not extraordinary or exceptional. Nice is a word used when other superlatives are too charged. Nice is non-committal.
It is also a synonym for satisfactory, but doesn’t that really mean mediocre? I’ve heard clients say: “Your solution is very nice, but I was hoping for something, well, different.” Translation: “This is exactly what I do not want, but I’m basically too nice to say it too your face.” To assuage your disappointment the client hides behind the “n word.” But you have to be in deep denial not to know the genuine meaning.
Sure, there are many more unpleasant words - terrible, ugly, stupid, or inept, to name a few. I’m sure we would hate being branded with any of them. But the piddling monosyllabic, soft-c of nice is so void of passion that it oozes with insignificance. Nice is pure fluff; so give me a word like brilliant, which the British use to best effect (even though I’m told it actually means nice).
“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity,” wrote George Orwell. If indeed there was a more insincere word applied to art and design I haven’t heard it, and I presume the man who coined newspeak might agree that nice takes the prize. So if you are at a crit or in a presentation meeting and the teacher or client says “that’s nice” it may not be worth getting angry, but you’ll probably wonder “what is he really thinking?”
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My old boss once said there were three kinds of nice:
"That's nice."
"That's *really* nice."
and
"That's *always* nice."
Obviously, that last one is the one to avoid at all costs. -
Nice essay. I mean, "really" nice essay.
But seriously, I remember my mom used to say, everytime I'd do something stupid: "Sam, that's nice, very nice." And I knew exactly what she meant. -
> Sure, there are many more unpleasant words - terrible, ugly, stupid, or inept, to name a few. I’m sure we would hate being branded with any of them.
Actually, I think I may prefer "inept" or "terrible" over "nice." The work might as well be one extreme or the other rather than an in-between mess of monotony, right? Then of course, "brilliant." That just sounds *nice* now doesn't it? -
Dwell Magazine has been using the term "nice modernism" for a while now, to describe modern design that is more humanistic (than what?) or takes its users into account. When I first encountered their use of it I thought it sounded a little peculiar, but they seem–with a touch of irony–to be trying to recuperate the word "nice" from it's more cynical usage.
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There are, of course, regional variants. When I lived in northern Minnesota, open statements of opinion were not as culturally acceptable as they are in New York or Los Angeles. You could tell someone really hated something because they’d say “That’s different.” The reticence to state an opinion directly (or to one’s face) even had a name: “Minnesota nice.” (When I’m being snarky about it I say that what’s called “nice” in Minnesota is what we call passive-aggressive everywhere else.) Nice, however, is a nice word there. The variant, similar in structure to the more-widespread phrase “for surer” is the enthusiastic declaration “That’s for nice!”
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Within the past few years, the word nice has taken on added meaning among younger generations, but the difference is only discernable when the word is spoken. It has a "dude" quality to it. Imagine the word "nice" spoken in the tone a surfer might use to say "dude!" This is the way the word has been used countless times by young Art Directors I have worked with: "Ni-i-ice" along with enthusiastic head bobbing. This, I believe, is the sincere expression of the word. You will also hear "nice" replacing "cool" more and more in the vocabulary of young people. I would blame the usage of the word rather than the word itself. I too hate when something of mine is called nice, but when it's ni-i-ice I feel a little better.
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Cool, swell, sweet, boss, groovy, bad. . .
These all have positive connotations. But nice really does require inflection to make it more than a dippy, drippy, syrupy, woid that carries all the linguistic weight of a wet tissue. -
Having just purchased the 3rd season of Seinfeld, I can quote the character George quite accurately from the subtitles of episode 7:
"She thinks i'm a nice guy. Women always think I'm a nice guy; but women don't want nice. Why is nice bad? What kind of a sick society do we live in where nice is a bad word?"
Once again, our deeply critical thoughts have been summarized by (albeit some of the best) television writers! -
thanks for this article. i think it says a lot about the ego and insecurity driving so much critical discussion that such triteness seems to be commonplace. i suspect that what we are really lamenting here is the generally poor quality of energy exchanged between individuals and not necessarily a particular choice of words. at a surprising rate i note that people often fail language, not vice versa, due to a troubling lack of passion for living. no amount of linguistic gymnastics can make up for a lack of passion just as no word is too common to express sincerity. we don't want these people to change the way they speak but the way they live.
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After all this discussion 'NICE' seems such a big ugly word. But Hello!! its just a word.
I know all of us would like to hear Exellent rather than Nice but the same word in a different context - for ex. Oh Boy That's Really NICE !! would tell a different story.
The point that i'm trying to make is that the attitude is what matters more than the choice of words. -
...in the equestrian world the word is "cute" and is used in the same ways as stated by posters above...a "cute" horse is average or below whereas a "nice" horse is a fine animal worth owning....a prominent trainer once remarked to me following the labeling of "cute" to a nice horse of his, "I thought he was about ten thousand dollars on the other side of cute.".....
...as for my design, I have always cringed at "nice".... -
Nice is a term used by students who are afraid to say what they really feel, don't know what they really feel, or by clients who really know what they feel and don't want to pay.
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would nice be better than not bad? It seems like its a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea.
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Cute... Bunnies, children and your third grade crush are all cute. I hate being called cute. I don't think that cute is a great compliment for a grown women. I would prefer -- clever, pretty, attractive, dainty, sharp, lovely.
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what about a comment when you show something for the first time and they respond: NIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCE and lean out of their chair as if to grab and touch it... that's the only good nice in design.
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