What is minimalism?
Ever since I started designing minimal jewelry three years ago, I kept asking myself that question. Intuitively I knew what that meant, but it felt like I needed to further understand it in order to be able to fully stand behind the rather big announcement (for me at least) that BAARA Jewelry offers minimal jewelry designs.
In my journey to investigate what it meant to be offering minimal jewelry, I went to my friends and asked them what minimalism represented for them. I asked them to tell me what they thought minimalism meant. I wanted them to share with me their associations about this concept.
I was amazed at the amount of different answers I received and at the different perceptions of the concept as revealed by the various answers given to me. Here are just a few of the words and expressions I heard from them, in no particular order:
Sharp, cleanness, simplicity, quiet, spa, nature, industrial, brutalism, elementary, short lines, Japan, accuracy, purposeful, precision, reduction, bare, plain stick, sparse, lines, things that are not round / circular, black and white, contrast, precision, sophisticated, stinginess, full of itself, technology, uniqueness, innovation, saying a lot with little, the correct minimum is the maximum, cleanliness, simplicity, clean lines, shades of grey, micro cosmos, simplicity, concentration, the essence, a connection point: a central point, essential, that resides within the man and connects to the central point in the other man, curated, energy, outburst, the color white, straw, quiet, calm mind, serene, subject, a base for variations, simplicity and intelligence, the DNA of something, essence, clear -purification of a subject, lucidity, pure, abstract, freedom, emptiness, cleanliness of form, purity, quiet, serenity, accuracy, cleanliness, reduction, thought, emptiness, release, restrain, modern, modernism, bauhaus, cold, distant, clarity, touches the soul, symbol, outer reflection of something internal, luxury.
Not a minimal list at all!
This was three years ago. The concept of minimalism has become such mainstream since then that I believe that if I would ask the same question today, I would received double the amount of answers.
I think it is amazing that we each see something different in minimalism because it is a way of life, a philosophy and a design concept.
As for embracing minimal design - be it in our houses, clothes or jewelry. It's about noticing the details. The first words that come to mind when minimal design in concerned are subtle, quiet, sophistication, and quality. Since minimal design has to be very well made in order to be good it requires a second look, so minimal lovers tend to develop an attention to details, and a preference of quality over quantity.
What is the first word that pops in your mind when you think about minimalism?
Are you a minimalist in your design choices?
Love,
Baara
*Photo credit - Baara Guggenheim