If you want to be current and get some attention for yourself, then it would be good if you could be a little bit more unpredictable and surprise your audience. That is if you dare of course!
This is the most famous quote explaining wabi-sabi and it is by Leonard Koren:
"Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional.”
Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetics that is so sophisticated and complex that you can hardly get a Japanese friend to explain it to you. When I asked friends in Japan to explain it to me, then they were looking nervously around for assistance from others, and the normally helpful and friendly colleagues would simply turn away and look busy to avoid the conversation. (Which should give me second thoughts writing this I guess).
My knowledge on wabi-sab is hardly touching the surface and all I understand is that it has many layers and so many different interpretations. It is complex and yet I think it is simple and very very beautiful.
The first explanation I had about wabi-sabi from a Japanese friend goes like this:
"Imagine the tea ceremony room. The tea ceremony room has tatami mats and a wall with a couple of shelves for decorative items and a calligraphy with a painting. Now imagine the painting is gone, but you know the painting was supposed to be there. Your mind can't help imagining the painting even though it is gone. That is wabi-sabi."
WABI-SABI AND DESIGN
When designing wabi-sabi-style then you wont have a technical drawing or even a sketch, but you will be working from pure skill and experience. You will just have the idea of making something, lets say a bowl. You will make the shape of the bowl, not so much to look exactly as the one you made before. It will be similar for sure but the differences will be obvious, because you let yourself be guided by the moment in time and the immediate circumstances.
Maybe your cup will sink to one side while you are leaving it to dry and you will appreciate this flaw as beautiful.
When the tea cup is ready to be glazed then you will look closely at the shape of the cup and make what looks like accidental splatter, not a motif, not a colour, not a pattern. Just what you think this cup invited you to do. Every cup will be different from the other, representing their own beauty and always challenging the mind to explore and look closer.
WABI SABI AND UP-CYCLING
In wabi-sabi it has also been a long tradition to re-use things and make them into something else. One famous example is the tatami floors, an original wabi-sabi design. Tatami matts are made from the otherwise useless left over straw from rice. But if you take the time to stitch the straws together and finish the edges with fabric then you will find your self with a beautiful tatami matt. A worthless material has become something precious.
In wabi-sabi you will also find that doors becomes tables and fishing traps that becomes lamp shades. Wabi-sabi allows you to look at every object with an unlimited mind so you can see something new every time you look.
WABI-SABI AND NATURE
Wabi-sabi lovers also loves watching nature changing things and adding patina. Like rust on iron, moss growing on stone, water shaping wood and so on. Nothing can stay here forever and the process of 'disintegrantion' is beautiful to watch.
WABI-SABI AND CREATIVITY
I think that wabi-sabi is such an exciting way to twist things when we want to challenge our mind and creativity. In wabi-sabi there is always room for interpretation, you could even say that nothing is wabi-sabi until your own mind has added to the design through your imagination.
This is so far from the conceptual thinking we have been trained to do over the past 10-15 years. We have taught ourselves that there must be no room left for interpretation when we communicate a concept or a brand. Customers must understand what we want them to understand. And where it is true that a well defined concept makes it easier to handle communication on all levels then maybe time has moved on and away from this predictable and structured way of thinking. Maybe we have simply been trained too well as customers. And maybe it is time for any concept to ask these questions; Are we predictable? Are we boring? Have we become plain lazy? Is there a danger of us becoming old fashioned?
MODERN WABI-SABI
So where do you see wabi-sabi used today? The most obvious place to look is in the bread market stall where each bread looks different as opposed to the bread you find in the supermarket. Isn't part of the appeal of breads in the market stall that they look different?
The shop Anthropologie is great example for a more conceptual integration of wabi sabi. They use antique display units they do up for each individual shop, making for an interesting and personal shopping experience. It is one of the most interesting shop concepts around in the moment.
But also, if you visit a website where the website suddenly does something you would not expect it to do. Something surprising, something that engage you, then it could be wabi-sabi inspired. It could be a little cute bug that starts crawling across the page, without motivation from the user. Or like this website that invites you to have a little play with the menu on this website. You will probably be inspired to make a little tune, something that you will never be able to hear again, but never the less you will have a beautiful little moment. An impermanent moment.
