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Joy of pattern
Patterns give me joy, and this quiz from @Issue magazine suggests that they bring joy to many cultures around the world as well. The quiz asks you to match the patterns above with the nationalities...
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Joyful trucking
Riaz has these great photos of Pakistani cargo trucks on his site. He says: What’s amazing about this is that these are just regular cargo trucks. The truck drivers put in this much effort into almost...
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Delicious books
Well, I was going to leave you for the next few days* but then I saw these and I couldn’t wait to put them up. For these Penguin Classics, designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith, I might actually think...
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Joyfully uninviting
Can something say “Keep Out!” and still be joyful? This was the question that popped into my head as I considered the Razzle Dazzle Sculptural Security object, the angular plywood contraption jammed...
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Abundant pattern, transcendent joy
A few months ago I wrote about the architecture of worship — about how elements like elevation, light, and scale create a sense of awe that supports transcendent, spiritual joy. These elements are...
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Joy and death? The Merry Cemetery
Can death be joyful? The Merry Cemetery is a real burial site in Romania. But instead of the traditional somber aesthetics of death, the headstones feature colorful designs and scenes that explain how...
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On joy and order
There’s something pleasurable about a good pattern, and it’s a pleasure all out of proportion to reason. Pattern is just arrangement, not content; it lacks the inherent meaning and immediacy of pure...
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Vibrating color: Jim Lambie
Glasgow-based artist Jim Lambie creates installations out of vinyl tape that make spaces come alive with an intense energy. Tracing the contours of a room’s perimeter, his work seems to magnify the...
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Gray Malin, À la plage
Gray Malin’s À la plage series is like a cross between Massimo Vitali and Richard Misrach, combining the joy of things viewed from above with the sensorial pleasure of beach aesthetics. Malin says:...
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Joyful violence?
Can violence ever be joyful? I tried to address this question in a piece I wrote for an online MoMA exhibit called Design and Violence. It’s not the first time I’ve written about the axes produced by...
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Vibrant Vlisco
This is about the part of winter where I’m just over it, and yet I realize that we’re still hardly even halfway through. Piled under all my layers (the down coat, the thick sweater, the scarf so big...
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The personalities of colors
If you like colors, I think I’m about to make your day. You’re about to meet all the personalities of the colors of the rainbow. Did you know that Fuschia’s a fussbudget and that Magenta’s a gossip?...
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Colorful reflections
Here’s something subtle, yet charming, in honor of today’s snowy day. Artist Toshihiko Shibuya adds color to snow through reflection. By painting metal disks and plates with bright colors, he creates...
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Rainbow falls
I’ve never been to Niagara Falls, but I’ve heard it can bring out intense reactions of wonder and awe. In 1842 Charles Dickens described his experience in such terms: I was in a manner stunned, and...
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Sarah Illenberger’s Wonder Plants
Plants are pretty perfect things. I’ve never looked at a leaf and thought, “You know, that really needs a little something.” But then illustrator Sarah Illenberger comes along and shows me joy I never...
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Color Courage
Are you afraid of color? I never really thought much about this until recently, when I read a piece of research done in the UK that says that more than half of Britons would like to use more color in...
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Objects of affection: next-level Easter eggs
My grandparents were big into Easter, and I have great memories of dyeing eggs and going hunting for them in the backyard. But even my crafty Nana would be blown away by these incredible Easter egg...
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Paint the town
Further to my post a couple of weeks ago about the power of color to enliven, check out this story of Jim Cotter, a widower from Glouster, Ohio who decided to fix up his town by painting buildings...
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Color around every corner
For a reserved culture, the Japanese certainly aren’t shy about color. Everywhere in Tokyo you find pops of the brightest hues, on doors and signage, traffic cones and taxicabs. The color comes in...
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Joymaker: Emmanuelle Moureaux, architect
I spend a lot of time looking for joyful things to write about — but sometimes they just manage to fall into my lap. I arrived back from Japan to a note from Emmanuelle Moureaux, a Tokyo-based French...
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