Designing Ideas: A Brief Introduction
Early one fall morning, long ago, a small group of architecture and design students stood outside the A&D Building at the University of Michigan, waiting for the doors, chatting about career plans. One single-minded future architect made a passionate case that, of all the arts, his was surely supreme. “Architecture has the real power,” he said. “It actually leads you… literally, I mean. It controls you, It even shows you where to walk.” He pointed emphatically down to the sidewalk on which we were standing, guiding our eyes down the long, narrow cement pathway. “See that… and that’s just a simple sidewalk. Think about what a bridge can do… or an entire building.”
His remarks left a lasting impression. I had never thought of it that way before.
Architecture and design exert mastery over our bodies as well as our minds with wordless powers that regularly make everyday choices for us, long before we ever notice that our free will has been usurped. Happy sheep, we follow the flagstones, cross the bridges, enter doors that stand ajar, and stop politely at gates set down before us. We wear the pink sweater because it makes us feel good. Whether snapping their invisible fingers or whispering to us gently, the forces of good architecture and design move our emotions, exalting or deflating them on a whim. They persuade us to linger beside alluring fountains, chastise us with rugged monuments to our fallen heroes, and inspire us with steel towers and filigreed steeples that aim our ambitions and our souls upward.
Understanding these powers is a constant source of amazement, curiosity, and fun. On any scale, exploring life through the lens of art is a game worth playing — not just because of the innate and joyful rewards of beauty-seeking, but because art-making and life-making are both strenuous, problem-solving endeavors that have a lot to teach each other.
Using concrete tools such as color and texture, and intangibles such as harmony and balance, design offers both a clarifying vocabulary and a practical array of strategies that help us think better, whether we’re designing a new kitchen or making a major career change.
The adventure of this blog is to discover as much as we can — together — about the life-altering impact of design and how to use it to our advantage as we build, expand, rebuild, and remodel the homes and the lives we live in.
I hope you’ll have stories to share, too.