design is the posh word for thinking a
lot about how stuff looks a designed
object is one whose makers worked long
and hard to get it just right most of
the world has sadly not been well
designed it’s full of office towers door
handles beds lamps and plates that have
been deeply unloved and were thrown
together in a hurry by untalented people
when many people around the world lack
the bare necessities it can be tempting
to say that good design can’t really
matter that much but we’re arguing that
it does desperately so because of a
weird quirk of our psychology we feel
like and are in a sense quite different
people depending on what’s in front of
our eyes a dark brooding sky brings out
certain feelings a bright blue one
others this kind of LED room makes you
feel one way that one another design
matters because our identities and moods
are fluid and shifting and it’s often
the quality of the designed environment
that determines whether we’ll feel
confident or defeated at ease or guarded
generous spirited or alienated one of
the great debates about how much design
should matter took place in the 16th and
17th centuries in Europe between
Catholics
and the Protestants broadly speaking the
Protestants didn’t believe in spending
much money on design they put up simple
functional churches painted them plain
white inside with minimal fuss and
bother nowadays many Protestant churches
continue to look extraordinary cheap and
basic the intellectual thought here is
that what really matters is certain
ideas and these enter your mind through
your understanding not through your
senses you can get close to God by
reading the Bible in a hayloft you don’t
need a fancy building but the Catholics
begged to differ they invested so
heavily in design in stunning
stained-glass windows beautiful carved
angels and passionate renditions of the
life of Christ because they fervently
believed that our environments do change
who we are we may be further or near a
god depending on what’s on the wall and
how high the ceiling is governments have
always understood and respected the
underlying idea that design changes us
not see designers like Albert Speer paid
a huge amount of attention to making
sure the designed world would speak of
Nazi values like aggression and power
just as modern German architects have
tried to ensure that contemporary Berlin
will project an image of democracy peace
and openness we mold ourselves to the
spirit that emanates from the objects
around us we become a little as they are
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
we’re generally good at playing a game
where you can’t imagine one person a
work of design would turn into if it
miraculously became human 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 liked
someone maybe dignified or self
possessed intelligent or adventurous
beauty is a promise of goodness and
ugliness is evocative of nothing short
of despair and evil and that’s why
beautiful design matters because it
encourages our better sides while ugly
design Stokes our worst ones we need to
make sure the world around us is well
designed not out of some stupor
this expensive taste but because good
design helps us to be the best versions of ourselves
lot about how stuff looks a designed
object is one whose makers worked long
and hard to get it just right most of
the world has sadly not been well
designed it’s full of office towers door
handles beds lamps and plates that have
been deeply unloved and were thrown
together in a hurry by untalented people
when many people around the world lack
the bare necessities it can be tempting
to say that good design can’t really
matter that much but we’re arguing that
it does desperately so because of a
weird quirk of our psychology we feel
like and are in a sense quite different
people depending on what’s in front of
our eyes a dark brooding sky brings out
certain feelings a bright blue one
others this kind of LED room makes you
feel one way that one another design
matters because our identities and moods
are fluid and shifting and it’s often
the quality of the designed environment
that determines whether we’ll feel
confident or defeated at ease or guarded
generous spirited or alienated one of
the great debates about how much design
should matter took place in the 16th and
17th centuries in Europe between
Catholics
and the Protestants broadly speaking the
Protestants didn’t believe in spending
much money on design they put up simple
functional churches painted them plain
white inside with minimal fuss and
bother nowadays many Protestant churches
continue to look extraordinary cheap and
basic the intellectual thought here is
that what really matters is certain
ideas and these enter your mind through
your understanding not through your
senses you can get close to God by
reading the Bible in a hayloft you don’t
need a fancy building but the Catholics
begged to differ they invested so
heavily in design in stunning
stained-glass windows beautiful carved
angels and passionate renditions of the
life of Christ because they fervently
believed that our environments do change
who we are we may be further or near a
god depending on what’s on the wall and
how high the ceiling is governments have
always understood and respected the
underlying idea that design changes us
not see designers like Albert Speer paid
a huge amount of attention to making
sure the designed world would speak of
Nazi values like aggression and power
just as modern German architects have
tried to ensure that contemporary Berlin
will project an image of democracy peace
and openness we mold ourselves to the
spirit that emanates from the objects
around us we become a little as they are
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
we’re generally good at playing a game
where you can’t imagine one person a
work of design would turn into if it
miraculously became human 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 liked
someone maybe dignified or self
possessed intelligent or adventurous
beauty is a promise of goodness and
ugliness is evocative of nothing short
of despair and evil and that’s why
beautiful design matters because it
encourages our better sides while ugly
design Stokes our worst ones we need to
make sure the world around us is well
designed not out of some stupor
this expensive taste but because good
design helps us to be the best versions of ourselves
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