Don't fake it

- At the airport recently,…came across this rubber trash can…with this sign on it…that from across the way, looked like it was embossed,…but up close, I realized that it was not.…It was a printed sticker that was just stuck on the side,…and stuck on crooked.…So it was fake.…And it got me thinking about a project I had done.…First thing, though, is that design at its best…is not something we make up.…Design at its best is a portrayal of what's true,…and it's a portrayal of reality.…

It's not pretend.…It reminded me of this sign that I made once…for a wall outside a door to a conference room,…and no sooner had I made it than I regretted it.…It's about a foot long, and it's fake.…The wood grain on there is not real,…there's kind of a shiny surface,…and I never liked it.…If this had been real wood, really embossed,…it would be very cool.…But pretending that it's wood…and pretending that it's embossed…for a real three-dimensional object…felt false to me,…and I was just never comfortable with it.…

A better solution might be this one.…