She sprinkles the chapter with ideas and recommendations about ways to bring the energy aesthetic into a space, such as repainting a room in a brighter hueĪs I read the first chapter, sitting in my living room, something clicked. She also plows boldly into the color-aversion prevalent in modern interior decorating (which she terms “chromophobia”), observing that we frequently choose to paint our walls colors that do not “enliven us” (25). In New York City public schools, delinquency rates have dropped and graduation rates increased for schools where the charity Publicolor painted the interiors with vivid color. In Tirana, Albania, color is credited with dropping crime and transforming the vitality of the city. Entwined with the psychology and biology, Fetell Lee describes places where bright color has been used to drastically transform local cultures. In this chapter, she explores both psychological and biological advantages tied to bright colors, observing that nearly 50% of participants in a UK color-mood study chose bright yellows and oranges for joy, and no matter the color chosen all were vibrant and saturated. In a pattern that defines the chapters of the book, the first chapter explores the joy-bringing aesthetic of energy, which Fetell Lee characterizes as “vibrant color and light” (8). Along the way, she observes that she “realized that we all have an inclination to seek joy in our surroundings, yet we have been taught to ignore it.” (5) Joyful is an exploration of the question “what might happen if we were to reawaken this instinct for finding joy?” (5) The list immediately follows her short reflection on the journey from the comment made during her first design review in graduate school: “your work gives me a feeling of joy,” through collecting images people identified as joyful, to distilling them into ten “aesthetics of joy” that form the chapters for the book. Do I really have to consider this? I don’t think I want to know the real answer.Īnd on through the nine sets of questions on the list…now full of trepidation for what I was about to have to consider about my life, I plunged ahead. How highly does your significant other or family value joy? Unfettered? I don’t really do unfettered…joy? I’m not sure. When was the last time you felt a true, unfettered moment of joy? Um, sometimes…does the kind of laugh matter? Probably not more than a couple of times per day…I don’t count. I read the list of questions in the introduction with interest and a growing sense of trepidation. In the introduction of her 2018 book, Ingrid Fetell Lee poses a list of questions to help her readers think about whether their surroundings feel joyful. Title: Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happinessĭo the places where you live and work feel joyful?

Joy ingrid fetell lee