Inside/Outside: From the Basics to the Practice of Design, Second Edition

My Training

The ancient Greeks used to say that “character is fate.” Where does character come from? From the genes, to some extent, but also, surely, from “upbringing.”

I am certain that my early years have a great deal to do with my viewpoint. I was born and spent my beginning years in rural Kentucky and reached my eleventh year before Rural Electric Association first installed electricity. Little was wasted in that time and place. Livestock feed bags became dresses that later became pieces of patchwork quilts. Our playthings were homemade; wooden thread spools served as wheels for toy trucks; logs were sawed to make larger wheels for the wagons we rode down hills. Whistles were formed from poplar bark or watermelon vine. These frugal devices ...