Interesting note: for a couple of days last week the most emailed article in the New York Times was entitled: “Shoppers on a Diet Tame the Urge to Buy”. Hmmm. Intriguing, I thought, given that my business is all about consuming on a large scale.
Or is it? What, pray tell, is design?
More than any other year in my memory, this one has given me lots of time and impetus to think about that- seems like assessment is the perfect way to ride the wave of recession. I started where I always like to start:
The Dictionary:
design:
a. To conceive or fashion in the mind; invent
b. To create or contrive for a particular purpose or effect
c. To create or execute in an artistic or highly skilled manner.
OK, I hand selected- there are oodles of definitions for “design” in multitudinous online dictionaries, and I could get deeply involved in a semantic debate about the meanings. But not one of them involves “Stuff”. Solutions, Problem Solving, Creativity, Conception. Not Accumulation. And not Consumption.
The Times article was prompted by a very interesting website: http://sixitemsorless.com/ , which involved a challenge to pare down one’s wardrobe to- surprise- six items or less. A quick read of the website says it is not a statement about consumerism, and interestingly, that it has no “agenda”, just putting it out there and looking to see what happens.
My thought? A sign of the times.
I was in Target this week and caught myself doing a very interesting thing- one which a Facebook friend recently commented on, most notably regarding Harmon Stores. I went in for a couple basic necessities- light bulbs, detergent, coffee filters. I did what I always do- took a shopping cart. Why? Because clearly in any given trip to Target I will be mesmerized and need a cart. I know myself in Target, and Target knows me well- the light bulbs are buried in the back corner furthest from the entrance; the detergent is caddy corner to that on the opposite end, And in between? Mountains and mountains of colorful, lively, enticing, sometimes useful- but largely superfluous……stuff.
Sure enough, I stood at the front of the store preparing to check out with at least three extra things in my cart. I chuckled and thought about the whole concept of “Six items or Less”. What if I apply that principle to my life? To design? Paring down in life and in art, myself and my work? I put back the extra stuff and bought the very things I went in for (total:4). Whew. Pennies saved? Yes, maybe- but it’s a start.
And this is a sign of the times, no? When our credit is tight and our jobs at risk, a clear sense of what we need can be applied to all aspects of our lives, from Target to travel. We buy too much, throw away too much and use too much stuff. Defining what we want and how to get it seems all the more important when there’s no room for waste.
I recently designed a home theater for clients- hardly the model project for frugality. But, in truth, it would have been easy to do more, buy more, spend more- and in other times we probably would not have watched the meter so closely. These clients are excellent “shoppers” and hate to waste money, and I am perfectly paired with that philosophy- particularly these days. So let’s bring on the ideas, not the stuff. Let’s work towards Applied Frugality: using materials, thoughts, time- and life in general- wisely and with creativity.
As I come full circle in my first blog year, I’m thinking that this recession is not going to end any time soon, and instead of whining like a teenager who lost my allowance, it’s time to remember the wisdom of my parents who grew up and hit adulthood in that earlier Magnitude 10 “Recession”. Choose well and have less- it will mean more.
For the Times article:
