Johnny recently wrote about about Alice in Wonderland’s imaginary kitchen and asked for ideas inspired by this theme. He wrote that fairy tales and children’s stories are great source material. When I think about Alice in Wonderland, I am reminded of Mary Blair, one of my favorite artists.

An unassuming quiet-spoken woman, she dominated Disney design for half a century. The stylishness and vibrant color of Disney films in the early 1940s through mid-1950s came primarily from her brush. In her prime, she was an amazingly prolific American artist who enlivened and influenced the not-so-small worlds of film, print, theme parks, architectural decor, and advertising. Her art represented joyful creativity and communicated pure pleasure to the viewer. Her exuberant fantasies brimmed with beauty, charm and wit, melding a child’s fresh eye with adult experience.

Animator Marc Davis, who put Mary’s exciting use of color on a par with Matisse, recalled, “She brought modern art to Walt in a way that no one else did. He was so excited about her work.” Mary’s unique color and styling greatly influenced many Disney postwar productions most notably The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. Mary assisted in the design of the It’s a Small World attraction for the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair (blame the music on the Sherman Brothers). She contributed to the design of many exhibits, attractions, and murals at the theme parks in California and Florida, including the fanciful murals in the Grand Canyon Concourse at the Contemporary Hotel.

As Johnny mentioned, the literal translation of ideas can capture atmospheres and events, similar to the way scenes from films capture an emotion or experience we identify with. Mary Blair’s art perfectly captures the scale and color of my early boomer childhood, and takes me there with the speed of PF Flyers to hideouts and imaginary forts of blankets over furniture. Though much of Blair’s work veers toward abstraction, her use of color and the storytelling aspect in her pictures, especially the underlying emotions expressed in much of her art, somehow transport me to a cozy and dreamlike place.

Instead of a single color or one veneer, we playfully use a mixture of color and wood in a painterly fashion.  Legendary animator Frank Thomas said, “Mary was the first artist I knew of to have different shades of red next to each other. You just didn’t do that! But Mary made it work.”

Like Carroll’s surrealist creation, a kitchen can bring such imaginative pleasure. Johnny says to escape is a great release; to dream and not quite understand is in some ways like visiting Venice, Machu Picchu or Gaudi’s Parc Guell. Blair’s biographer John Canamaker perhaps put it best when he wrote, “I feel great pleasure merely gazing at a work by Mary Blair. It’s as delicious as feasting on rainbows.”

If there isn’t a war inside your head you are in trouble. The art of cultivating inner voices maybe a sign of madness to some but for artists and designers it is a necessary form of creative turmoil. Howard Jacobson, the writer and critic said in a recent article on LS Lowry, the painter that inner dissensions are a vital spur to self development. By way of this I surmise he means going beyond the clichés of style and straight design issues to exploiting self doubt and the craggy edges from the hinterland of psychology and cultural history.

The way of giving design vitality is, rather than jogging along with the certainties of function, ergonomics and stripped down aesthetica, to go risky and push to the point of discomfort. After all you have to teleport yourself into newness so you might as well take it a stage further.. But it’s no use challenging a client with a cutting edge design unless you have had that inner dialogue. Gravitas comes via confidence, borne of preparation and meditative analysis infuses your argument with depth, gives your story a rich narrative. A visit to an unfashionable architect’s building, reading an obscure tract in Praise of Shadows, struggling with a dystopian novel, making a foray into an-edge-of-design topic like the role of mess or philosophy of maintenance or simply trying out practical ideas by trial and inconvenient error – all these mini journeys even frustrated ones count.

There is no substitute for depth and authenticity and that is achieved through a combination of curiosity, experience, courage and a wide band width of interest.
Design more than some other professions is about the future. We need the gift of foresight because the physical world, unlike software and the world of media, hangs around a long time, is more expensive to change. How we will live in twenty years time? We need to suss out what social changes there will be. Will we be still living in houses with loads of small rooms for example? Are green issues going to change our use of space? Will changes in our behaviour be requiring separate kitchens? If not then we may no longer require architects, kitchen and interior designers but wholistic ‘interior architects’ who understand peoples emotional needs. This will this make many of us obselete.? Perhaps we might need ‘emotional’ designers who focus on human needs as much as practical ones? As is happens the science of happiness is now big news and will be available as a tool for designers through neuroscience.

So we need to go for inspiration to the fringes where writers, artists, scientists, futurists, psychologists and street wise graffiti merchants, independent thinkers and provacateurs live.. We should read not just design magazines but the New Scientist rather than design magazines, Resurgence (Green and philosophy) or books by dissidents, economists and political activists like No Logo, the text of Anti globalisation movement to Affluenza by Oliver James, the Alexander Technique by John Gray or Happiness by Richard Layard. I could go on. Take advantage of being in a profession that can justifiably investigate the savannah and the dark forests of civilisation to make the umbrella for life.. Summarise, link together, disseminate and put it to use when you draw up your next design project. Even if it only changes the colour scheme or adds a different shaped window seat you have brought your wisdom into play and society has gained from your awareness. Start that internal war now or perhaps I should call it dialogue.

Design is essentially applied thinking and not just solving the problems of measurement. It means not doing what everyone else is, challenging client’s expectations and having the skill to carryout your ideas. In this way life moves forwards, we have more fun and serve our clients better.