BAD vs. Good design?

I often notice that when it comes to antiques, people don't necessarily pay attention to the design of an item and how well designed it is.

Let's face it: there's plenty of bad design even in the category of antiques.

I've noticed that the most high-end galleries and antique stores tend to have the "neatest" and most timeless, balanced and well-designed antiques while elsewhere you have to go through a lot of awkward furniture and such before coming across something great.
I don't think it's a coincidence. The more expensive places have staff with understanding of design and such, so they only sell that kind of pieces.

Do most people even detect the difference between good and bad design?

2 examples (pictures linked from other sites found through google):








VS:









(The second picture group is the good design -one)

The well-designed items that I like, they all have this certain thing to them that I can't explain.. A perfect, solid-looking combination of symmetry, texture and colour. They have an intriguing, timeless silhouette and character. The badly designed ones however look lousy to me.

What do you think?

Is it a matter of taste or what naturally pleases the human eye?

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And then there's champagne taste vs. beer budget.

Nice of you to let us know which is the good group.

 

Sorry for the interruption, but an off-topic reply first. I just left a thread, only one page, and a quote is in their from a member, but the original is not showing on my screen. NOW I click quote on a moreotherstuff and it shows TWO quotes, second not on my screen.
Is it me or my computer??????????

Now, my response - Thanks moreotherstuff, I agree and will take it a bit further. Picture # 2 - NO THANKS on the mirror, but the vase is OK. (Is that Consolidated?)
The more elaborate table is OK, but not my choice. I can appreciate the mirror, but not in my home, and I have never cared for that style vase.

BTW, I rarely drink beer and prefer Johnny Walker Black or a good Malbac.

 

My reply did not post.
CYL, maybe.

 

I've never been a fan of Carlo Bugatti. The quality is self-evident but, for my taste, the design is over-the-top. But price? Hubba-hubba!


People have already expressed opinions on Kazimir Malevich. Great artistic statement? Waste of canvas? Fraud?
White-on-white (1918):

Again, it's unlikely that anybody here could afford to buy this.

How about Norman Rockwell? Great art, or cheesy hokum?

 

I think it's hilarious that my friend says her house is "grown up." The not very subtle message she's putting out to us "artistic" types is that she's got it together.

I guess because she loves wallpaper and curtain treatments, her house is one of great sophistication, and I know by now the single best way to make her happy is to praise her taste (you can imagine how she feels if we don't!!!).

Somehow I'm annoyed AND tickled - I'll so never tell her that her mahogany side table from Bombay is mostly particle board.

And when I tell my other friend (a hoarder of nice things and always tragically short of cash) a small bronze sculpture is a Hagenauer and probably worth a few bucks - she wonders why I'm so "interested" in her stuff?

She runs estate sales, but doesn't have enough curiosity to be interested, and doesn't even know what her hoard of Fostoria American glass is called...

Good or bad, classically valid or executed or not, things tell a story about time, culture, practicality, creativity, wealth, education - to many things to mention - that I find endlessly fascinating.

 

True.

What I meant by bad design is sloppy, low-quality, lazy and aesthetically uninspiring stuff.

Of course there are always people who think they like some of the ugliest things.
What is also true is that it's been proven, for example that symmetry is pleasing to the human mind, so it's common in classical architecture.

What is the most crucial point is: What do you need your home to do for you?

Do you need a calming home? A timeless one? Creepy? Sweet and energetic? Effortless?

 

Who are you replying to?

I don't really understand your question(s?), I think

 

Of course there are always people who think they like some of the ugliest things.

You mean they don't really?

 

While I get the point, I find the examples chosen to be rather curious. The first table is not an antique and the one it is matched to is rather clunky with oversized feet. It also looks like it has likely been cut down. I think there are much better examples to show than either of these. Between the mirrors, I don't particularly like either of them but prefer the first if I had to choose. With the vases, Again, I don't particularly like either examples. The first may not be an antique. I am really not sure what I am looking at. Looks like 80s frosted glass to me. The porcelain vases are nice but not my taste. I also think there are much superior examples of this type to show.

Some of this is personal preference. However, there does seem to be some consensus of what is classic design that stands the test of time. Whether or not you buy into the consensus or have preferences that take you in a different direction is often a matter of personal choice, knowledge, and budget. There is room for all of us here.

As a dealer, I am too busy trying to make a living to care much about good design these days. My experience is that if I try to offer "better" things, I likely will starve in this economy. If times were different, I lived elsewhere, and I didn't need to make a living, it would be a different story. People do want nice things but often are following trends. Many don't necessarily have the knowledge about antiques to know the good from the bad and they certainly don't want to pay for it.

 

You started out inviting people to talk about taste, or lack of...

Now you're talking about environments and ambiance...

All I can say is that some of the best-educated people with the most money can end up with impersonal, fussy, boring homes, while some with the least education and money end up with really interesting, well thought out homes.

If my own great/bad taste and sound/questionable impulses didn't surround me with a lot of stuff I'd be better off without, my home would be much more comfortable and comforting place to me.

 

When I worked in the Mid-Century Modern retail industry in an "alternative" San Francisco neighborhood with a really diverse clientele, some buyers came from miles - sometimes cities - away, knowing exactly what they were looking at and decided on condition whether or not to buy. No matter how much they wanted it, if it wasn't perfect, they couldn't force themselves to buy.

Some just rolled in having spent their Saturday morning poring over the weekend paper design section, hoping to score something everyone else was looking for and only willing to buy if it was at a ridiculous bargain (Martha Stewart found it at a thrift store, why shouldn't they)!

I worked for friends who obviously knew what they were doing and sold to both. They let me bring my own stuff in and weren't shy about telling me it was junk - sometimes they were just posturing, but if I was interested enough to look around, eventually I found they were often right - it was junk! They taught me a lot about being more critical.

 

De gustibus non est disputandum....

 

This is not an antique.
Coffee tables did not come into being until after WWII.

The table is either new or someone took an old table and re-purposed it destroying it's original value.
So therefore, I cannot see how you call this a quality piece.

Just because you like something, does not mean it meets the standards or criteria of others.

It's a matter of personal opinion, knowledge and an eye for quality.
Not all of us have all three things working for us, or maybe they only work in an areas that interest us.

 

I didn't and I only meant that it looks better and more timeless than the first table.

I was going to, for that reason add a disclaimer, but I didn't: These pieces are only shown loosely as non-specific design-references, whether they are antique or not, regardless of their authenticity, quality or accuracy.

 

Then I guess I just don't see your point.
If the examples you show don't fit what you are trying to discuss.

 

Best not to talk about taste - just talk behind your hand when you don't like, and let the sun come out when you do.

I feel like I'm talking to myself here.

 

Lovely wording for your point of view, Scoutshouse.

Money means little in the greater scheme of things for someone to have a warm and inviting home as well as a warm and inviting persona.

The wealthiest person you know may still make you think (silently of course) that "all his/her taste is in his/her mouth."

 

I don't even know who made this about money.

Wasn't me.

 

Barfen on shoesen.