The Perfection of Imperfection
Several years ago 60 Minutes profiled a Harvard professor who taught a course with the sole purpose of training his students to look differently at the things before them. From everyday items to architecture, marketing and design. When we take that approach today, especially looking at the media, there seems to be a clear and refreshing trend; imperfect is the new perfect.
The perfect Calvin Klein models of the 80’s have been replaced by the Dove Real Beauty campaign featuring very real people. From the slew of talk show hosts a decade ago who has emerged as the undisputed queen of them all? Oprah and her real life struggles with real life issues (like her public weight battle). Perfect sitcom families haven’t only disappeared from the TV landscape; they’ve been replaced almost entirely by depictions that ridicule the antiquated notion of domestic utopia. Furthermore, the reality of reality TV has become the strongest force in broadcast media today. In magazines, staid and studied perfection, typified by the likes of Architectural Digest and Better Homes & Gardens, has been replaced with real life images common to magazines like Dwell.
Think about the reality, and relative perfection, of imperfection. Especially when you think about design. The way we live is honest and authentic, so our homes and our lives should reflect that. Forget about lofty notions of perfection, we’ve had it all along. We were just calling it by the wrong name.
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