Simple design.

I finished a project a few weeks back. I was pleased with the way it came out and last week met a few friends in the park to chat so, I bought the comps along.

Usually, I won’t bring work around with me to show people. It just strikes me as tacky but, I should really let it bother me less because self-promotion is what it’s all about in the end.

In this case, I knew at some point during the course of the conversation what I had been working on lately would most likely come up and it seemed to make more sense to bring the comps along rather than to go into some detailed explanation.

So, I broke them out when we got to that point in the conversation and my compatriots seemed to be suitably impressed. I know the piece looks good so, even if I get a crit on something I’m not overly concerned. One comment stuck with me though and that was about the overall piece having a ‘simple design.’

I got to think back on that sometime later...

It was probably one of the biggest compliments I’ve ever gotten although I don’t know if the person meant it that way.

The piece was all me. I wrote the cover blurb for it, did all the research required for the background information on the packaging and the disc labels themselves, went through hours of footage to pull screen caps to use on the cover. If it looks simple at the end, it’s the result of a lot of effort put into it.

Over the years I’ve been lucky.

I’ve been lucky in the sense that I have had the opportunity to work with some really, really talented people - designers. Designers with great sensibilities, good eyes for color and balance, people who have gone on to win awards for their work (some projects that I was myself involved in). These people are true pros.

When you look at the end result of their work, it seems so effortless, so natural but the reality is it isn’t.

Today, because certain tools are so readily accessible, people think the use of them makes for a good design but it doesn’t. Instead, more often than not the availability of effects like drop shadows on text, embossing text or a whole host of photoshop filters only adds to the clutter of something. It obscures conveying a message or a meaning of a piece. Same thing is true on the Internet as well, just because we have Flash doesn’t mean every site needs to be animated. Design is about clear, simple communication. If you took these prevailing sensibilities and applied them to architecture you would readily understand the point I’m trying to make.

We would wind up with the most garish and unlivable structures surrounding us.

So, hearing that something has a simple design is a good thing.

Sure, it doesn’t take into account many hours spent looking for just the right image, retouching, color correcting, finding balance across shots, balance in the overall piece. However, it means I’m progressing because years ago I’d be making the same mistakes (drop shadows and the like) in my own work.