It was 10:30 at night. I had just sat down with my burger and fries from Shake Shack in Madison Square Park when I had the sudden sneaking suspicion that something was missing. But it wasn’t the napkins, the condiments or my appetite. My sense of emptiness stemmed from the ease of obtaining my meal.

Change is necessary for a growing brand. Two recent and dramatic examples of change are Google’s visual revamping of nearly all of its major services and Facebook’s introduction of the Timeline. Google’s approach was to create a more elegant, proprietary visual system which is undeniably minimalistic (yet Trevor Filter, even, has expressed suspicion as to whether the revamping actually helps clarify Google’s communications or conversely, further conceals them).

Look at that thing…just sitting there. It hasn’t the slightest clue just how much irreparable damage it has caused to New York City’s cultural landscape. This is the logo which adorns so many plastic bags used by stores of all sorts up and down New York City, carried by all, and sometimes cast aside to float adrift the other detritus plaguing the city streets. But before I can dive into the critical analysis of this bag and why it irritates me so, I should begin with a little history.

Premodern aesthetics often focused on decorative or ostentatious elements, and by the late nineteenth century, architects and designers began to search for clarity and simplicity in their designs. The adoption of the grid was a natural result of this search. Architects were the first to explore its dominant potential, particularly the likes of Mies Van Der Rohe, whose work exudes practicality and restraint, built around simple geometric principles spawning from the grid. Later, graphic designers such as WimCrouwel utilized the grid to create their work. Today, designers from all around the world rely on it to guide their designs.