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BOOK REVIEW
From
THE LAWS OF SIMPLICITY
By
JOHN MAEDA
Chapter 5
SIMPLICITY AND COMPLEXITY NEED EACH OTHER
Quote
Our eyes and senses thrive, and sometimes recoil, whenever we experience differences, acknowledging contrast helps to identify qualities that we desire which are often subject to change, by comparing we appreciate other things.
Simplicity and complexity need each other
The more complexity there is in the market, the more that something simpler stands out.
Establishing a feeling of simplicity in design requires making it compatible with any form of complexity that it may have.
Marrying the relationship, give contrast but finding the right balance is difficult. Where it needs to enhance, instead of cancel out, which is a subtle art, but take in the consumers need to be able to make it function with out a 6-volume manual to understand it.
For there is no way to connect to simplicity when complexity has forgotten it.
Hear the beat of simplicity and complexity together in nature, the precious rhythm of life.
Unquote
Comment
In the design world the simplest thing can become a prize possession e.g. art, statue’s, houses, buildings, depends what the material they are made of for this material can complement the item, as in nature the nightingale sings, or the eagle fly’s, fish swim and have many colour’s, the rainbow with the clouds in the sky or a dew drop on a flower.
In electronics it goes toward which is advance, how or what it can do, that fit in with the up date of transmissions this can be with mobile phone, television, radio and other forms of recordable devises, that can also transmit, some older forms like vinyl records are now a collectable item.
QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Describe the relationship between complexity and simplicity
a. They need each other/ Ying and Yang balance
2. What analogy does Maeda use to demonstrate this relationship?
a. Nature
3. In what context does Maeda discuss rhythm / beat in relation to the fifth law Contextualize this relationship and discuss how this can be used in relation to the Student Exhibition - giving specific examples
a. The rhythm of how simplicity and complexity occur in time and space holds the key / life / the dragon fly looks simple, but took man a long time to develop the helicopter which it is based on the dragon fly wing movement for hovering
4. HOMEWORK: Find visual examples - pieces of design & multimedia work that demonstrate the relationship between simplicity and complexity – post the results on your blog, with contextual analysis and reflection
a. Animated figures attached to page, photo of author
Those frogs and penguins are out of control Carole. You need to put a leash on them ;-)
ReplyDeleteGood examples of simplicity versus complexity, the code originally created behind these images is very complex to most and the motion of how they are moving is also complex to those who do not understand how this relatively simple graphic works.