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"It doesn’t take any graphic design talent to add a colored rectangle to your UI" - Adam & Steve. Sums up my entire opinion about minimalism and graphic design

"It doesn’t take any graphic design talent to add a colored rectangle to your UI" - Adam & Steve. Sums up my entire opinion about minimalism and graphic design. Minimal color, minimal shapes... minimal talent for maximum effect. It's not worth $80 to learn the right spot where to put a rectangle.

PedroBatista 8y ago
Don't know about the book thing, but great minimalism requires much more knowledge about design because you have less stuff to mask the clunkiness and your lack of ability.
- crimsonalucard 8y ago
  I would argue the opposite. You have less stuff to help you display your clunkiness and lack of ability. It's like Mona Lisa vs. HN front page. One is minimal and can be done with no talent and the other requires 10x more talent to create.
  - PedroBatista 8y ago
    I was talking about design and function, not art.
    - crimsonalucard 8y ago
      Yeah I understand. However, design and art are inter-related. My point is in my humble opinion, design and function is very easy and does not require much talent, while art such as the Mona Lisa requires a lot of talent.
      - blue4 8y ago
        Design talent is more their experience of constant manipulation and testing of what works in certain situations. It's sort of like a UFC fighter and their counters - "if my opponent throws a kick I will check it with my own leg so I don't have the impact of the entire power." Experience is significant here because they wouldn't know what to do in the moment when it matters. A designer is the same way, say you need a page designed, and they've been through this task so many times they know what works and what doesn't. The lack of knowledge and experience in this area only adds to the time it takes to create & finish something. And so you're usually not paying a designer to throw a colored rectangle, you're paying them for the years they've invested in testing everything else.
        crimsonalucard 8y ago
        Intuition gained from seeing UI widgets on the websites you use everyday covers 80% of what you talk about. The only thing a designer has to offer is speed. It's like someone who works at a fast food restaurant flipping burgers. You flip a lot of burgers... of course you get fast. You design a lot of simple templates... of course you get fast.
cityzen 8y ago
Do you have any designs you can share to support your opinion? I look at the website for this book and I find that it looks really nice. There is nothing "flashy" but it just looks very polished and clean. I struggle with getting from "pretty good" to "really good". Fortunately most end users are happy with "pretty good".
- crimsonalucard 8y ago
  It's just my opinion. If you feel this helps buy it. For me how you layout simple geometry and text is a trivial problem. Here's a good example of minimalism to illustrate my point: https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-8dfbbdd6a69a5f0e605e5d5959c8691d.webp https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-8dfbbdd6a69a5f0e605e5d... I get what this picture is trying to do, I get it's aesthetic. But I also know that almost ZERO effort was spent making it. Many "designs" have a less obvious aspect of this issue and I believe that this book is just dealing with issues that are more or less obvious. But that's just my humble opinion.
  - sooheon 8y ago
    Design either fulfills its intended purpose or it doesn't. I don't know why you care how much the designer suffered for it.
    - crimsonalucard 8y ago
      I care because I see a lot of it as fraudulent. Something I believe is trivial and easy is being packaged and sold as if it's a skill. Entire careers are made and paid for because someone advertises the layout of simple geometric shapes as a rare skill. It doesn't take a da vinci to make a flat design with text that is clearly readable. People who contribute very little to society but get paid way more than they deserve.

PedroBatista 8y ago

Don't know about the book thing, but great minimalism requires much more knowledge about design because you have less stuff to mask the clunkiness and your lack of ability.

crimsonalucard 8y ago
I would argue the opposite. You have less stuff to help you display your clunkiness and lack of ability. It's like Mona Lisa vs. HN front page. One is minimal and can be done with no talent and the other requires 10x more talent to create.
- PedroBatista 8y ago
  I was talking about design and function, not art.
  - crimsonalucard 8y ago
    Yeah I understand. However, design and art are inter-related. My point is in my humble opinion, design and function is very easy and does not require much talent, while art such as the Mona Lisa requires a lot of talent.
    - blue4 8y ago
      Design talent is more their experience of constant manipulation and testing of what works in certain situations. It's sort of like a UFC fighter and their counters - "if my opponent throws a kick I will check it with my own leg so I don't have the impact of the entire power." Experience is significant here because they wouldn't know what to do in the moment when it matters. A designer is the same way, say you need a page designed, and they've been through this task so many times they know what works and what doesn't. The lack of knowledge and experience in this area only adds to the time it takes to create & finish something. And so you're usually not paying a designer to throw a colored rectangle, you're paying them for the years they've invested in testing everything else.
      - crimsonalucard 8y ago
        Intuition gained from seeing UI widgets on the websites you use everyday covers 80% of what you talk about. The only thing a designer has to offer is speed. It's like someone who works at a fast food restaurant flipping burgers. You flip a lot of burgers... of course you get fast. You design a lot of simple templates... of course you get fast.

cityzen 8y ago

Do you have any designs you can share to support your opinion? I look at the website for this book and I find that it looks really nice. There is nothing "flashy" but it just looks very polished and clean. I struggle with getting from "pretty good" to "really good". Fortunately most end users are happy with "pretty good".

crimsonalucard 8y ago
It's just my opinion. If you feel this helps buy it. For me how you layout simple geometry and text is a trivial problem. Here's a good example of minimalism to illustrate my point: https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-8dfbbdd6a69a5f0e605e5d5959c8691d.webp https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-8dfbbdd6a69a5f0e605e5d... I get what this picture is trying to do, I get it's aesthetic. But I also know that almost ZERO effort was spent making it. Many "designs" have a less obvious aspect of this issue and I believe that this book is just dealing with issues that are more or less obvious. But that's just my humble opinion.
- sooheon 8y ago
  Design either fulfills its intended purpose or it doesn't. I don't know why you care how much the designer suffered for it.
  - crimsonalucard 8y ago
    I care because I see a lot of it as fraudulent. Something I believe is trivial and easy is being packaged and sold as if it's a skill. Entire careers are made and paid for because someone advertises the layout of simple geometric shapes as a rare skill. It doesn't take a da vinci to make a flat design with text that is clearly readable. People who contribute very little to society but get paid way more than they deserve.