ON THE BUTTON

Design has been called the ultimate human compulsion and that is certainly the case.

We share survival basics with all species...eating, breathing, reproducing.  And like any social animal we also invest some of our energy in chatting, grooming, running, listening, playing.  But then there is our unique need to make things, to fabricate.  The compulsion to change the look and function of everything we touch.  To fidget and fuss and tinker.  In other words, to design – and redesign and design again – every little thing.  As though the world depended on it.

Take any thing – any made object – and you will find a history of design behind it.  This is not always a tale of improvement or progress.  Sometimes the changes are simply for their own sake.  Among other things, design can be a statement of a time and place.

This all came to mind as I was looking for a button to replace one I had lost.  I have a small collection but my buttons are lowly button-like buttons, not highly designed ones.  My pile is just a drop in the vast sea of fashion.  The button I found is a model of design simplicity: it is round so that it will not snag; a half inch or so in diameter so that it fits the fingertips; with two or four holes in the middle for sewing to fabric; and devoid of ornament for ease of use.  Simple. 

But not nearly good enough for us. 

There certainly have been simple round buttons throughout history.  Made of seashell and used as decorative medallions, they have been found in the Indus Valley of Southern Asia, dating to about 2000 BC.  The ancient Greeks and Romans used shell and wood and bone for decorative buttons of all shapes, including button-like ones.  You would think that the invention of the buttonhole in the 13^th century would have secured the button-shaped button for all time.  Tighter fitting styles and the use of more delicate fabrics at that period in history called out for better systems than pins, laces, belts, and sashes.  What more would we need than a simple round button in a simple buttonhole? 

What more indeed.

By the 14^th century, buttons had already evolved beyond the basic form and became become quite a fashion rage.  The upper and royal classes began to display their wealth with a blizzard of buttons...diamond and gem encrusted, hand-carved out of ivory, imported from the East and painted with tiny portraits.  Since then every material known has been used to make buttons, every design style applied, every shape tried, every image imposed. 

Like any other designed object, the significance of the button goes far beyond what it was made for, leaving pure function in the dust.  The button, like all things made, becomes a sign of the times and a symbol of our cultural adventure.  It takes on semiotic meaning; the object as social communication.  

The button as icon, as art object, as craftwork, as collectible.  If there is no official button museum, there ought to be.  A pretty big one.  Admission should be paid not in cash, but with a button not already in the vast collection.  As the old saying goes, there are billions of stars in the universe and not one of them is star-shaped.  I wonder what percentage of the buttons would actually be button-shaped.