Home Depot hardware

I keep making the same mistake and keep having the same revelation over and over. Somewhere I have this belief that novices are innocent and that their initial attempts to do things are crude, generic, and simplistic. In reality, however, beginners imitate what they've seen from the 'outside in.' So it should come as no surprise that Home Depot hardware is so ugly. I always ask myself, "why would they make all those weird designs? Wouldn't it be easier to just make something more generic and simple? Why make all this fancy-but-ugly stuff?" Alas, I am misunderstanding the problem. It's easier to make something fancy and ugly. Simplicity and unselfconsciousness are characteristics of good design, not the hallmarks of a novice. Plus, I think marketing is involved. A piece of hardware needs to sell itself. It needs to look like something. I'm always looking for hardware that looks like nothing.