It is worth noting that wabi-sabi hardly comes cheap. Wabi-sabi will always add to the value of any product, because it is unique and considered. When Anthropologie does up old furniture for their display, then it is not saving them money on the design. They do it because it appeals to their customer.
Wabi-sabi moves you because it engages you. The un-expected is attractive because we live in a predictable world. The exclusive event is important because it makes us feel special.
If you want to read more about wabi-sabi then I suggest this beautiful and easy to understand book by Leonard Koren, called "wabi-sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers", you can see it and order it by clicking here.
WABI-SABI AND DESIGN
When designing wabi-sabi-style then you wont have a technical drawing or even a sketch, but you will be working from pure skill and experience. You will just have the idea of making something, lets say a bowl. You will make the shape of the bowl, not so much to look exactly as the one you made before. It will be similar for sure but the differences will be obvious, because you let yourself be guided by the moment in time and the immediate circumstances.
Maybe your cup will sink to one side while you are leaving it to dry and you will appreciate this flaw as beautiful.
When the tea cup is ready to be glazed then you will look closely at the shape of the cup and make what looks like accidental splatter, not a motif, not a colour, not a pattern. Just what you think this cup invited you to do. Every cup will be different from the other, representing their own beauty and always challenging the mind to explore and look closer.
WABI SABI AND UP-CYCLING
In wabi-sabi it has also been a long tradition to re-use things and make them into something else. One famous example is the tatami floors, an original wabi-sabi design. Tatami matts are made from the otherwise useless left over straw from rice. But if you take the time to stitch the straws together and finish the edges with fabric then you will find your self with a beautiful tatami matt. A worthless material has become something precious.
In wabi-sabi you will also find that doors becomes tables and fishing traps that becomes lamp shades. Wabi-sabi allows you to look at every object with an unlimited mind so you can see something new every time you look.
WABI-SABI AND NATURE
Wabi-sabi lovers also loves watching nature changing things and adding patina. Like rust on iron, moss growing on stone, water shaping wood and so on. Nothing can stay here forever and the process of 'disintegrantion' is beautiful to watch.
WABI-SABI AND CREATIVITY
I think that wabi-sabi is such an exciting way to twist things when we want to challenge our mind and creativity. In wabi-sabi there is always room for interpretation, you could even say that nothing is wabi-sabi until your own mind has added to the design through your imagination.
This is so far from the conceptual thinking we have been trained to do over the past 10-15 years. We have taught ourselves that there must be no room left for interpretation when we communicate a concept or a brand. Customers must understand what we want them to understand. And where it is true that a well defined concept makes it easier to handle communication on all levels then maybe time has moved on and away from this predictable and structured way of thinking. Maybe we have simply been trained too well as customers. And maybe it is time for any concept to ask these questions; Are we predictable? Are we boring? Have we become plain lazy? Is there a danger of us becoming old fashioned?
MODERN WABI-SABI
So where do you see wabi-sabi used today? The most obvious place to look is in the bread market stall where each bread looks different as opposed to the bread you find in the supermarket. Isn't part of the appeal of breads in the market stall that they look different?
The shop Anthropologie is great example for a more conceptual integration of wabi sabi. They use antique display units they do up for each individual shop, making for an interesting and personal shopping experience. It is one of the most interesting shop concepts around in the moment.
But also, if you visit a website where the website suddenly does something you would not expect it to do. Something surprising, something that engage you, then it could be wabi-sabi inspired. It could be a little cute bug that starts crawling across the page, without motivation from the user. Or like this website that invites you to have a little play with the menu on this website. You will probably be inspired to make a little tune, something that you will never be able to hear again, but never the less you will have a beautiful little moment. An impermanent moment.
It is worth noting that wabi-sabi hardly comes cheap. Wabi-sabi will always add to the value of any product, because it is unique and considered. When Anthropologie does up old furniture for their display, then it is not saving them money on the design. They do it because it appeals to their customer.
Wabi-sabi moves you because it engages you. The un-expected is attractive because we live in a predictable world. The exclusive event is important because it makes us feel special.
If you want to read more about wabi-sabi then I suggest this beautiful and easy to understand book by Leonard Koren, called "wabi-sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers", you can see it and order it by clicking here.
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