Designer/Decorator (Potato/Potatoe)

Titles are for royalty. What matters is your work and what you stand for.

I was recently at a gathering in my city attended by many area decorators and designers, a little wine and cheese affair. (You know what I'm talking about, where your competition is there pretending to be your friend!) Anyway, the topic of title acts came up, and suddenly the fake smiles faded. Two distinct camps suddenly emerged among us; the decorators and the designers. Those who support title legislation and those who don't. You could even go so far as to say there are several sub-groups; decorators who call themselves designers anyway, designers who wish they made as much money as some decorators, designers who look down on the decorators, decorators who are intimidated by the designers, etc. I am actually in the group called "I don't care what you call me as long as you call me". One designer had a name for the decorators; "people who work out of their cars". (Actually, I joke all the time that even though I have a studio, my Chevy Tahoe is my REAL office. I didn't know there was an actual put-down out there!) Another designer looked at me during the conversation and said, "If this passes, you'll probably be out of business."

WOW. My first thought was, "the host better shut down the wine tray", then I answered, "I will never be out of business because you will never be able to legislate art". She glared. I left. (Nothing good was going to come of this.)

Can't we all just be friends? There really is enough work for everybody. There are as many facets to this business as there are stars in the night sky. Everybody chill. Figure out your niche and fill it. Planning how many cubicles fit into an office is not my thing; if it is yours, go for it. Live and let live; design and let design.

What is Design Anyway?

I follow Joni Webb's blog, Cote de Texas regularly, and recently was elated because she ran a piece on ASID and their bulldog attack on designers who practice without being "licensed". Well, this is a subject near and dear to my heart. ( Just ask my family who have heard my soapbox speeches for many years.) To me designing rooms and homes is an art and I believe art is individual and largely innate. We as humans all possess it in some ways, I believe. Therefore, I don't believe artistic expression can or should be legally controlled in any way. The areas involving structure and safety fall into the architect's realm.

This morning while having my coffee, I was scanning through a few of the ten thousand catalogs I get every day, and came across the Sundance catalog from the actor Robert Redford. He promotes hand-made jewelry, clothes, and items for the home. On the inside cover, he talks about the other part of his life, art and painting. Here is a thought-provoking quote by him on the subject of what art is:

"There are many avenues under the broad categories called art, but at its core, to me,
art is simply the language of the soul"

So, there you go. Whether your medium is paint, pen and ink, or furniture and textiles, you can design if you want to. But we better watch the people who want to legislate what is literally the language of the soul. Those of us who are lucky enough to see the world this way should never take for granted the ability to express it.

Thank God agencies like this weren't around when these guys were working!