Do We Read Anymore?

From the portfolio of Richard Gillette

We follow two hundred blogs, if not more. We run to our Google reader and open it and scroll. Stop at a pretty picture or two and maybe even save them to an inspiration file and scroll again, faster and faster we scroll, because we have to rush out or rush into something. We go back to our reader again, perhaps between appointments, and find that the number of unread posts has climbed up again to 800 and we feel that rush again to scroll faster to get that number down, as if it is another job that needs to get done and not so properly too.

We don't stop and read anymore. We tend to forget that a person has actually put the time and effort to put together that post, from finding the right photo to formulating the right words. We forget that a person has actually taken the time to entertain us, we forget to actually read what was written, we forget to see what kind of emotion the writer was trying to convey, we forget to stop for a few seconds, and we forget to say thank you.

Good Design/Bad Design, Thou Shalt Not Judge

Most people can judge different professions, they allow themselves to give opinions both good and bad about almost anyone regardless if they are in the same profession or not, regardless if they are qualified to give such an opinion or not, they just do, and it is widely accepted. You hear people declaring someone as a good lawyer/bad lawyer, good doctor/bad doctor, good politician/bad politician etc ……

BUT, if you are a designer you are almost robbed of this right, and you have to watch what you say and how you say it. If you should ever dare say “this is bad design” or “I do not particularly like this design”, you are immediately labeled as someone that wants to be a style police, someone that limits creativity or the ever so popular label, you are jealous. It is even worse if you happen to critique a younger designer, you suddenly become the evil one, the horrible step mother that is stifling budding talent, and who is threatened by new talent and their possible success.

So why cant we as professional working designers freely express our opinion without being judged ?

I know that creativity and beauty are hard to define, they are vague areas that are very perceptual whose very nature creates more vague definitions of what is good or bad. In recent years the grey area has grown even more, encompassing many disciplines in the world of visual arts not only design making it harder to define what is good and what is bad.

Good Design

Still, with all this craziness and ambiguity I believe there is a difference between good and bad, and more importantly there is what we like and what we don't like regardless of how great it is, and it should be ok to express an opinion without people becoming too sensitive.

What do you think ? Should you be able to freely express your design opinion, or shut up and be goody two-shoes as requested by some blogs?

“Signature” Style

I am a big fan of Kelly, Hoppen that is, always have, probably always will be. We both share a deep passion (she does not know) which is an obsessive fascination with Taupe. The “King Of Taupe” title most probably would never be bestowed upon me, for even though I do love it and use it in abundance, I always get the urge to infuse the room with a tiniest bit of color. Unlike Ms. Hoppen, I can never exert enough self restraint to keep it at Taupe. Oh yes and I tend to change my designs a bit from one project to another, but that is a minor detail. So, as much as we are twin souls, we do have our individual  slightly different characters.

I own all her books.

I follow her news.

I subscribe to her blog, which brings me to why I am posting about her. While enjoying reading all about her trip to the Far East and Russia, and her visit to the huge furniture store that carries her line, I learned that she was pushed into signing a few leather trunks from her new line. I felt envious of the “few lucky” people who would own one of those precious little trunks. WOW, a piece signed by Ms. Hoppen with what appears to be a gold marker pen. What I would do to have one of those.

 

By the way, she actually said “few lucky” about those eventually buying the trunks, and I quote “In the end I gave in so a few lucky people will have these “one time only” signed trunks”.

Just wondering, who is the lucky one in this instance, the owner of the precious little trunk, or the person who has people actually willing to pay money to own a piece of furniture with his/her marker scribblings on the leather ?

Just asking.

Food For Thought

"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination”  Oscar Wilde

And what could dear Oscar possibly mean ? Do you agree ? Isn’t this exactly what got everybody in trouble in the first place ?

Agree/Disagree ? Would love to hear your thoughts.

This is Neuschwanstein Castle, and it is where I would like to live, except I live within my means, I have no imagination what so ever.