Ornamentation And "soul" In Design

Ornamentation and "soul" in design

Many lament the loss of great ornamentation or "soul" in design: the "intricate" carvings and patterns of handiwork that adorn nearly all mediums of art in the past:

Now, everything seems so "hellbent on minimalism".

However, I wish neither to praise nor to insult minimalism, but it has thrived recently for two gravity-like reasons...

Multi-faceted lives

For one, we now live more multi-faceted and "ADHD" lives than ever. No longer do we spend our entire lives in one culture and one line of work. We move around. We travel. We have access to more entertainment than ever. We switch jobs. We moonlight. We have hobbies. There are hundreds of activities competing for our attention every day!

Thus, a lot of the infrastructure in the background that today has "reduced" to minimalist functions. For example, a pillar serves as a load-bearing structure. Only in a more sensory-deprived time would we need to look at a pillar for entertainment. Today, we would simply take out our phones and check out one of several dozen apps. On average, we also don't nearly have enough time and patience to carve ornate features onto a wall like people did in the early 20th century and before. Even writing this blog post made me feel tired after a few minutes!

Pleasing the inevitable (?) global audience

For another, we are now a more global society, whether we like it or not. In the past, we would spend most, if not all, of our lives living in one culture and rarely ever crossing paths with another. If you were born an Englishman, you would 99% only know and do English things. If you were born Chinese, you would 99% only know and do Chinese things. Nowadays, any internet user would likely be exposed to at least a dozen different cultures around the world, without even trying or wanting!

So, it has come to the point where design is trying to be "all things to all people". Having this goal forced upon us might be the price for our globalist society. Successful design of today (and for the future) will invariably be exposed to a diverse audience of people from a wide range of cultures. As we know full well in the past few years, different people get offended by different things. Therefore, successful design has to look more "neutral" to please (or at least gain tolerance from) the most amount of people. We have less ornamentation, more flat surfaces and neutral tones today because it preserves the harmony of an increasingly multicultural populace.

It is alright to enjoy complex designs from the past in your own home. Unfortunately, in our increasingly connected world, the "clean" minimalism will continue to dominate. If you have to take on a minimalist space such as your new home, you can always decorate it with your own finishing touches. We just can't expect a new space to be "hard-coded" for us (e.g. with ornate pillars and stained-glass windows). The blank canvas requires you to add your own personal interests, all the while doing so without affecting the "resale value"!