I’m back—it’s been a crazy few weeks for Meg and me. We volunteered to help design the Valentine’s banquet for a local church; what fun!

We were working in the realm of stereotypes and clichés like never before (Hallmark called and asked us to please use less pink—they were worried about a shortage). In all seriousness, we survived and actually got a black, white and (drum roll please) yellow color scheme accepted for our 1940’s Hollywood glam banquet theme. My jaw hit the floor so hard it cracked a tile. So, with a tip of my hat to that mass-produced red and pink monstrosity we call Valentine’s Day, I aspire to share some of my thoughts on inspiration and love (bum bum bummm).

Probably the most powerful inspirational element for Green Couch Design is love—love of people, love of marriage and love of great relationships. In and of itself, design is highly relational. Scratch that—it’s entirely relational. Design is about connecting to people, whether it’s through print, the physical connection of an item or the basic need for shelter or a space. All design is linked to humanity, and so to Meg and me it makes sense that we should find our greatest inspiration in love, the greatest force in humanity. This feeling isn’t really a feeling; it’s a response, a reaction, an overpowering urge, kind of like the desire good design evokes in those who come in contact with it.

I’d like to explain what I mean when I say that love inspires us—I wouldn’t want you thinking we sit around and watch Ghost over and over and call it a ‘concept search’. Love is a moving force in Green Couch because we love people. We love to see design bring people together and free them. Think of design as momma’s kitchen table with Thanksgiving dinner strewn out before you. Don’t picture the annoying family members and the hours in the gym afterwards; just picture the way people connect and the atmosphere of love that is created around that table. What if design was envisioned in that way, as a place of connection, as a place where you bring your issues and get solutions? Design should encourage family, it should encourage home and it should encourage love.

When we start a project, we look at how it affects those around us, what it evokes in people. The Valentine’s banquet brought awe and created a space within which couples rediscovered romance, found new friends and supported a great cause (youth missions). Our  Wood Tote simplifies life, as do our Wall Pockets, giving people time and comfort. Meg and I envision that when our company grows we are going to recreate how we connect to employees and how designers work with us. We don’t believe in there being a battle between the need to create the design and the life the designer wants to live. By making design about people, we have to give that same consideration to the designer, because we are people too. So we have to let life and love inspire new ways to design. This is how love inspires us. This is how we are, in turn, trying to inspire love in others (no more wondering why you are still at the firm at 9pm on Christmas Eve).

Green Couch Design was created for one simple purpose and that is to allow us to live the life we want to live. So if design can give us the life we want, why can’t our designs give others the lives they want? Why can’t we see people coming to Green Couch for reasons other than design? Why can’t design be used to give people freedom, to heal wounds in people’s lives and to give people back the power to be who they want to be—to be who they truly are? When people come to Green Couch or any other design firm, why can’t they truly take design home? Can we catch the vision as designers; can we become inspired by our clients, inspired by people? Can love be more than pink and red? Can it truly be the inspiration for our lives? At Green Couch Design, it is—I hope that inspires you.