So, just this morning I was ordering the new version of the long awaited and heralded upgrade of Quark 7, which represents the biggest positive jump in this software since Vr. 4, seemingly years back. I am reminded to the very origin of the word Quark, which is probably different from what you might think, and a pretty interesting story, actually.

It has to do with all the things that explore and constitute biology, life, and fluids… particularly as they are sustainable and worthy… the origins of life finding themselves conjoined by the ideals of this word ‘quark’… But wait, that idea isn’t so far from the ideals of Walter Gropius back in 1919, when he created the Bauhaus. The very word ‘Bauhaus’ is a derivative of the German word ‘Bauer,’ which means ‘to build’ in a very broad sense— even building up the human being. So as history might have it, it became the house for building.

Gropius tried to instill in the teaching of the Bauhaus the opportunity to reach out, explore, and for the student to find an objective approach. In his very words, “We tried to find out all the things that are based on the psychology and biology of human life which are objective.”

The word ‘quark’ found its way into our usage in 1964, first via the physicist Murray Gell-Mann, as he theorized that the differences between protons, neutrons, and newly discovered particles could be explained by the existence of these still smaller particles called quarks and leptons- even winning the Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery (incidentally, Murry Gell-Mann got his idea for the name Quark after reading James Joyce’s, Finnegan’s Wake — from a line in Finnegan’s Wake: “Three quarks for Muster Mark”).

So, once we thought the atom was the smallest particle known to man…but, subsequently now find out the atom was composed of protons and neutrons. which are made up of quarks and leptons. A quark is one of two currently recognized groups of fundamental sub-atomic particles, which represent a smallest known unit of what we call matter. Matter is a substance represented by inertia, which might be defined as a resistance to speed or direction.

Quarks and leptons are distinguished in terms of flavors as a way to differentiate them from each other. The six quark flavors are— up, down, top, bottom, strange, and charm. Everything in our readily observable world seems to be made up of just the up quark, the down quark, and the electron, which is the most famous lepton. Top and bottom quarks are also known as truth and beauty.

So, that is how it comes to be—up, down, truth or beauty… quark!… And, are not these ideals of truth and beauty concerns of the very essence of the tenets of philosophy— and, are these not at the core of any consideration? As Paul Rand imagined: the endless conflicts between spiritual and material, between ends and means, form and content, form and function, form and facture, form and purpose, form and meaning, form and idea, form and habit, form and skill, form and style need to be resolved. It is the merging of these conflicts that determines the aesthetic quality of a painting, a design, a building, a sculpture, or a printed piece. As in any sense of philosophy, it is within the normative sciences that we seek the essence of truth and beauty.

A best definition for philosophy was written down for a first time by the wise sage Epicletus in the discourses: “a recognition of the conflicts between men, a search for their cause, condemnation of mere opinion, and the discovery of a standard for judgment. There are, of course, five basic tenets of philosophy: logic (the logos, the origin of our modern word ‘logo,’ which stood for more than spoken words. The extent of the concept was that behind spoken words were thoughts. Thoughts were mind. Mind had affinity with reason. Reason was the structure of orderly action that ultimately was reasonable, was in fact reason itself.); aesthetics, which is the study of the understanding of beauty; ethos, which is your ethics or an understanding of an ideal conduct; and politics which is the understanding of organizational behaviors, i.e., democracy, socialism, feminism; and, lastly, metaphysics, which is the understanding of the resistance of matter or a discovery of reality.

Beauty gives us a quality of life, and we so desperately need it in our lives. Beauty offers pleasure to the senses and is associated with the interpretation of truth and originality. So, why debate the importance of style when—surely—what you should be talking about is aesthetics, which is the successive or simultaneous interaction of form and content? I’ve never met a design student yet who was driven to enroll at Portfolio Center without a keen love for and sense of aesthetics. There’s something about beauty, color, lines, and forms that enticed you to design to begin with. That’s the gift of artists in general, that attention and sensitivity to beauty. We’ll call that a “given.”

As I write this now, I am looking across my office filled with artifacts that remember me to this over and over. On the shelf is the packaging and branding project, Starfuckers. I’ll never forget the student who did that project, whose own background had been in international banking and finance, a career that held none of her passion. Once she decided to take a chance to find herself, she was led here because she had an old aunt when she was growing up, who wore a red beret that had a white feather on it. The aunt was so very different from the norm of all the others in her family—all dressed in their blue three-piece suits… and the spirit of that aunt, the aesthetic, was the inspiration of the influence that gave her the courage to change her own life.

