From the course: Design Aesthetics for the Web

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Creating simplicity

Creating simplicity

From the course: Design Aesthetics for the Web

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Creating simplicity

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- [Presenter] Strangely, one of the most misunderstood of the 10 principles of design is simplicity. I suspect after years of teaching that the reason for this difficulty is that the idea of simplicity is somewhat open to interpretation. Well, I'm sure you may have had the thought, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, a thought that glorifies the subjective. There is some truth to objective beauty, or objective value in both art and design. Let's begin our exploration of simplicity by looking at its definition. Simplicity, or visual economy as some people call it, means only showing what is essential in a design. In other words, simplicity deals with the elimination of any nonessential elements or details to reveal the essence of a form. How can you tell what is essential versus nonessential in a design? As much as you might want that answer to be simple and concrete, in most cases, people have a hard time determining what should stay in a design, and what can go. Here's an example…

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