I was walking though Home Depot a few years ago and wondered why I thought that every towel bar seemed so ugly. Was there something wrong with me or am I simply a snob?
A month or so later, I got my answer. While driving to work, a news story came on the radio about an MIT study on what makes a beautiful woman beautiful. (It's fun to tell this story around a table and watch the women listen intently). MIT researchers took lots of measurements. How far the eyes are apart. Nose to mouth ratio. How far down your eyes are on your head, etc. In the end, MIT discovered that the closer a woman's proportions were to the average, the more beautiful she appeared. (I like to use the term, "uniquely plain" and watch all the women around the table get pissed off.)
So if judging beauty is all about proportions, what's my problem at Home Depot.
I sell to and work with the luxury market segment. I grew up and live in Washington, DC, home to eight of the 20 wealthiest counties in America. My perspective and that of much of my clientele is invluenced more so by European design than the very important middle America perspective catered to by Home Depot. All the towel bars at Home Depot were bulbous and convex. Similar to American gentlemen's jackets. The towel bars that I see with European influences are more like European tailored jackets, tapered and concave.
So, while I understand and appreciate the design preferences of middle America, my postings to this blog will pursue a different track. My experience has been working with affluent, well-traveled customers who have been exposed to fine European design and look to make personal design statments in their homes that are far from average. It is this European influenced design path and function that I will be writing about.
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