A 'blank slate' ripe for decorating tips. My apt.
A week ago today BOMB CYCLONE descended upon New York City and I worked from home. Home decorating has never been the most intriguing subject matter to me. At my parents home, pictures went up on a wall and stayed there since furniture and decorations only consideration included, ‘Does it fit?’ and ‘Is it functional?’ meaning most of my childhood was IKEA furniture from the 1980s. After nesting ahead of the winter storm, I’ve had the changing sphere of Pinterest, trends and trying how to make ‘hygge’ happen. After spending my own measly budget to make an apartment a home, I filled up a cart with candles and bins for organizing — after a huge bill, hygge has still not found me. It's time for real inspiration.
In the age of the Influencer, tastes and trends seem to be declare by the millennial ‘popular’ crowd, but the zeitgeist that answers their tastes as trendy is still beyond me — except when in the aggregate. For example, HuffPo article entitle: “Forget Pantone’s Color of the Year [Purple]: We’re swooning over Pinterests [Green]," there are drastically different colors and statements of the year ahead. Bold vs. muted, experts vs. data, sophisticated vs. 'barney'. The experts rationalize their choice with political tones of complexity as purple chosen in Hillary Rodham Clinton's concession speech and the overcoming of divisive red vs. blue state politics. Boldly, I'm on the side of the data here — give me the serenity of that retreat so I can drown it all out.
PInterest data-identified color of 2018
Pantone expert-identified color of 2018
Pinterest, I’m told, is the place for this type of inspiration. Though I’m a fan of Iliza Shlesinger’s comedy about women pinning, the aspirational mood board never struck my fancy. Form over function. Instagram consistently tugs on my heart strings as ‘gramable images inspire moments that I’m drawn to and lives that I aspire to worship — but with student loans and NYC rents, I live them vicariously through a phone screen. Pinterest has come back into my peripheral vision recently with their work with Ahaology and taste graphs.
Advertising has since reached peak 'Influencer'. I'm seeking Makers, Creators, Artists, and I'm seeing more banal shilling than ever before. The advertising agency is where creative minds went to go get a stable paycheck (cue Jerry Seinfeld's Clio award speech at 1:41), and Influencer marketing is magnifying that trend. I’m curious what the backlash will evolve toward — and my gut is that Ahaology made a bold, initial bet that’s going to pay off in 2018, to depend more on aggregates of sought after inspiration, than passive engagement appetites of Instagram ‘limages’ (lies+images).