The essence of interior design will always be about people and how they live.
Albert HadleyRead
So many young decorators are trying to reinvent the wheel, and the results are sometimes very dubious. They're striving to do things that have never been done before. Quite often it is done without authority, without knowledge, and without a background in taste. They need to be educated about the past, and they need a richer vocabulary.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of understanding historical context and foundational knowledge in creative fields.
Albert Hadley suggests that many emerging decorators attempt to create innovative work without a sufficient understanding of established design principles and history. He highlights the need for education and a deep appreciation of past influences to cultivate genuine taste and skill in their craft.
Themes
DecoratingEducationTasteCreativityHistory
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can serve as a reminder during a design seminar to emphasize the importance of foundational knowledge.
More from Albert Hadley
All quotes →Too much of what passes for design now is theater. It's one thing to be eccentric- and by the way, most eccentrics tend to be rather well-educated people - and quite another to be a faddist, by which I mean someone who tries to conjure a totally foreign aesthetic in a misplaced environment.
Albert HadleyRead
Decorating is not about making stage sets, it's not about making pretty pictures for the magazines, it's really about creating a quality of life, a beauty that nourishes the soul.
Albert HadleyRead
Decoration is really about creating a quality of life, and a beauty in that life that nourishes the soul, that makes life beautiful.
Albert HadleyRead
Similar quotes
What children can do with the assistance of others might be in some sense even more indicative of their mental development than what they can do alone
Lev S. VygotskyRead
If present trends continue, our country may soon find itself far behind many other nations in both science and technology nations where, if you inform strangers that you are a mathematician, they respond with admiration and not by telling you how much they hated math in school, and how they sure could use you to balance their checkbooks.
Martin GardnerRead
Kids all want to look cool, as if knowledge is a great burden, but they're always looking around. They remember.
Frank MccourtRead
I think I would abolish schools which systematically inculcate sectarian beliefs.
Richard DawkinsRead
Language is more fashion than science, and matters of usage, spelling and pronunciation tend to wander around like hemlines.
Bill BrysonRead
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. Without books, the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are engines of change (as the poet said), windows on the world and lighthouses erected in the sea of time. They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print.
Barbara TuchmanRead