Laws of Simplicity

John Maeda
John Maeda

Laws of Simplicity

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John Maeda
 

Twofers Are More as Less

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I enjoyed the floor numbering signage at the new Boston ICA. Note that Braille lettering is integrated into the actual numeral displayed. It reminded me of a bar of soap I wrote about a while back. Such combinations of possibilities strike me as odd because they are two-in-ones and are essentially more but they feel like less. I guess it's about how they are law2();?>-ed.
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The Round Table

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Last nite I attended a private function that included a tour led by Supreme Court Justice Breyer of the beautiful Boston Courthouse . In this photo you can see Justice Breyer explaining the way an appeals court works. I found it interesting how he was envious of the Supreme Court of Canada because they manage their private deliberations around a round table -- which is apparently known to produce better decisions and consensus -- versus the rectangular table he said is used by the Supreme Court in the States. A furniture designer friend once told me a similar thing, but when considering the extreme nature of discussions in a Supreme Court it would seem that the subtle law5();?> between a rectangle and a circle could lead to implications more meaningful than imaginable. As I sat and snapped this photo of Justice Breyer, I also reflected on the odd happenstance of sitting in the courtroom next to a living, breathing master of Modernism, Ellsworth Kelly. He of course had no notion or gumption (or need) to know who I was. It sort of reminded me of the time I was at a small dinner with Rihanna and Usher and the likes. Like then, again I felt completely out of place. But glad, and honored, to law4();?> new things.
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The Purpose of Human Life

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I received this Japanese clear file as a gift from a friend. The inscription is quite inspiring.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others. Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature. Life is an exciting business and most exciting when it is lived for others. You cannot do much about the length of your life, but you can do a lot about its depth and width.
According to a Japanese blogger it is an amalgam of multiple quotes by Albert Einstein, Charles Baudelaire, Albert Schweitzer, Eric Hoffer, Helen Keller, and Evan Esar. I wonder now if you can easily chain any set of inspiring quotes together to make a nice piece like this ...
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MilliLetter

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This week in Korea I shopped at a millimeter/milligram store. I was in milli-Heaven with this tiny pill-themed stationery set a la law1();?>. You can find the appropriately little shop at Ssamzie in the Insadong area of downtown Seoul.
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iPod, therefore I am

I wrote an article for BusinessWeek on the new Apple iPods posted here.
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NYT Key Magazine

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I did the cover for today's issue of Key Magazine in The New York Times. The Art Director Dirk Barnett took interest in my process of creating this work, and they chose to publish my "making of" as an key2();?> approach to artmaking. In essence it's all about how much law3();?> we have really. I wish we had more, but everyday as time passes us by, we always end up with less. Sigh.
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Simplified Investing

Last week in Bologna I met an investment banker and we got on the topic of ING Direct and their incredible success with a strategy centered around simplicity. The banker told me something interesting I hadn't heard before that I couldn't find online. Something to the effect that ING Direct tells their customers that to determine how much of their money they should put into high-risk investments versus low-risk ones, just take your age up to 100 years old. However old you are, that is the percentage that you should invest in the low-risk stuff; then take the number 100 and subtract your age from it and invest that percentage in the high-risk stuff. I was impressed with the simple elegance of the thought.
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The New More

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While waiting for a connection in Dallas, I passed this sign and the copy caught my eye. What does it mean? "The new more" expresses that "the old more" is somehow less impressive. It made me think that somehow more got upgraded by becoming a qualitatively better more. In the same way that there can be a better more, there can probably be a better less. Thus the sign gave me hope.
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Empathy and Fullness

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I was introduced to the Chinese concept of "Empathy and Fullness" in Shanghai last week. This topic came about when discussing my surprise that everything seemed bigger, brighter, and simply more in Shanghai. We ate at a restaurant where you could select from a menu of over four hundred different items to then visit the sauce bar to mix and match one hundred different flavors. My guide to Shanghai explained that, "Feeling comes from richness." This is in line with the Law of law7();?> but I certainly didn't expect to see it manifest as the mountain of taste selections I had that evening. But certainly by the end of the meal I was feeling the need for law5();?> and desired a simpler, plain bowl of rice. It would have made me appreciate the experience better. But that addition of the neutralizer is ironically more itself.
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Simplicity in the French Countryside

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Designer Matt Heller of Reebok sent me a link to this recent newsletter from DWR by Founder Rob Forbes on the theme of simplicity and LOS. I certainly enjoyed Rob's thoughtful piece, and wish he took me along with him. Sigh.
Posted by John Maeda
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