Opinions about art by Crate&Barrel...
Opinions, like the air we breathe, are everywhere. Lema Khorshig and I found ourselves discussing how to serve clients better.
Given the myriad of details of a legal case for Lema, or an architectural project for Animate..., it astounded us that some clients consider opinions as holding equal value. One would think that some opinions might have more expertise, knowledge or history, and thus be of higher value. As we discussed what makes an opinion credible, we happened upon a story.
Years ago an interviewer asked David Byrne from the Talking Heads "What was the best advice you every received?" He answered "when I met David Bowie, and we discussed the entertainment industry, he told me to shave my arm hair."
Easy evaluation: How credible was David Bowie's opinion on matters of the entertainment industry?
Everyone has an opinion about architecture because we use buildings everyday. And yet some people, based on their knowledge and experience, have more insight than others. There is a corrupt idea that all opinions are equally valid, or that somehow a persons' creativity is threatened by an architects opinion. Given a topic, opinions are best weighed according to the credibility of the source. Great clients, those that achieve results beyond their expectations, are highly selective between opinions.