Good DESIGN

Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible, serving us without drawing attention to itself. Bad design, on the other hand, screams out its inadequacies, making itself very noticeable.” The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman.

As interior designers, we know that every time we set to work on a project what feels like a million decisions come before determining what the thing is going to look like. We assess the needs of our client through a program. Once we have that nailed down, we research how we can best meet those needs. We specify personal safety, physical safety, durability and cleanability of materials. Once we have the technical details ironed out, we can begin to adjust the visual pieces, evaluating what principles and elements of design we want to focus on, and how we will use them to illustrate our proposed concept. And then, and only then does the final aesthetic begin to take shape. Despite all of the work required to reach that point, most outside of the profession zero in on the aesthetic––some even believing that's all we do.

There are designers out there who have staked their career on an aesthetic, maybe none more famously than Frank Lloyd Wright himself. His approach to homes and interiors changed over time from a mostly traditional approach to his Prairie School designs, to the tactile concrete blocks of his later homes. His devotion to his aesthetic of the moment often mattered even more to him than the technical performance of the home as anyone who has ever toured an FLW property will know.

But for the majority of us it is our ultimate goal to seamlessly incorporate our research and technical expertise into a design that is both functional and beautiful. We also have the skills to work with clients to help them define their own aesthetic and be reflected in their homes and workspaces.

Following are two perspectives on how our knowledge as designers influences the aesthetics of our final designs.