29.11.2007 by Zoltan

Simplicity

In communication, simplicity it fundamental to people truly understanding what you’re trying to say. Wrap an idea in the wrong words and no matter how good or incendiary that idea might be, there’s a good chance no one will end up listening. If you’ve been reading this blog for sometime you’ll know that its often only the simplest ideas that I bother to write about. Let me therefore bring your attention to a recent article on the re-launched advertising for peanuts.

They argue that due to the digital nature of everything, complexity has become du jour and the easy fall back position. Why? because simple is very fucking hard. Shit John Maeda, über geek/artist and father to much of what we take for granted nowadays, made it his mission to develop the tools and mental framework we all need to deal with our overly-complex digital world - and he’s called it the “Laws of Simplicity”.

So simplicity is hard - hard to concept, hard to capture and even perhaps harder to sell - but it must be our end goal every single day we sit down to communicate. To quote from Chairman Jimmy at Peanuts, “If easy is one end of the continuum, simple is the other”. I know which end of the spectrum I’m aiming for. I hope you join me…

BTW if you don’t already read peanuts I can highly recommend it, especially since the re-launch. Its become an outpouring of ideas and discourse rather than the customary creative showcase of so many other blogs. Well done guys!