Description

Simplicity

Designers love it. Designers hate it. Many designers don’t understand it, confusing it with simple and simplistic. Truth is simplicity in design is about managing complexity and though the end result may look simple, even obvious, at its best simplicity in design is anything but.

In this our fifth issue of Ligature Journal we present thoughtful, personal and insightful essays by Kevin Finn from TheSumOf and DesigNERD,

‘I can’t imagine anyone saying, “I’d really prefer if the was more difficult to understand or complex to interact with.”’

Don Norman, director of The Design Lab at University of California, San Diego,

‘Simplicity often lies in the eye of the beholder.’

Professor Cameron Tonkinwise, Carnegie Mellon University, UTS & UNSW,

‘You cannot simply design something to be simple to use.’

Henry David Thoreau (okay so not a designer but his writings are still valid today) and Donna Burrell from Hunter Design School.

‘Use thoughtful reduction.’

We also asked another twelve designers to nominate one person or piece of design that they felt exemplified the best that a pursuit of simplicity can bring. Read the journal to find out who/what they suggested.

Under the guidance of Felix Oppen, Kate Riley and Rosie Cass our small team of five design students and recent graduates from Billy Blue, UTS and Western Sydney University took the words of the essays as their inspiration and have created an issue that has been described as ‘visual poetry’. The power of simplicity in design made manifest.

Featuring:

Kevin Finn, Donald A. Norman, Cameron Tonkinwise, Donna Burrell, Gabby Lord, Heidi Seeman, Jacqueline Hill, Jessica Chen, John Lucas, Jon Setter, Karen Kwok, Margie Rahmann, Mark Titmarsh, Mike Feghali, Stephen Goddard.

Specifications:

88 pages
Precision Offset from Spicers Paper
4C process
Print managed by SEED Print Group

About the Journal:

Ligature Journal is a title owned by Tiliqua Press. It has been set up to provide real world experience opportunities for communication design students and recent graduates. For each issue interns find and/or create all the content. They design, lay out, create imagery (both illustration and photography) as needed and take the publication through production process.

If you haven’t already visited the Ligature Journal website you can see more spreads here.