Decoration and Design are two different things. What 'Wired' does for it's cover, internal pages is of course 'more' but most of it is decoration. Underlaying d

Decoration and Design are two different things. What 'Wired' does for it's cover, internal pages is of course 'more' but most of it is decoration. Underlaying design principle is still 'as little as possible'. It's sort of like grid for web-design, you can decorate it no-end but grid (design) remains design. On David Carson's work, I see it as a work of art based on design principles. Herd of rule of thirds? You can have as much 'more' in your photo / visual as you want. But the design principle of 'thirds' is as little as possible. And for rest of the stuff and more examples you mentioned - my personal opinion is "If you hit your head with hammer long enf, it's gonna feel good when you stop." All that more & clutter is hitting your head with hammer - it is ugly. That is what designers like Massimo Vignelli and Dieter Rams see as things that need to be cured. That is what inspires design. Design is beyond brands, it's the underlaying principle of thinking.