The brilliance of simplicity
Have you ever watched Roger Federer at the top of this tennis game?
At his very best he takes what others attempt and executes it perfectly with the seeming effortlessness of a God. He is not the only top tennis player who can execute. Some like Rafael Nadal do it through such force of will and power it takes your breath away to watch. But only the few. Only the exceptionally gifted do it with beauty.
There is a beauty in blending simplicity with complexity so seamlessly they resolve into a single wholeness. This thing called beauty captivates the eye and deceives the mind. Forgetting the extreme difficulty and complexity we see only this something we are drawn to celebrate and throw adjectives at, like confetti atop a bride.
You can see it all around in life if you choose to listen. It’s in hand made Danish furnitures from the 1960’s and sculptures that call you to touch them as you walk by. If a designer or an architect can resolve an idea until everything extraneous is polished away it can be beautiful. Faberge did it for european royalty just over 100 years ago. In our industry Apple did it with their original iPhone.
Probably the most prolific source of beauty is this world around us. Everywhere we look, from sweeping camera pans of sunset horizon to the completeness of lady bugs and stones washed smooth on a beach. It’s in the perfection of a single rose petal just after it falls to the ground to die. Rarely faultless, true beauty is defined and framed in it’s flaws.
The japanese have words for it; Shibui (adjective) or Shibumi (noun). To do a thing beautifully or through your beautiful actions create something beautiful. There’s a sense of elegance and simplicity.
This sort of design is what our industry needs more of. It’s about an attitude of character that strives for better simply because it’s the right thing to do. For the love of life and all it holds. Only when we grow out of this consumer matrix, which so many believe is real, the possibility of beauty appears. It’s only in the open bloom that beauty exists. It never can in a narrow, cramped, self absorbed consumption.
Free from the risk managed life we can all have the polished brilliance of simplicity.
Thanks to Dylan for the photo.
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