I'm all excited lately about the beauty of some of the simple things around me--particularly my acoustic guitar, my road bike, and dip pens.
The acoustic guitar looks the way it does in order to work the way we want it to. Its form is almost completely utilitarian. There isn't much room for variation in the appearance of a functioning acoustic guitar. The main area of flexibility is in the shape of the body. But even the normal variety I see in their bodies seems to be to support different types of functionality, such as having the body shaped in a way that allows the player's hand to reach farther up the neck.
And yet the acoustic guitar is beautiful. I've heard the curve of the body describes as womanly. The crisscross of the frets and strings look like the panes of a tall window. All the features, such as the pick guard and tuning pegs, break up its massing like other architectural details on a building. Sparse decoration is sufficient to personalize an acoustic guitar, for it is already naturally beautiful. On the other hand, there are all sorts of gaudy electric guitar designs, since their sound doesn't depend on the body shape.
The road bike is a certain type of perfection too. It is designed for maximum efficiency riding on pavement. The narrow wheels minimize rolling resistance and the drop handlebars put the rider into a position to minimize wind resistance. It is pleasurable to be riding and know that this machine is making the most of my physical energy.
I find that dip pens can be especially beautiful in the same way as the acoustic guitar and the road bike. Bowl pointed nibs are especially attractive. They look like something between a paintbrush and modern ballpoint pen. And like the guitar, they look the way they do in order to function the way they do and there is little room for ornamentation. I use them for general writing and not even for calligraphy or lithography. They help me put more focus into my typically terrible penmanship. And no modern pen creates as perfectly consistent a line as a dip pen. This is one reason why they are often used by illustrators.
The acoustic guitar, road bike, and dip pen are timeless things that are still important despite constant high tech innovation. They have been designed to a certain perfection where they just can't be improved much more.
