A trend I’ve noticed is violators—those shapes, stars, and blobs that say stuff like “New!” or “Buy now!” or even “15% free!” They ‘violate’ because they are kind of slapped on there to get your attention and don’t follow the rules at all on the rest of the page/design.

I’ve seen in several places that violators have been stylized, have subtle gradients, and even have a fake ‘folded-over’ look, as if they were doing the violating as physical, foldable stickers.

The four examples I’ve included are (clockwise from top left) Moo’s sold out promotionto Flickr members, Macworld magazine cover, a print ad for furniture maker Blu Dot, and Gum magazine’s web interface.

Notice that all four examples are establishments that have easy access to quality design. And I admit their violators look pretty darn good, with all the subtle shadows, gradients, and extra detail. This reinvention of the design no-no seems to transform it from the commonplace clip art to something more thoughtful. I like the way that Moo’s violators look different each time. The folds vary in size and never appear in the exact same spot.

Is redesigning the violator making quality design part of the New Vernacular? These days, everybody is a designer, but quality seems to have disappeared into the crowd. Perhaps the well-designed violator (an oxymoron?) falls on a happy midpoint between the commonplace and the sublime.

But I have to wonder if this is more than a just a trend. Will the physical, sticky violator last longer than just another polygonal blob with which to say “New!”? Probably not. The form of the violator will come and go, as styles go in and out. But I hope the creativity and thought that went into reinventing the violator will be around generating more quality design.