While I was exhibiting at Dutch Design Week in the Netherlands, one piece in particular caught my eye. It was the work of an Italian designer, a really lovely chair.
I couldn't help walking up to her to ask about it, and at some point she said this: "With my chair, one man wanted to look at the form alongside me and talk about the details, a grandmother sat comfortably and listened to me talk, and the children were playing on it like a piece of playground equipment. It's just one product, a chair, but everyone engaged with it in their own way, and that made me happy."
Hearing that, the two of us got to talking: "Maybe that's what beauty really is."
For one man, it was a sculpted form that drew him in. By looking at it, he was admiring the product.
For one grandmother, it was a place to rest. She was enjoying a quiet moment on top of the product.
For the children, it was a piece of play equipment. There was something in it that tickled their curiosity and pulled them into play.
What each of them was feeling was probably completely different. But what's certain is the simple fact that people of every age, regardless of gender, were "drawn to" that product.
Beyond age, beyond gender, everyone finds something appealing in it and wants to engage in their own way. Something like a gravitational pull. That, I think, is what "beauty" really is.
I want to make products that have that kind of gravity too.