EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS

“Design is everybody’s business because we live in it, we eat in it, we pray and play in it.  And still the appreciation of design, good or bad, is considered as the privilege of the few.”  Grillo.

This is the statement which Grillo starts their book, Form, Function and Design.  When Grillo uses the term Design, they mean, Design of Form.  Which is what we are talking about in these pages.  To make the necessary transition to our worldview, all I would do is tweak Grillo’s statement thusly;
 
Design of form is everybody’s business because we live in forms, we eat in forms, we pray and play in forms.  And still the appreciation of the design of form, good or bad, is considered as the privilege of the few. 

Let’s take this further.  We are surrounded by forms.  We spend our money on the purchase of new forms.  Space is what is between forms.  We inherit forms.  We drive forms.  We go to museums to admire forms.  We store food in forms.  We throw forms away.  All of our waking hours are spent engaging with forms.  

And yet, as Grillo says, the design of form is wholly outside the comfort level of just about everyone.  Which, as I have said before, is a gross cultural mistake.  From the very beginning, form should be a component of what we call education.  We should not be taught to draw pretty pictures.  We should be taught instead to draw forms.  The Form should be greater than The Word.  

The capacity and imagination to visually engage with form is within all of us.  This imagination does not exist solely in the few.  This is a capacity that we all share.  TD is one tool which can be used to efficiently increase the capacity of your imagination.  Pick up a pencil and find out.  

It is everybody’s business.