Keep it Stupid, Simple

I'm enjoying John Maeda's 'Laws of Simplicity'. An MIT professor, computer artist and design guru, Maeda has spent many years exploring why certain products and graphics work so well and others simply don't. Simplicity, he says, is one of the keys: particularly as the products and services we use become in themselves more and more complex. Great design takes hugely complex ideas and processes and makes them simple for us.

I don't design products, but I do spend most of my time communicating ideas, and I found many of Maeda's laws applicable to my world. Making things simple is not the same as making things simplistic, and the real challenge is to give simple access to truly complex realities: in such a way that those on the receiving end are both grateful for the simplicity and willing to dive into the complexity. Maeda has Japanese roots, I believe, and his ideas and communication style did remind me of Japanese-American artist Makoto Fujimura, who has been inspired by ancient Japanese calligraphy to bring simple complexity into his expressionist works. His painting 'Gravity and Grace' exemplifies this for me and reminds me every time I see it of the intimate relationship between the 'grace' of a pen stroke and the 'grace' of theological exploration.