other cultures

Less is more. Form follows functionality. Two phrases we hear all the time. But furnishings designer George Nakashima thought to be them nothing but shallow slogans. In 1962, he published a manifesto that explains why whilst also lamenting the disappearance of design and style excellence.

In a world where guide skills are shunned we think in them, not simply while in the act of creating a greater product, but within the sheer joy of carrying out or turning into. We come to feel that pride in craftsmanship, of doing as excellent a job as you possibly can, of generating one thing of splendor even from nature’s discards, are all homely attributes that can be reconsidered.

It might even be a question of regaining one’s own soul when desire and megalomania are rampant – the attractiveness of simple things…

To look for clues Tiffany Key Ring, we can go into the past: the moss garden and tea house at Sai Ho Ji Tiffany And Co, the wonders of stone and glass at Chartres, the dipylon vase. These are all examples of excellence that can go unchallenged but also unnoticed. They are all formed inwardly with a nearly impersonal expertise. Compared to our day Tiffany Key, with its arrogance of “form-giving,” the shallowness of slogan design and style such as “less is much more,” “machine for living,” or even “type follows operate.”

In proportion to the flood of consumer goods, we are probably at one particular of the lowest ebbs of design and style excellence that the world has seen. It requires a genuine fight to produce one well designed object of relatively permanent value. A single of the difficulties is the lack of integration between the designer and the producer – the evolvement of material and method into a well conceived idea. Big city architecture has reached such a profound state of boredom that man might unwittingly destroy it in one last tragic gesture – without humor. Sentimentally again, we can look back to the thirteenth century, when almost every hinge was a museum piece. Where there was a touch of greatness while in the majority of acts and conceptions.

Some Nakashima designs:




1970 Life magazine profile of Nakashima:


As for his “examples of excellence,” here is the moss garden and tea house at Saihō-ji in Kyoto:



The Chartres Cathedral:



The Dipylon Vase:


Related Signal vs. Noise posts
Re: examples of excellence from the past, “Finding fresh inspiration” discusses seeking inspiration in objects from the past, other cultures Tiffany Armreif, and nature.

Re: the lack of integration between designers and producers Tiffany Wedding, “The man behind Apple’s style magic” looks at Jonathan Ive and the close attention Apple’s design team pays to the manufacturing process.