#45 - Reducing complexity in design

Hi folks,

Here are a few things I thought were worth sharing this week.

Complexity and experience in design #

“Go slow. Be clear. Stick with it.” A reminder against speed, unnecessary complexity and change for changes sake from designer Frank Chimero during his talk at Awards Conference. Much of the talk is available in article format; Everything Easy is Hard Again.

If you don’t already know Frank Chimero, you may well be familiar with his work on Abstract, the version control tool for designers. I can’t even imagine design without Abstract these days.

Making art with code #

Drawing With Numbers is an interesting read from Dan Eden about how he got into making Generative art — that is, artwork created with the use of autonomous systems — using a Javascript framework called p5.js.

If this sort of thing sounds interesting to you, checkout Daniel Shiffman’s intro to p5.js and the work of Anders Hoff, in particular his essay On Generative Algorithms.

A few things on type #

Weird Type is an AR IOS app that lets you paint with text in space. Built by Zach Lieberman — another designer who makes art with code.

Practical Typography is a valuable read from Mathew Butterick, who may well be the only typographer-slash-lawyer from Hollywood. Straight and Curly Quotes could be the most useful chapter.

For your ears #

I’ve been listening to Kasper Bjørke this week. Rays and Zenith (feat. Null & Void), taken from his 2016 mini LP Fountain of Youth, are particular favourites.