Nesting: is a blog about the objects and experiences that create a sense of home. Without home, it is difficult to maintain health, find joy, or to be productive during our workdays. May you enjoy the Nesting series of blogs as much as I enjoy writing them. –Jana
The design of an object, a tool, or a space matters becauseit affects how we feel. Our experiences and moods are changeable, our tools and environments can be too. Says Alain de Botton, writer and philosopher, “Even if we’re not always able to say quite how objects make us feel, we all sense a spirit, better or worse, that emanates from a given set of objects.” Said another way “design matters.”
Look around you. What catches your eye and makes you feel something positive? Look again. What makes you feel negative? Move the negative out of your space, if you can. Design a space that makes you, and others, feel positive about being there with you.
My local bank has this quote at the teller’s desk: “When a flower doesn’t bloom, you change its environment.” In other words, environments can help us flounder or flourish. What is your environment doing for you?Either answer, you’ve always got room for improvements to be made.
The purposeful intentions for the creation of objects and spaces can be seen and felt. The June 2018 Robb Report goes on about purposeful intention to say: “While it isn’t always tangible, it has lasting substance that results in a meaning greater than the sum of its parts.” Said differently: Design Matters.
Designer Bryn Mooth, in her essay By Hand (MakerQuarterly, issue 08), shares the following about us as people and as creators.
- We are wired to create.
- We admire the process.
- We crave connection.
- We want unique and we treasure heirlooms.
Mooth continues that “When we call an object of design ‘beautiful,’ what we’re really saying is that if it turned into a person, it would be someone we like.” I love this. It got me thinking about a prior blog, in which I shared a listing of the artist-friends’ work found in my home. Aha! Their work is there by the extension of me liking them!
Design matters. Look around your workspace. Re-explore your own home. What objects make you happy? Make your places, objects, and spaces matter – by design. Because, design really does matter.