On this lazy Saturday, I’m revisiting a favorite book, Joyful, by Ingrid Fetell Lee. This book explores the impact of design on the environment, behavior and emotions. This is perfect for designers, creatives or anyone else wanting to cultivate joyful experiences in their lives. It’s certainly made me much more aware of the use of color, shapes and sounds in the environment and has influenced the way I approach my creative projects.
I find that I’m naturally drawn to artists and photographers who use color to communicate. One of my favorites is Brittany Wright, a photographer who specializes in food gradient photography. A few of the principles from Joyful are revealed through her work, including abundance and harmony.
Examples of her work may be found on her website, Wright Kitchen:
Wright Kitchen features vibrant and colorful food photography
Several chapters of the book resonated with me, including a section on harmony featuring the quilters of Gee’s Bend. I love quilting, so I was intrigued to check out their work. Their quilts may be based on common quilting patterns, but are entirely improvisational. I use improvisational techniques in my own quilting because I love the freedom it lends, the organic nature of it, and the surprise factor involved, since I don’t always know how a quilt will look until it’s almost finished.
I’m looking forward to taking a deeper dive into the book this second time around and may decide to explore the key concepts outlined in the book in future blog posts.