I figure there are a lot of things that we want more of, and would be a lot happier in the process of having it. I count among my list of "gratifying more's" as legroom. Specifically legroom in an airplane. I rode United back to Boston today and was reminded of their horrifying practice of three classes of seating: First, United Plus, and Economy. United Plus is essentially Economy with a few more inches of legroom. However you have to ask yourself, where did they get that extra legroom from? Well, by subtracting legroom from Economy of course. Luckily I'm built on the small size but if I were a few inches taller and wider I don't think that I could make it across the U.S. without screaming.
Waiting in line for a taxi in the blustery cold of Boston (a great contrast to the balmy LA weather I had come from I might add), I was presented with a gift from the transportation gods. There, as the taxis were creeping forward in sequence with the queue in front of me shortening, I was presented with not just a regular taxi cab ... but a taxi van! One person plopped in a seating area fit for five passengers. I felt like a King!
It was that moment of contrast—coming from less and going into more that made more feeling really more. The opposite can be said as well, and sometimes we appreciate the shift from more to less just as much as less to more. The keyword here is contrast. Manipulating contrast is one of the essential ingredients for all careful acts of art or design.
Posted by maeda at February 11, 2005 06:44 PM