What do materials bring to a design? Most immediately, they bring pleasure.

It’s the materials of a space that give it resonance, according to Susan Lyons, Creative Director at Herman Miller. Material colors and textures “provide the experience when you walk into a room,” she says.

Lyons says there’s a sort of alchemy that happens when everything comes together: “the form, the touch, the use, the product works, it looks beautiful, it feels good, and life is good.”

Pleasure is one of five material design principles: honesty, utility, economy, pleasure, and possibility. Each is essential to good design.

This is the last segment in a series on our thoughts about materials—how we choose them, and what we think about when choosing them.