I'm Sorry, I Don't Speak Money

In the majority of cases, does good design, or beauty, by necessity have to be expensive? I could have asked, "Does good design, or beauty, by necessity have to be expensive?", but we don't live in a black and white world. Beauty can be free, but do we usually find it expensive to create?

Last Christmas, Ms. Huis bought a present from some online retailer and shortly thereafter received an e-mail indicating that our purchase had entitled us to a free one year subscription to one of the following magazines. Nothing on the list really caught her eye, but thinking of her husband (bless her soul), she chose a one year subscription of Architectural Digest, which bills itself as The International Magazine of Design.

I'm on my third month of the magazine now. The first month was enjoyable, but mid way through the second magazine, I began to feel a sense of unease. Something I couldn't quite put my finger on. By the third magazine, it became obvious what was bothering me about Architectural Digest.

There was an article about the design of a theater room. The kind that has a big screen, fancy electronics and a few rows of raised seating. A home theater room is something that has become more common over the years. It's the kind of room that you can find in a middle class household. Getting a professional designer to decorate said room is something I would expect ot see from those in the upper middle class or higher. We don't have have a theater room, but it is something I could see. Someday.

What took this article over the top though, was that this was about the interior design applied to a theater room.

On a yacht crewed by nine people.

This isn't upper middle class. This is money the likes of which I will never understand. I don't even know how to relate to it. Having sufficient money to not only own a yacht, but to also employ nine people full time to run it?

And in reviewing the design, I'm not sure if I can sift through the ostentatious glare to find those design elements that I could afford to apply in the first place.