There is a zen story of a monk asked his teacher, “What is myself?” The teacher answered, “Something hidden within yourself.’”

The point being, if you use your own leadership to define and make a difference, use it as a core worth defined by your personal value and beliefs, you will become the work you are, and the work you are is the work you do, and that in of itself can become a value for society.

Here’s a thought from Dieter Rams, “Poor design is making something worthless; Good design is making something intelligible and memorable; Great design is making something memorable and meaningful; and, Exceptional design is making something meaningful and worthwhile.”

Let’s say there are two blenders out there… on a shelf somewhere… and, they are relatively the same defined by function… well— what rationale would define any logic, that if a designer can make a beautiful one sell more because of the aesthetic, that it would be bad, demeaning, or unethical of anything?

A lot of chairs are designed over time here at Portfolio Center and they are beautiful to look at, but you might not want to sit in them. So are they “bad design”?

The purpose of the chairs is to create culture more than to reflect it. Some hit the mark better than others in their interpretation. The chairs explore the relationship assuredly of form… and, how it plays in shaping culture… beliefs, goals, language… and in this sense, the ideal that design is a process of inquiry, a means of understanding and a way of guiding interaction is the most important aspect, not as much a signifier of physical form.

What the chairs represent and reflect are metaphors of understanding that the condition of modernism is a progressive force and attitude, and one of being a catalyst that can be used for exploring and defining critical relationships of culture. They are an interpretation of Truth.

As for functionality, once Charles Eames was asked whether he designed for pleasure or function, and he responded… “Who ever said pleasure wasn’t functional?”

The task is to make accessibility just that… and things enjoyable as well. Within that thought at issue is the understanding that the elegance of the solution that solves the problem is a personal challenge, not necessarily a utilitarian discipline. So, how can you as a designer use a visual medium to instill values in society? Perhaps by not using a design-for-design sake approach but, rather, tapping into your own value system

So what then is the critical value of design? Perhaps the best design then is design that solves problems and in doing so leads toward making a contribution to one simple distinction between animal and man, between survival and civilization: “the ability to communicate,” and that only comes from sharing.

Here’s a note from the thoughts of AIGA Executive Director, Ric Grefe— ones that I have always thought insightful and demonstrative:

At our very best, intelligence, feeling, and perception combine to inform our work, to draw others into a shared visual narrative, and to make of our experience a victory of the deepest feeling of curiosity, understanding, amusement, affection even sympathy.

When you and I succeed at this kind of design or visual communication, the proverbial public square within which our sometimes primitive community exchanges its information is a little less polluted, a little less vulgar, and our common habitat a little more hospitable.

When we fail, well, we get up and try again. Out there, the public waits for something real. Not of artifice. Not Tricky. Real. They will give you a moment or two of their life, they never get it back, and you are given the chance to give them something of value in return. THAT is a moral transaction.

The expectation, that hope; the unarticulated but patient trust that as a communicator, we will try our best that is what’s at stake. That’s what defines the profession you have chosen. Henry Thoreau got it right: “To affect the quality of the day is the highest of arts.” That is your mission.” And a standard, perhaps Goethe got it right: “In art, the best is good enough.”

As you seek and explore and draw observations from analyzing and probing by criticism— well, it opens to questions concerning cultural, functional and aesthetic societal values, just as the last now famous ‘Mike and Alvin,’ blog of the last several days did.

There is more about who you are and what you do than going about your time concerning yourself with the making of mere footpaths to the highway… rather, your study at Portfolio Center should represent an opportunity for understanding how you might affect attitudes in a socially responsible way by your own design.

You will always know you are beginning to get a good education, when you can start understanding what it is you do know measured against what you don’t know.

Furthermore, if in the time you are at Portfolio Center—and for that matter into your professional life — if you truly tap into your own value system, style will indeed emerge, unique and distinct. One of the fundamental ideals I try to instill in you guys is that what’s important—in this business and in your lives—is to author your values, to develop a vocabulary—a form—that is yours, to position your signature as a style, and then to share it though your work. If you can sit alone in a room and be happy with yourself, you are on your way to a signature style. Know and respect who you are.

What we seek in design, not that we always achieve it, is a harmonious relationship, where value becomes a balance between form and beauty. Buckminster Fuller summed it up: “When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only of how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”

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