Paint Chips tells the story of the Esquire, a Brooklyn apartment building that decided each floor would be allowed to choose the exterior colors of their doors, as well as each door’s jambs, lintel and sill.
The result? A classic tale of too many cooks in the kitchen. Years have passed and there’s still no agreement. Check out these quotes from different residents of the building:
“It really is a conflict of too many creative people.”
“It’s like the Bloods and the Crips—except it’s the Teals and the Dark Charcoals.”
“Most people on this floor are somehow involved in the visual arts, so everyone has a feeling about color, you know, one way or the other.”
“It was like the Civil War—brother against brother. I was in the charcoal camp, the side of righteousness.”
“Someone who shall remain nameless looked at me and said that I had to go along with whatever the majority votes, because it’s a democracy. I said, ‘No, I don’t think so. That’s tyranny of the majority.’”
One resident announced that the turquoise color another had selected for her trim made her nauseated leading to this comment: “That’s not nice. Say ‘It’s not to my taste,’ not ‘It makes me sick.’ That’s intolerance, which is the basis of oppression and bigotry.”
“Yeah, there’s been tension. But if more than four eyes roll at once, a community is forming. I think the root of the problem is resistance to change. As an earnest attempt at micro-democracy, the process was educational and entertaining. But at a point, I was ready for a benign dictatorship. If the board had just sent paint crews to do the job, people would have been thrilled with or gawked at the new coat of paint. I bet that’s how it works in the Gretsch building.”
“We live in a hyper design age, where we are all raging aesthetes.”
When it comes to designing something, a benevolent dictator is sometimes a welcome alternative to the chaos of democracy.
Chris Jones
on 02 May 08“When it comes to designing something, a benevolent dictator is sometimes a welcome alternative to the chaos of democracy.”
Couldn’t agree more, I really appreciate when someone cuts through the cruft and asks for a decision to be made (or makes the decision themselves)
Benjy
on 02 May 08In these types of situations, there needs to be some sort of happy medium where the choice is narrowed down, but there is some sort of say by those who encounter it every day and have to pay for it… and more direct input than electing board members. While the situation in the Esquire sounds like no decision will ever be made, I’ve also seen situations where the opposite situation occurs.
In the case of the building I live in, it simply means that the retirees who have the time (and own in the building - many younger residents rent from investor owners) to serve on the board and its committees get to choose and impose their tastes on things like the furniture in the lobby - like floral upholstery on sofas.
At the furthest extreme, my grandparents’ building had a board president spend a majority of the high rise’s reserve funds to renovate a party room and the hallways on the floor housing the common amenities. Not only did residents have no say in the decor (over the top tacky) but also saw money meant for necessary items like a new roof, emergency repairs, elevator maintenance, etc. go toward unnecessary waste like Italian stone tile, carved teak wall panels and gold leaf ceilings in a service corridor.
While a benevolent dictator might be ideal, in reality there needs to be some system that creates checks and balances ...
Chris Bowler
on 02 May 08So who plays the role of benevolent dictator at 37Signals? ;o)
Mike Trotzke
on 02 May 08If it really has been years, it isn’t a dictator they need—Just some one to call the question. They can take a vote and be done.
Ian Bicking
on 02 May 08The problem is that they sought any agreement. The solution is just to let everyone paint their door any way they like. If it’s your door, why the unnecessary effort to maintain consistency? The result is just a bland choice that offends no one. Making it a dictatorship at least removes the pointless effort to come to agreement, but it ensures a distinctly dull result.
We all know exactly what that result is. It’s the aesthetic choice that covenant developments make. Everything is beige, a totalitarian aesthetic of boring. Or those strip malls where they enforce a font on signs. What’s the point? They are just as dull and ugly, they are just a monotonous ugly. Uniformity appeals to dictators, but it is terribly dull. Sometimes dramatic, but even dramatic design can be dull.
If everyone painted the door any way they wanted, the result would not be traditionally aesthetic. It would be eclectic, and people’s doors wouldn’t match, and maybe someone would do something ugly. Maybe paint a gigantic flag on their door. The resulting hallway wouldn’t be aesthetic, but I suspect it would be much more pleasing. Well, at least it would please me. Because that hallway actually would have the potential of feeling like “home”. It would be distinctive. And while it might not be the most pleasing experience the first time I came into it, it would be much more pleasing the 100th time I came into that hall. And that’s the better point of optimization.
If you extend this to the online world, it means MySpace is awesome. But I can’t go that far. But I will say that the default template in WordPress, and the templates in Blogger, are all in some manner aesthetic. And they have become a signal of complete disinterest, and at least in me inspire as much of a negative reaction as the most unstyled or badly style website. Of course, this isn’t really a dictatorship, just the result of the default becoming dull. But it feels somehow related.
Kevin
on 02 May 08My apartment’s hallways are very dull and dated, the decisions to its looks were made sometime in the 50’s when it was built and the landlord, who is the benevolent dictator in my parts, decided it wasn’t worth her time to update it. Yet, somehow I think I’m living a far happier life than these people.
I like the fella who said, “That’s intolerance, which is the basis of oppression and bigotry”, as if he was trying to link the color of his door sill to Selma or something.
Chris
on 03 May 08This proves my point on business vs academia. Those in business have the freedom to do what they want whey they are the benevolent dictator.
Igor
on 03 May 08The solution is simple: Allow anyone to choose his/her own color from a specifically designed range of colors. When choosing a smart range of colors, you will make sure the colors fit together, as well as give everyone involved his/her own say. Works great. I’ve done this numerous times over the years in my capacity as a color consultant.
Michael Zuschlag
on 05 May 08“When it comes to designing something, a benevolent dictator is sometimes a welcome alternative to the chaos of democracy.”
Those are the only alternatives? Is politics even the right metaphor?
Chris Richardson
on 06 May 08A boss once told me there were too many cooks in the kitchen and that I was to become a bus boy. I responded with “the food stinks”. If there is to be a benevolent dictator, he’d better know what he’s doing.
Foodie
on 06 May 08Freedom of choice doesn’t work without someone stepping up to coordinate a certain color pallette. I’m sure other apartment complexes should take note is they want to save money on NOT painting by letting the inhabitents decide on the color.
This discussion is closed.