Too much of what passes for design now is theater. It's one thing to be eccentric- and by the way, most eccentrics tend to be rather well-educated people - and quite another to be a faddist, by which I mean someone who tries to conjure a totally foreign aesthetic in a misplaced environment.
Interpretation
Design should be genuine and suited to its environment, rather than simply following trends.
In this quote, Albert Hadley emphasizes the distinction between genuine creativity and mere trend-following in design. He critiques the tendency for design to become superficial or theatrical, arguing that true design should reflect both individuality and an understanding of context, rather than merely adopting fads that do not align with their surroundings.
In practice
In a design meeting to emphasize the importance of contextual design.
So many young decorators are trying to reinvent the wheel, and the results are sometimes very dubious. They're striving to do things that have never been done before. Quite often it is done without authority, without knowledge, and without a background in taste. They need to be educated about the past, and they need a richer vocabulary.
The essence of interior design will always be about people and how they live.
Decorating is not about making stage sets, it's not about making pretty pictures for the magazines, it's really about creating a quality of life, a beauty that nourishes the soul.
Decoration is really about creating a quality of life, and a beauty in that life that nourishes the soul, that makes life beautiful.
But then, so far as I know, I am the only performer who ever pledged his assistants to secrecy, honor and allegiance under a notarial oath.
People call me the painter of dancers, but I really wish to capture movement itself.
I alter some things, eliminate and try again until I am satisfied. Then begins the mental working out of this material in its breadth, its narrowness, its height and depth.
Poems infatuated with their own smarts and detached from any emotional grounding can leave the reader feeling lonely, empty and ashamed for having expected more. Like icy adolescents, such poetry is more interested in commiserating than acknowledging that feelings — the sentiments that make us susceptible to sentimentality — actually exist.
The avantgarde are people who don't exactly know where they want to go, but are the first to get there.
The most beautiful thing in the world is a ballpark filled with people.
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