I have a confession to make. I am a design junkie. I love to watch YouTube videos on design. It’s not surprising really. The principles of design are part of art whether consciously or not and art is an important feature in designing a warm and welcoming space. Art and design share many principles. I have a few favourite design YouTube channels that I’ll share at the end. One of my favourites recently shared a concept called “the red thread” which I loved.
The idea of the “red thread” actually comes from storytelling and describes the unifying element that ties everything together in a story. It might be the quest of a character or a message the writer wants to convey in a piece of non fiction. The term originated in mythology where the ancients believed there was “a thread of destiny or fate” woven into a every human life.
In the design world a red thread is the design feature that ties everything together. It might be a colour, a type of wood, or a style of art that gives a subtle feeling of coherence to a room or a whole house. An example might be using a particular shade of green that repeats in every room in a slightly different way: bottle green pillows in the living room, a similar shade of green tiles in the bathroom, artwork featuring the same shade in the bedroom. And without thinking about it we feel the harmony the thread engenders.
Like me, you might have the same flooring and window shades throughout your home. It’s a red thread. If there is no red thread in a space you might have a vague sense that something is missing or a sense that you don’t know why it’s not quite pulling together.
What I loved about the idea of the “red thread” is I could see it everywhere once I heard about it. One red thread in my life is that I gravitate toward simplicity. It could be in my decor, in the clothing I choose, the spiritual practice that resonates.
You can see the thread in advertising and branding of products. It’s the through line, the recognizable packaging of your favourite products. And of course in the well crafted stories you read, the educational materials that are most effective.
And always I return to art, my home base, the thing my world revolves around.
I am including some pieces of my new work here, which are always an evolution of the old. You will see the red thread tracing it’s magical course through these pieces. That thread simply appeared as magical things sometimes do.
Embedded deep in our subconscious there is a red thread that runs through our lives and emerges in our work, whatever that may be. Sometimes, which is the case for me, I don’t know about it until I see it.
So I invite you to look for the red thread in your life. I think when you pull on it you will find it attached to everything.
Perhaps the ancients were right. We might not call it fate or destiny but it is the enigmatic essence that characterizes every life.
And as promised here are 3 of my favourite design channels :
a Finish design and lifestyle channel
Reynard Lowell- Australian designer
French Country Life- design and lifestyle channel from Burgundy
