Self-care is a major topic of discussion in nowadays Western society. It becomes in the individual’s life almost a need. All of us have in fact developed small self-care-themed rituals in our homes that have slowly become part of our daily routine. In this digital age design is now the protagonist of our wellness. In a world where the excessive and unbridled exploitation of natural elements it is right to keep hope alive and design helps to. since past times, design has always been the hope of people and allows us to have a vision of change in the present and transformation of the environment.
Why do we tend to escape reality with self-care routines?
The desire to find meaning in life among this chaos of urban scapes is increasingly common and frequent. We are historically and culturally accustomed to being willing to give meaning and value to everything around us, ourselves included but especially to the objects surrounding us. The truth is that the topic of wellness changes and develops in different cultures, in different ways, but design is always present. There are many self-care-themed design objects, and they have the ability to adapt to all different realities. Whoever you are or whoever you want to become in the future, the self-care design market has what you need, you just have to look deep! In fact, the same wellness is also present in the objects that are part of our homes and beyond; their possession creates a magical relationship between people and objects, transforming it into a unique energy charge. These are designed objects that begin to be part of our wellness rituals and they remain forever as if we cannot do without them, we collect them search for them and arrange them in an organised or messy way in our homes.
These objects break the boundaries of being only in one specific place in the house, in fact, they get arranged as we like to create a unity among each other.
We collect objects of materials, shapes, colours, and smells that can help us find that inner peace is typical of natural places. We certainly select them for aesthetics but often we choose them for the emotions they make us feel, making them unique pieces of design. From incense to room diffusers of every type, spiritual-themed design objects are now being produced by a great amount of brands and individual artists due to an ever-increasing need to create their own rituals.
In this issue, C41 presents a visual meditation through contemporary design items that construct today’s rituals of self-care, yet Western spirituality. A curated selection of objects that inspire slowness, and spiritual elevation in the digital age.