Vaal Triangle: Bad Dreams; Bad Design; Bad Recollections

I don’t like to say crap (or crappy). I used to, but then it dawned on me that it has the same meaning as shit and shitty, which are words I never use. However, looking at this VCR (Vaal Community Radio)’s website, “this is a terribly crappy design” is the first thing that came to mind. The font disappears against the tiled picture of a microphone and set of earphones. Most of the text on the website is illegible. It looks like something out of 1996 during the dawn of the Internet. Undoubtedly one of the worst websites I have seen in ages; reminiscent of an awful MySpace-page. It is somewhat peculiar as their posters are actually very well designed.

Why did I visit it in the first place? Well, I had an odd dream that the Vaal Triangle is ablaze – a raging fire consuming it. I have a confession to make. Yes it is true. I grew up in the Vaal Triangle. Even though I have no intention of returning to the Vaal Triangle to settle down one day, I do have some family and friends in the region, hence my concern of an inferno raging there. I’m not too superstitious about dreams, but had to quench my subconscious. So, I first went online to a South African news site to see if there are any fires running amok in South Africa, but couldn’t find any reports to indicate so. Then I thought, I’d visit the Vaal’s local radio station’s website – maybe they’d cover such a news story. And this is how I got the graphic designer in me exposed to the design-puke splattered over my screen. I almost feel like designing them a new front page, just so that the (online) world can be a better place.

Good design, now more accessible and affordable than ever, also offers us a chance to bring pleasure, meaning, and beauty to our lives. But most important, cultivating a design sensibility can make our small planet a better place for all. –– Daniel H. Pink

Back to the dream… What could it mean? What is my subconscious revealing? Do I subconsciously want the Vaal Triangle destroyed, since it is a container for so much of my childhood pains? And let’s, for a moment, think of this dream as a premonition of some sort. My guess is that the fire would symbolise violence. The Vaal Triangle has a history of political violence; think, for instance, of the Sharpeville massacre and the 1984-85 riots. While I missed the former (I wasn’t born yet), I did experience the latter, and witnessed all kinds of dreadful violence including hackings and necklacing, all the way into the 90s.

I guess I need to phone my family and hear how it's going. And I thought that I'm not superstitious about dreams...