“There is nothing more sacred than a story”
A witticism (anecdote) from the movie “The Catcher in the Rye” starring Nicholas Hoult and Kevin Spacey. The message that Salinger’s teacher (Kevin Spacey) gave to his students during class. The movie is about the life of J.D. Salinger, the author of “The Catcher in the Rye”, one of the masterpieces of world literature. Spacey continues; “The stories in the holy books (the Quran, the Bible, the Torah) are so powerful that people know and believe that they were written by God.”
Then his student will tell Salinger that his inner voice is very powerful. This also gets in the way of his story. This is the main reason for his initial failure as a writer. First of all, the story will be very powerful and the writer’s ego will not get in the way of the story. Only then will it be effective and will it be read with appreciation.
Now let’s continue this dialogue in the same way with our own profession. There are golden pieces of advice that can be adapted to all professions in general. When we look at it from a design perspective, the main thing in the process is the design (space, building, object). That’s why it’s important for the design to be strong. “Having a strong inner voice”, in other words, having a strong ego coming to the forefront, will overshadow the design. “Otherwise, instead of creating a good experience for the reader, you’ll be displaying your own ego”.
Don’t we observe this closely when we look at our surroundings from this perspective? We see really strong, impressive designs and spaces and admire them. We experience an experience that fascinates us, sometimes shocks us. Or we see crooked buildings, exaggerated, pretentious spaces and find them strange. In other words, it’s the embodiment of “It plays itself, it plays itself” in the profession.
It’s as if saying “I will be doing the best” instead of “I am, or should be, the best” is like a lifesaver that will save us…
“We need the events in the story to be effective”. In other words, the effective, layered and striking nature of the theme, subject and surrounding elements in the design will make the design truly powerful. The issue of “the author using his/her own inner voice to make the story unique and original” is a clear and obvious message to us designers that cannot be interpreted.
Then, what we need to do is to deeply affect people, to mobilize them, to show them what love (design) is and to write our own story…
Bless you.
Kadir Biçer
Ind. Pro.Design.
M.Interior Architect