Tag Archives: Authentic

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How knowing the creator enhances the beauty of a design: Frank Lloyd Wright

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At the Huntington Art Museum in Los Angeles, I was captivated by a dining room table and chairs. They were not vibrant but organized. They were meticulously crafted. I could not take my eyes off these sophisticated colorful items.

Nearby, a reclining chair caught my attention as well. When I looked closer, I discovered these pieces were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Suddenly, everything made sense to me. His furniture mirrored his architecture—minimalistic, harmonious, and timeless. His work, including the famous Fallingwater, follows these principles.

This experience reminded me of how knowing the creator enhances our appreciation of a product. When we learn who made it, we love it more. This idea was supported by a research about wine, showing that a wine named after the winery founder’s grandfather boosts consumer confidence. Even Apple, under Tim Cook, continues to build on this principle. We are deeply connected to the stories behind the objects.

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Reference (Fallingwater at Wikipedia)

Fallingwater is, according to Wikipedia, a house designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935. Situated in the Mill Run section of Stewart township, in the Laurel Highlands of southwest Pennsylvania, about 70 miles (110 km) southeast of Pittsburgh in the United States, it is built partly over a waterfall on the Bear Run river. The house was designed to serve as a weekend retreat for Liliane and Edgar J. Kaufmann, the owner of Pittsburgh’s Kaufmann’s Department Store.

After its completion, Time called Fallingwater Wright’s “most beautiful job” and it is listed among Smithsonian’s “Life List of 28 Places to See Before You Die”. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark on May 11, 1976. In 1991, members of the American Institute of Architects named Fallingwater the “best all-time work of American architecture” and, in 2007, ranked Fallingwater 29th on its “America’s Favorite Architecture” list.

Eight of Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings – Fallingwater, the Guggenheim Museum, the Hollyhock House, the Jacobs House, the Robie House, Taliesin, Taliesin West, and the Unity Temple – were inscribed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites under the title The 20th-century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright in July 2019. UNESCO stated that these buildings were “innovative solutions to the needs for housing, worship, work or leisure” and “had a strong impact on the development of modern architecture in Europe.”

Cases

Old is good intuition

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Although we are always attracted by something new, we sometimes try something old to enjoy its authenticity.

For instance, when a restaurant places an nostalgic vintage signboard outside or when it serves dishes in an ugly pot, we infer that the restaurant must have been loved by many people previously. This “old is good” intuition is so strong that it can even distort the quality of the dish.

I recently visited an approximately 15-year old restaurant and ordered a fish soup for two. It was served in a pot that was all wrinkled up. Although this fish soup was not delicious, I enjoyed it simply because the pot of the soup looked old.   

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Reference

Fuchs, Christoph, Martin Schreier, and Stijn M.J. van Osselaer (2015), “The Handmade Effect: What’s Love Got to Do with It?,” Journal of Marketing, 79 (2), 98–110.

Despite the popularity and high quality of machine-made products, handmade products have not disappeared, even in product categories in which machinal production is common. The authors present the first systematic set of studies exploring whether and how stated production mode (handmade vs. machine-made) affects product attractiveness. Four studies provide evidence for the existence of a positive handmade effect on product attractiveness. This effect is, to an important extent, driven by perceptions that handmade products symbolically “contain love.” The authors validate this love account by controlling for alternative value drivers of handmade production (effort, product quality, uniqueness, authenticity, and pride). The handmade effect is moderated by two factors that affect the value of love. Specifically, consumers indicate stronger purchase intentions for handmade than machine-made products when buying gifts for their loved ones but not for more distant gift recipients, and they pay more for handmade gifts when purchased to convey love than simply to acquire the best-performing product.