I am using the Daily Prompt today. A quick and easy post to help keep other projects moving. I’m also drinking a Honey Tea Bowl to try to keep the sickness at bay. Not sure either is going to work.
I am working today at a noisy coffee shop called Scout. Actually, I suppose it is technically called Scout 2, but I digress. I like working in coffee shops; the energy and rhythm of the place provides a nice kinetic movement to my mind. If things are too quiet or too still my mind finds it fairly easy to wander. Both Scout locations have a very definite design mentality; clean lines, a farmhouse feel, a little bit of the outdoors brought in. And coffee. Lots of coffee.
What defines the looks and feels of what we are comfortable with? What makes us say, we like this, but not that. Design speaks to us in ways we may not fully understand and helps us to make sense of our world. We have all encountered bad design, we notice it and stop. Bad design is that intersection we hate getting to because you can never quite see around. Bad design is the outlet that is six inches too far, or the tool that hurts your hand to use. We feel bad design.
Good design though, we hardly notice. Good design blends in, precisely because it is a good design. From the light switch that is where you know it will be, to the perfectly balanced utensil. Good design fits in its environment, and makes the world an easier place to live in. Aesthetic, however, can be so much more than that.
Aesthetics allows us to find beauty in art, in a sunset, in a smile. It helps us to describe how something can have beauty, even in just the eye of the beholder. It shows us how to create beauty from nothing, how to turn our dreams to truth. Aesthetics can help us to understand why we decorate our homes a particular way; how we put our personal aesthetics over the design of a space. It is why we continue to go to places that make us comfortable and happy, and avoid those that don’t. Aesthetics can help shape good design. It can go deeper than just a physical design though.
Look through any photo sharing site; every photo was taken by an individual, with their own insights and feelings. They each had a viewpoint, and took the picture that reflected their world, edited it and adjusted colors and saturation and focus, and then posted it for the world. No two people will take the same picture. No two people will document their lives the same.
Each of us have designed our lives to reflect the world as we see it, and the way as we wish it to be. To reflect how we wish our world to be. We find ways to recognize and create beauty in our own lives. We tie our lives together in ways that blend into a larger canvas. And we don’t even see it happening.
That is a great design.
Until next time, stay together friends.
Sword & Quill 