Sharing is Caring
I am a thinker by nature. That might be overstating it. I am a day dreamer by nature which involves a lot of unstructured, untethered thoughts bouncing around like electrons.
So, I was thinking about my two grandsons both born in November, 2021. Each of my two children had their first baby in the same month! And that got me to thinking. When your kid has a kid, you feel so much. SO much that it feels like you’re overflowing with that bond of love. Your cup overflows but it never spills. It is pretty amazing.
Stick with me here.
So, that thought got connected to the constellation of ideas we are all bombarded with everyday as I wondered about the world my grandkids will inherit and how technology and the products which reflect state-of-the-art thinking evolve and change our lives for the better or worse. Note: I will not use this forum to opine on whether the internet or social media has made our lives better (a decidedly mixed bag). But I do see a continued progression of the interconnection of ideas, functionality, usefulness, durability, and simple beauty that, in my lifetime, has been exciting to watch.
When I was a young dad, we had a large stroller which took up about as much space as a vintage Mini Cooper, a fold up (and super-crappy) stroller, and some other things here and there for transporting, calming, holding, and otherwise protecting our children. My kids have products that are so wonderfully engineered, they transform from a car seat to a stroller, to a god-knows-what. I love the coming together of ideas – the sharing of creativity. There is a jazz-like quality to that. I love the creative dialogue that propels us forward (hopefully) as a species.
In music, jazz (I mean real jazz) does not happen without listening. I mean the musicians are actively listening to one another while playing. Listening is a form of communication which shares ideas in a moment. It builds upon itself until – maybe - something new is created. Something new and beautiful.
German Poet Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe famously said “Architecture is Frozen Music”. The rhythm of design elements, the conversation of the design components is all happening in good design whether it’s a building or a baby stroller. In a sense, “music” can be found in anything.
What was the person thinking who created the S-shaped couches first introduced by the French in the early 19th century?
These were dubbed “tete a tete” - French for “head to head”. What were they thinking? You could ignore your sitting partner OR you may engage more fully. You can see their face and their eyes. You can share a moment. You can share. Ahh, the French. Ahh l’amour. Ahh, musique.
But this design is no accident. Good design never is. I wonder what music they had in their head (L'Hymne à l'amour)?
Which got me to thinking.
Good design is also a form of sharing. It is the result of the “what if” dialogue that all creative endeavor is steeped within. And if good design is sharing, it is also very much an act of caring. About the results, the outcome, the thing being created, about each other.
And design that is caring is going to be more meaningful and useful in our lives.
Sharing is Caring.
I invite you to take a look at our curation of products – each in their own way emphasizes sharing time, or a moment, or concern, or just the creative energy in all of us.
by Brian H.