The Design of Comfort

Life is hard and tiring. Everything feels so tight, so relentless. It's strange how tough things can get, but all of us living today seem to be grinding through the same tough life. Jobs are scarce, and big and small crises never really stop coming. When was the last time you looked up and actually felt the ease of clouds drifting by in the wind?

According to Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, the secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world without ever forgetting the two drops of oil in the spoon. But the two drops of oil in our own spoon feel like they could spill over at any moment.

And yet we still find the courage to keep living today, and maybe that's because of the people we love and the people who love us back. Let's listen for a moment to something Kim Je-dong said (starting at 03:35).

Like his answer to the question of what carries us through frustration and hardship, all it takes is one friend who can share our anxiety and comfort us, and we find the courage to hold on. And here, there are people trying to offer that same comfort and empathy through design.

Yu In-kyung and Park Seon-ju's book The Design of Comfort introduces designs that feel like a friend patting you gently on the shoulder. Both authors studied literature and worked as design magazine journalists, and the way they write about design is anything but ordinary.

Each chapter title reads like a haiku, and the thirty one design stories gathered underneath them feel like a wholesome meal, carefully and neatly set. As you look through these pieces, which the authors call the wonder of the ordinary made art, you can't help wanting to own one for yourself.

Some are fairly well known, like Candy Chang's public art project Before I Die, while others are more obscure, like traditional Scandinavian houses with their beautiful green roofs, seen from far away. Each has its own distinct character, but they all share something at their core: the nature around us, laughter, the modest imagination of everyday life. That's what makes them feel like real, human comfort.

If love were only a matter of hormones, then fallen leaves would be only a matter of chlorophyll. But we know, whether through experience, emotion, or instinct, that it's never that simple. p.86

If there's one thing to watch for in this book, it's savoring the bursts of emotional, literary language that slip in between the plainly written design introductions. That flavor is quietly satisfying.

Life goes on, regardless. Tomorrow will likely be just as tough as yesterday and today. But we can still smile, because there are people out there planting a handful of love and hope into the world, each in their own way. That's exactly why The Design of Comfort feels all the more valuable.

The Design of Comfort