“I want to know if you can see beauty
even when it’s not pretty, every day,
and if you can source your own life from its presence.” – Oriah
Since LinkedIn decided to remind me, and everyone else, that I have been drawing, animating and demonstrating building products for more than 18 years, I have been thinking about how I got here.
I’ve always seen things differently than most. I don’t just want to know how things work, I need to know. When I was a kid, it was only a matter of time before I stole my dad’s tools and dismantled the new toy, game or device within reach.
The ripple effect of parental consequences of this was two-fold. Firstly, I destroyed a lot of things in our house trying to take them apart – conveying a lack of respect for my belongings. Secondly, I failed to return the screwdrivers to their proper location, showing a similar lack of concern about my father’s tools.
I have always found beauty in functional objects. If you remove or change one little aspect of a part, it either doesn’t work anymore or it’s not as efficient as it could be. I eventually did learn how to put things back together without ruining them, and actually developed an ability to fix things along the way.
The greater thing that I learned from this wanton lack of appreciation for my things was an affinity for design, no matter how mundane. What I would learn later, and build my own business on, is the fact that just simply knowing how things work is useless unless you can pass that information on to others in a dynamic and exciting way.
Regards and I hope you find beauty today, even when it is not pretty.
-JY
About the Author :
Jason Yana has 2 decades of experience in architectural technology, 3d graphics and construction marketing. This unique combination provides highly-effective visual representations of building products that fuel marketing and support efforts.
His award-winning body of work informs, inspires and educates building product customers.