To all my readers, regular or first timers, I want to wish you all a wonderful New Year! Lets all hope that 2014 will be a great year for everyone, and selfishly for me, a healthy one. Lets hope the frustrations of last year are improved in this.
There are so many things to consider as we assess the world of art and design. I was thinking yesterday about this as my daughter and I went first to the Apple store, amazing art AND design, to purchase an iPad Air, then over to BEST BUY, which is the anti-thesis of the Apple store, to check out additional covers to protect her new device.
Best Buy has to be the poster child for dysfunctional. Nothing works or if it does, not in any meaningful way for the consumer. If there's a computer it will only play some inane pre-recorded message. You will never see what it will do as every device at the Apple store can. None of the cameras ever work though it appears they are hooked up to some charging as well as anti-theft device. If you find someone to help you, chances are you might know more than they do.
We then headed to the Nordstrom Rack, probably my second or third time ever visiting one. Now to be fair, I am sure it was well picked over after Christmas, however, what was left was easily some of the ugliest merchandise that I have ever seen. I felt that I had entered a Wal-mart! Colors, styles, patterns, all left one to realize that these designers would never follow Coco Chanel's dictum, less is more. And while beauty IS in the eye of the beholder, you are tempted to wonder about that eye.
Last evening we decided to watch my Best Buy purchase, DESPICABLE ME 2. That required three remotes to watch one movie. First to turn the cable off on one remote. Then to use the TV remote to change the HDMI channel, then the DVD player remote to turn it on and open the drawer, wade through ALL the junk on the DVD before you watch the movie (feels like a movie theatre's parade of ads and promos) then back to the TV remote to adjust volume.
I can hear you now, program the cable remote. Its been done by the cable guy several times and works until he leaves the house. We feel fortunate that the TV he came to adjust works after he leaves. I can't begin to tell you the hours spent on the phone trying to get a TV to work with cable.
It was then that I realized, if I was in my 20's or 30's again, I would go back to school and get my masters in Ethnography...the study of how things work. I realized that so many of the things in our lives add to not reduce the stress in our lives. In fact, I would hazard a guess in that I bet they are in many ways the causes of it.
If you think back, our lives WERE simpler. Cars started with a key. There were no remotes to lose or batteries in them to die, TV was on, off and you got up to change the station between the 3 or 4 channels you had back then. There were shows to watch too, not like today where you have 200 channels with nothing to watch. The phone rang and you answered it or not. There wasn't a answer machine that at times defies us all. We wrote letters, the kind that used paper, needed a stamp (around 5¢) and if you really needed to get it somewhere fast you used air mail that cost a few cents more.
Amazingly the world seemed to get along just fine. I wonder if the next generation will have neck problems from bending over looking at their smart phones hour after hour, day after day and go blind from doing that.
Its a new year! I urge each and every one of us to do our part in urging or making changes in the way things work. You may not have designed it, but if you use it and its less than acceptable, say so. More and more what people say about a product or company, changes happen. Companies are starting to listen and are at peril if they do not. Twitter's inane policy on privacy showed how complaints stopped it in its tracks. Hopefully the members of our Congress and state governments are getting this message as well. It could be a very interesting year on a number of fronts.
With all of our input, this could very well be a very good year! Please visit krugsstudio.etsy.com for a wide range of items to decorate with or give as gifts!
Peace.
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