Ever since I could remember, simple was my preference.
From clothes, to hobbies, and even with my personal space. And this became even more evident as I became uh, more experienced (okay, simply - older!). Having fewer things and focusing on experiences, and moments helped with clarity.
Clarity of mind.
Clarity of decisions.
And I realised that my happiness improved as I became more efficient. More intentional.
At the risk of sounding too philosophical, I felt a greater sense of purpose - or at least began thinking about that more often.
The more I consciously made the decision to simplify, fundamental decisions actually started to consume a bit more time - counterintuitively.
You see, purchasing items because I thought that I needed them, made me realise the fact that I did not need a bunch of stuff. I thought selectively about what I really required. And when I spent more time figuring out if I really did in fact need that box of colourful paperclips, as trivial as it may seem, the bigger decisions then became much, much simpler, and those decisions consumed less and less of my time - over time.
Here's a much simpler example to illustrate this concept.
I have been a fan of black. Seriously. My clothes, my car, and decor was black. And family and friends would suggest and recommend the inclusion of colour in my life, because black could be depressing and all the other negative adjectives. And so over about ten years I would hear these voices - figuratively and literally - on my shopping trips, and I would persuade myself that life is about diversity and people look out for you, and so I would purchase lovely colourful stuff. Stuff that piled. That became unused, unworn and untouched.
Simply wasted.
It took me a while, but I came to the realisation that I must stay true to who I am and that has evolved. For I now enjoy shades of grey. And white. And black. But the point is that I decided, somewhere along my journey, that I was happiest when I was being me, and that was surrounding myself with the things that I love, and over time, I had the confidence to do that with everything. I even did that with food, and found that raw - authentic - unprocessed food was what I enjoyed, and over time I started stripping away the unnecessary, from food to clothing to well, you name it.
And when that worked so well for me, it became the equation for my life.
My designs were always simple, but I explored simplicity even further with a similar effect. The designs with fewer elements - only the essentials - allowed me to focus on a particular design element. Sometimes just one element was essential. That itself sometimes became the design.
And then I went beyond the design and started looking at the metals and gemstones, and found that this made me - and more importantly - my clients, happy.
And that's the point, isn't it?
A simple life = A happy life
Our designs are an extension of who we are - Minimal - Authentic.