Don’t Be So Ugly
“It doesn’t cost more to create beauty and harmony than it does to build ugly stuff.”
I read these words in Valeria Maltoni’s Conversation Agent blogpost about Design of Greatness.
Why do so many people spend their hard-earned dollars on ugly stuff? Walmart world, commodity price over beauty? Function over form?
Given a choice, wouldn’t most of us opt for something beautifully designed v. ugly?
We all don’t have the option to get suits from Milan, chocolate from Switzerland, scarves from Paris, or beef from Japan. Sometimes it is a sale at Brooks Brothers, a Snickers bar, a hand-knit scarf from ‘that aunt’, and a McDonald’s hamburger.
Design doesn’t mean expensive
Target is cashing in on this. Chic design for the masses. Kuhlman has great shirts (well, the buttons are an issue, but that’s on me.)
Yet Walmart has millions of apparently satisfied customers. Many new suburban developments are testaments to beige and plastic siding.
Why do you think design is secondary, especially when price is not a factor?
Stumble it!
Joe Raasch :: May.10.2007 :: Innovation :: 4 Comments »
Class is not water. I cannot remember who this was attributed to, but it sounds right. And we go back to risk management. It is easier to create something marginally better, than it is to create something different. What if it stands out too much?
“la classe non è acqua” right?
I was thinking your comment was about economic class. I see it is more about class as in comportment or style. I agree.
In America, the land of opportunity, of “individuals” we seem to have a penchant for wanting to be just different enough to be just like everybody else.
Amen! I struggled with when I worked at a design agency. For so many companies, the industrial design is handled by engineering in consort with manufacturing and it ends up being utilitarian at best and butt ugly at worst. For some reason, many companies, particularly in cpg, believe that attractive will drive the price too high, instead of looking at aesthetics as part of the value proposition. It amazes me that design is still viewed by so many to be out of scope vs. a basis for competitive advantage. I love the quote by Don Norman – to paraphrase, pretty things just work better!!!
Hi Julie,
The remote control is another design abomination that appears ruled by engineers. How many of those buttons do I use? Not enough considering the amount of plastics employed to bring me the grotesque control. Fewer buttons and a cool design, I’d buy that!
Apple, Dyson, Minicooper – all show that design can be cheaper (or not more expensive) – and consumers will buy, buy, buy. Why don’t more companies work in that direction?