A stroll in a city

I happened to walk along a pedestrian street in the city when a blind man burst in from the margins of my field of vision and became the latest addition to the moving crowd. Aimlessly, he hit his walking stick on the worn out pavement ground, while – unbeknownst to him – slowly drifting away from the pedestrian pavement. The two ladies in front of me, upon whom I have placed great expections to – due to their close promiximity to him – lend a helping hand, had walked away in wanton disregard for his safety.

“Here”, I said as I reached out to the edge of his sleeve, applying a mild pulling force enough to inform and effect a change in his bearings towards the yellow tactile pads, just before he was about to run straight into a steel pole bordering the pedestrian pavement.

Eye Candy

I am obsessed with beauty and all things aesthetically-pleasing: I bought the Gatsby Moving Rubber hair product because of its oh-so-futuristic design; in the library, only books couched in handsome facade that scream “read me!” would be selected to the circulation counter. While researching for universities to apply to, I unabashedly refer to their web pages to help me arrived at a decision. Those that brusquely screamed to have their computer windows closed, needless to say, would be ruefully discarded from my uni list. 

Aesthetically pleasing items seemed to generate a much more pleasant perception about the product. The role of aesthetics in consumer product design is well documented, as in the case of why iPod, Starbucks, and Gatsby can get away charging so much more for their products and still deservingly earn their legions of fans. A good book cover and a well design web page firstly catche my attention in an age of scarcity shortage, secondly they exude an air of sincerity, confidence, credibility, and authority, among the reasons I feel comfortable associating with a person or an organization. 

A year ago, I visited a local architecture company’s office for some solemn affair which I shall not delve into. The walls were adorned with architecture renderings of their works. Pretty innovative, I thought of their designs: Glass and steel structures, impressive form, simply aesthetically pleasing. Hungry for more eye candies, I visited their website, which immediately prompted me to declare that I can never speak highly of this firm again. The fonts were in someway an alienating element. Pictures were out of their aspect ratio. And the navigation system turns out to be a deceptive maze. In my humble opinion, this could potentially drive their business south, more so when they are in the business of aesthetics, just like advertising, fashion, and design school. By the revelation of such horror, they are communicating to me their idea of aesthetics, which, at the mere thought of it, would turn me off should I be looking for someone to design my building. A classic case of a simple drop of ink sullying the entire bucket of clear water. 

It was with those wry thoughts about the importance of good design that I had since dedicated some time to learn a couple of new languges (Javascript, CSS, and xHTML) and a few graphic softwares to redesign a personal website for myself to better sell my service (I’m a freelance pianist, by the way). 

Will be back soon with an eye candy.