false 32229 225111 0262134721 9780262134729 43 <![CDATA[The Laws of Simplicity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life)]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172859004m/225111.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172859004s/225111.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/225111.The_Laws_of_Simplicity 3.73 274 Received an Honorable Mention in the Communication and Cultural Studies category of the 2005 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc.

Finally, we are learning that simplicity equals sanity. We're rebelling against technology that's too complicated, DVD players with too many menus, and software accompanied by 75-megabyte "read me" manuals. The iPod's clean gadgetry has made simplicity hip. But sometimes we find ourselves caught up in the simplicity paradox: we want something that's simple and easy to use, but also does all the complex things we might ever want it to do. In The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda offers ten laws for balancing simplicity and complexity in business, technology, and design—guidelines for needing less and actually getting more.

Maeda—a professor in MIT's Media Lab and a world-renowned graphic designer—explores the question of how we can redefine the notion of "improved" so that it doesn't always mean something more, something added on.

Maeda's first law of simplicity is "Reduce." It's not necessarily beneficial to add technology features just because we can. And the features that we do have must be organized (Law 2) in a sensible hierarchy so users aren't distracted by features and functions they don't need. But simplicity is not less just for the sake of less. Skip ahead to Law 9: "Failure: Accept the fact that some things can never be made simple." Maeda's concise guide to simplicity in the digital age shows us how this idea can be a cornerstone of organizations and their products—how it can drive both business and technology. We can learn to simplify without sacrificing comfort and meaning, and we can achieve the balance described in Law 10. This law, which Maeda calls "The One," tells us: "Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful."]]> 32229 3.82 353 47 2006 57023 0789305259 9780789305251 2 <![CDATA[Maeda @ Media]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170461492m/57023.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170461492s/57023.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57023.Maeda_Media 4.39 28
John Maeda is one of the world's leading experimental graphic designers and is quickly becoming a digital culture icon. His early preoccupation with the intersection of computer programming and digital art has resulted in a fascinating, interactive, and stunningly beautiful collection of work. Maeda has pioneered many of the key expressive elements that are prevalent on the web today. Among his most well-known works are The Reactive Square, which features a simple black square on a computer screen that changes shape if one yells at it, and Time Paint, in which paint flies across the screen. He has created innovative, interactive calendars, digital services, and advertisements for companies such as Sony, Shiseido, and Absolut Vodka.

This is the first publication to present a complete overview of Maeda's work and philosophy. A glorious visual exploration of ideas and graphic form, Maeda @ Media takes you through Maeda's beginnings in early computerized printouts, to his reactive graphics on CD-ROM, to his dynamic experiments on the web, to his pedagogical approach to digital visual art, and finally to his overarching quest to understand the very nature of the relationship between technology and creativity. Six thematic chapters provide an overview of his entire career and research. But this is not just a catalog of older work: interspersed between each chapter is a new visual essay that has been created exclusively for this publication to underline each of the major themes.

Coming together in a massive 480 pages, printed in a dazzling array of color combinations on three different kinds of paper, the result is a manifesto, a finely crafted manual and inspiration sourcebook all in one.

With over 1000 illustrations.
</div>]]> 32229 3.82 353 47 2000 289201 0500285179 9780500285176 0 <![CDATA[Creative Code: Aesthetics + Computation]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173448081m/289201.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173448081s/289201.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/289201.Creative_Code_Aesthetics_Computation 4.18 22 A rich compilation of work by some of the most inventive minds in the field of digital design.

John Maeda, probably the most important digital designer, educator, and artist working today, created a sensation with maeda@media (2000), which documented his complete oeuvre and laid out his belief in the importance of designers understanding the computer as a medium, not just a tool.

Maeda's work as an educator and director of the Aesthetics + Computation Group (ACG) at the MIT Media Lab has largely remained behind the scenes. For seven years, Maeda and his students—several of whom are already internationally celebrated—have created some of the most digitally sophisticated and exciting pieces of design to emerge anywhere. Little of this research has been seen outside the laboratory.

This book presents the most fascinating work produced by the group, arranged into themes that apply to today's design issues: information visualization, digital typography, abstraction, interaction design, and education. Each section also features brief essays by leading names in the field of interaction and digital design—Casey Reas, David Small, Yogo Nakamura, Joshua Davis, and Gillian Crampton-Smith.

Deftly bridging the chasm between art and science, John Maeda, a true pioneer in the digital realm, leads the way to a greater understanding and richness of experience. Over 600 illustrations, most in color.

]]> 32229 3.82 353 47 2004 289202 0262632446 9780262632447 1 <![CDATA[Design By Numbers]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173448082m/289202.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173448082s/289202.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/289202.Design_By_Numbers 3.79 19 Design By Numbers is a reader-friendly tutorial on both the philosophy and nuts-and-bolts techniques of programming for artists.

Practicing what he preaches, Maeda composed Design By Numbers using a computational process he developed specifically for the book. He introduces a programming language and development environment, available on the Web, which can be freely downloaded or run directly within any JAVA-enabled Web browser. Appropriately, the new language is called DBN (for "design by numbers"). Designed for "visual" people -- artists, designers, anyone who likes to pick up a pencil and doodle -- DBN has very few commands and consists of elements resembling those of many other languages, such as LISP, LOGO, C/JAVA, and BASIC.

Throughout the book Maeda emphasizes the importance -- and delights -- of understanding the motivation behind computer programming, as well as the many wonders that emerge from well-written programs. Sympathetic to the "mathematically challenged," he places minimal emphasis on mathematics in the first half of the book. Because computation is inherently mathematical, the books second half uses intermediate mathematical concepts that generally do not go beyond high-school algebra. The reader who masters the skills so clearly set out by Maeda will be ready to exploit the true character of digital media design.]]> 32229 3.82 353 47 1999 5142668 1568988168 9781568988160 0 <![CDATA[Fresh Dialogue Nine: In/Visible: Graphic Data Revealed - New Voices in Graphic Design]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5142668.Fresh_Dialogue_Nine_In_Visible_Graphic_Data_Revealed_New_Voices_in_Graphic_Design 4.00 2 Each year, the New York chapter of the AIGA invites a group of emerging designers to participate in the Fresh Dialogue forum. In/Visible: Graphic Data Revealed brings together a diverse group of information graphics designers for a lively discussion about the challenges they face visualizing information. Steve Duenes manages the New York Times print and online graphics department; Andrew Kuo attempts to categorize unmeasurable human emotions through meticulous charts and diagrams; Fernanda Viégas of IBM’s Visual Communication Lab is the cocreator of the Many Eyes social website that encourages members to upload, interpret, and revisualize one another’s data. Their discussion, moderated by Rhode Island School of Design president John Maeda, covers a range of current and anticipated trends in visual journalism, including issues such as data integrity and visual ethics, judicious simplicity versus seductive complexity, and the everincreasing demand for dynamic information.

]]> 1441314 3.82 17 5 32229 3.82 353 47 2009 6517864 8479841591 9788479841591 0 <![CDATA[Las leyes de la simplicidad/ The Laws of Simplicity: Diseno, Tecnologia, Negocios, Vida/ Design, Technology, Business, Life]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6517864-las-leyes-de-la-simplicidad-the-laws-of-simplicity 5.00 1 32229 3.82 353 47 2007