See for Yourself

March 30, 2015
Designer Forbes, founder of the retail chain Design Within Reach, presents a guide to recognizing and appreciating beauty in all its everyday forms. He opens with photographs of seafood scraps in Panama and a bin full of nail polish in Seoul. “By paying closer attention to the man-made world, we become more insightful and more engaged, and we have a little more fun,” he says. Forbes helps readers appreciate his perspective, offering a series of brief essays paired with photographs on applying concepts like form, contrast, and light and shadow to common settings and objects. The strength and character of angles are explored using photos of a door hinge and a slice of pizza. An array of house numbers in Charleston, S.C., and doorbells in Venice, Italy, illustrate the diversity of everyday objects. A collection of pocket watches appears next to groupings of keys and scissors, illuminating complexity of composition. The essays accompanying this cultivated kaleidoscope are equally impressive, as Forbes muses on cultural quirks (“red is a controlled substance in Brazil”), favorite places for finding inspiration (walkable cities and farmers’ markets), and cultivating an eye for simplicity and unintended design, all of which help readers to see rather than look. This is an uplifting and engaging manifesto for mindfulness.