“Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end, because once you get there, you can move mountains.” — Steve Jobs, Apple, Inc.
When I hold an Apple TV remote next to a standard cable remote, when I see the Nike Swoosh on a billboard, or shop Uniqlo apparel, buy Method dish soap, bite into an RXBar — that’s when I see it. I see the driving force of great design.
Great design is simple. It is smart. It is sophisticated. For businesses to make their communication simple, they must make tough choices. It’s much easier to keep more, say more, promise more, or add more. It’s much harder to do the opposite- to edit. As a leader in design, I’m often asked what delivers strong creative execution? How do you know when you’ve landed at the perfect design solution? My answer, “When there is nothing left to take away. When you’ve boiled the idea down to its purest expression.” This does not mean making something sterile, it means making choices about what you need and what you don’t. Iconic design is memorable and stands for something. Not a million different things, but one important thing.
When I hold an Apple TV remote next to a standard cable remote, when I see the Nike Swoosh on a billboard, or shop Uniqlo apparel, buy Method dish soap, bite into an RXBar — that’s when I see it. I see the driving force of great design.
Great design is simple. It is smart. It is sophisticated. For businesses to make their communication simple, they must make tough choices. It’s much easier to keep more, say more, promise more, or add more. It’s much harder to do the opposite- to edit. As a leader in design, I’m often asked what delivers strong creative execution? How do you know when you’ve landed at the perfect design solution? My answer, “When there is nothing left to take away. When you’ve boiled the idea down to its purest expression.” This does not mean making something sterile, it means making choices about what you need and what you don’t. Iconic design is memorable and stands for something. Not a million different things, but one important thing.