Design Beginnings

Like mammals everywhere, we learn from our environment. We experience the world through our five senses. We gather information. We store, sort and select for use the information which seems best-suited for our survival. Our experiences, however monumental or mundane, are the fuel which feeds the learning process. Much as “we are what we eat,” we are, to a great extent, what we experience.

When we have the luxury of time to give consideration to our living environment, a phenomenon which appears to be growing in our culture as evidenced by the proliferation of shelter magazines and reality lifestyle and design television shows, we draw on what we have experienced. Our experiences shape the range of responses that we are able to produce when faced with a question, challenge or wish to set in motion a series of actions leading to a new goal.

Something as simple as “I need new pillows for my sofa” offers us an opportunity to draw on our life experience (travel, reading, movies, art, conversation, etc.) and form an idea about these pillows.

As a boy growing up in Sacramento, California I made a discovery one day which would affect my life to this day. I picked up a copy of a beautifully colored, glossy shelter magazine that opened the doors of my mind and imagination.

Through the consistent eyes of the publication’s photographers, my experience of what a home might look like underwent a quantum shift. My boundaries of experience expanded and I wanted more. Each month my appetite was fed and I learned.

Photo-by-photo, word-by-word, page-by-page I was taken into a world I did not know existed. And I absorbed what these pages had to offer. Today, whether in book or periodical form, I continue to absorb and learn. As an adult, I have added travel to my favorite tools in the learning process.

The process continues, and will, as long as I’m drawing breath on this planet. Where is this process leading me? I do not know. But if the trip is any indication, it will be a beautiful place.

A challenge to you today is to be an active participant in your environment. Experience something new today (pick up a book or a magazine; walk or drive somewhere new). Learn a lesson from your new experience. Act on what you have learned and, together, let’s make our world more beautiful.

Write and share with me a lesson you have learned and how it has made your home a more beautiful place.