Romance is dead. The idea of refined, beautiful things is a notion that’s been replaced by a post-industrial aesthetic that has utterly ruined product design. It’s as if every design is meant to challenge our notion of beauty rather than endorse it. It’s as if corporate America wants us to accept items we once threw away as something beautiful or useful. It doesn’t matter if it’s distressed denim, a mangy old barn door repurposed as a bathroom door or automobile design that takes its cues from video games. All new design is devised to shock or abuse our sense of beauty. It’s no wonder that Ral…