A small sign at the farm and a larger cultural shift.
Last year I worked with Julia Messinger to create a sign for the farm.
When she asked what it should say, I replied with a simple text:
"Make Something Beautiful."
I had no idea what she would create.
When I finally saw the design, I was completely blown away. She painted it live during one of our dinners last year, and it quickly became one of my favorite features of the farm.
Last week, however, I experienced a strange feeling.
I was driving down Vulcan and noticed a familiar phrase staring back at me.
"Make Something Beautiful."
For a brief moment I thought:
"Wait a second..."
Had they copied us?
Had the message escaped the farm?
Should I be calling a lawyer :)
But these thoughts subsided quickly.
The truth is that I was delighted.
Beauty seems to be making a comeback
One of the more encouraging trends I've noticed lately is that beauty seems to be making a comeback.
For a long time it felt as though nearly everything was optimized for efficiency, convenience, and scale. Those things matter, of course. But somewhere along the way we forgot that human beings also hunger for beauty.
We want beautiful homes. Beautiful meals. Beautiful gardens. Beautiful conversations. Beautiful communities.
Beauty seems to be making a comeback.
And increasingly, businesses seem willing to talk about those things again.
I'm starting to see words like beauty, craftsmanship, care, and community show up in places where they might have once been considered impractical or sentimental.
That's a future I can get behind.
An invitation, not a slogan
After all, "Make Something Beautiful" was never intended to be a slogan.
It was intended to be an invitation.
So if the phrase is spreading, whether by coincidence or otherwise, I'd call that a win.
The world could use a little more beauty.
Thanks for helping make this place beautiful.