This essay argues for vitality in design. It rebels against then conventional minimalism under the slogan of "more is not less" (against Mies van der Rhoe's "less is more"
Venturi argues for a style that relates to the complexity of modern life, in a way that relates to, "the richness and ambiguity of the modern experience." Venturi asks designers to not be intimidated by pressures to needlessly simplify and should instead shoot for rich and meaningful experiences.
I like this approach. It has many appealing aspects that I believe are necessary today. For instance, a simple digital experience tends to release the user from the trends that assault ones eyes, and generally cause a headache. That same minimal digital experience often leads to a boring and uninteresting or meaningless series of interactions that ultimately dull the human experience. By at least attempting to achieve a meaningful experience a designer can then enrich the experience in a way the compliments the overall function of the human experience and not only the function of the minimal digital exchanges that occur thousands of times a second.
I suppose in order to pull this off on a large scale, it is necessary to always have enough time and effort to dedicate to what others would interpret as unnecessary frills on an experience.
Does the human experience need simplicity? expedience, usefulness, aesthetics, and intuitiveness yes... but simplicity?
No comments:
Post a Comment