THE BASIS FOR TRUE DESIGN
The modern movement in architecture was the rebirth and culmination of “true” design on our planet. Previously, “true” design was restricted to more primitive and archaic cultures where things were built with its pure purpose in mind. Through the years, things began to grow more ornate and decorative, losing its core functionality as a point of departure. A saltshaker is a beautiful thing, because when at rest the perforation face upwards, preventing the salt from coming out. The shaft of its housing stores the salt as well as serves as the handle to pick it up. It’s then turned upside down when in use. Its concept is beautiful, simple, and purposeful. It is not ornate! Decoration is not design. To decorate the interior of a space is also not design. To do this, one is simply decorating. By doing this, one might as well hang flowers and quilts on the wall and put fluffy objects around the room. Decorating a space is not designing. When one understands this, one will be able to see the clean lines and functionality of a “purposeful” design. This is something which is much closer to what God created. To understand the lines and functionality of what is seen in nature in its elemental state prior to its geometric fractilized end state, one will grasp true design and appreciate it much more.
Around 1920, the Bauhaus movement was born. Its concept was to create an environment of design education, where students not only developed design on paper or model form, but truly learned the various crafts and trades behind the actualized end product. This was a wonderful movement. You can’t truly design a chair correctly if you don’t know how to build it or the nature of its materials. To leave it to the tradesperson to figure this out is pure ignorance and idiocy. It’s sad, but that is the nature of 99% of designers nowadays. They make things that have no roots in reality. What’s even sadder is they feel reality is boring and restrictive. If they only understood reality in its elemental state, they would realize that reality and science is limitless. This is how God created the universe, why do we think we are above this. To leave it to the engineer to figure out the mechanics of making sure the building stands is truly foolish. By adopting this mindset, architects and designers are no longer designers, but downgraded to decorators. By becoming decorators, we lose the value of our existence. By becoming this, we may as well put flowers on our facades and fluffy materials on our buildings.
The bottom line is that once one truly understands the true meaning of design, one will realize how truly beautiful, limitless, and unrestrictive it is. Design is in everything; it is in the space you are in, and it is in all the things that dwell in that space. In every space and furniture I create, I always want to have its core based in true modern design and not decoration.
I am a designer, therefore I am not a decorator.
