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Thoughts on Paul Rand
- raintrees 14y agoThanks, it's nice to have something positive to start the day.
- cschmidt 14y agoA wonderful man. I followed everything he wrote for many years. To this day, I do a double take when I see Congressman Rand Paul in the press, and then feel disappointed.
- AVTizzle 14y agoI actually just did the reverse, clicking on the link wondering what political context this was going to be in. Relieved to realize my mistake.
- 10dpd 14y ago"At the time I was building a reputation for myself as being a gifted graphical user interface designer." What products has John Maeda designed that we can use or have used in the past? Writing books is great, but its the practical application that really builds reputations.
- carlio 14y agoI found it hard to read past the first paragraph after that sentence, to be honest.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- matthewgifford 14y agoYou're seriously going to stop reading what someone has to say simply because he mentioned that he worked on building his reputation? Your loss.
- stevewillows 14y agoHe's recognized more for his influence on tech and art rather than his name on a specific product. You might say that he was in the right place at the right time with the right interests. The line has a sense of arrogance. Although it is true, it might not need the mention.
- gb 14y agoI didn't read it is arrogance, he's contrasting the praise he was receiving at the time with his own opinion of Paul Rand's genuis.
- matthewgifford 14y agoI agree. If anything, it's poorly worded. I think he's just observing what others think about him. And maybe his intention to make himself be seen as gifted.
- stevewillows 14y agoYeah -- i see that arrogance is the wrong word. The contrast brings that to light. Thanks
- tptacek 14y agoExactly what is the point of this comment?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- 10dpd 14y agoThe point is to find out which products John Maeda has worked on?
- matthewgifford 14y agoSome of it is here: http://www.maedastudio.com/ http://www.maedastudio.com/ People sometimes look at his work and think it's very simplistic and/or retro. Part of the art is the process it took to get there.
- stephth 14y agoThis list is a good place to start: http://www.maedastudio.com/index.php http://www.maedastudio.com/index.php I would rather not show you specific examples and risk generalizing his work, but I don't want to drown your interest under perhaps too many choices, so I suppose I would point to his different advertisement pieces for Shiseido (interactive and print) as an introduction. (Search for images with the terms John Maeda Shiseido and crawl your way in.) If anyone is really interested in his work (and if you do UI-related work dare I say, you probably want to be), I'd recommend the book "Maeda @ Media", it's a great guide through his earlyish work and process.
- ThomPete 14y agoHe has produced among others Casey Reas and Ben Fry who later went on to create Processing. Maeda is an artist before he is an engineer so what he creates is more experiments using code.
- disordinary 14y agoYou'd think someone who lectures design wouldn't have such a crappy blog.
- disordinary 14y agoOr website sorry, wasn't a blog but a website for Asthetics + Computer group at MIT.
- SteveJS 14y agoDiscovering someone who is clearly a giant, in a field about which I am ignorant, is my favorite thing about Hacker News. I anticipate good reading ahead: http://www.paul-rand.com/foundation/thoughts/#articles http://www.paul-rand.com/foundation/thoughts/#articles
- cschmidt 14y agoYou're in for a treat. Paul Rand's books like "Design, Form, and Chaos" are great. Also, the book "Paul Rand" by Stephen Heller is well worth reading. www.amazon.com/Paul-Rand-Steven-Heller/dp/0714839949
- michaelpinto 14y agoSteve Jobs on Paul Rand http://youtu.be/xb8idEf-Iak http://youtu.be/xb8idEf-Iak
- naturalethic 14y agoThe only effect I've seen from the word "talent" is to convince some people they'll never be good at anything. I really hate that word and the pretensious jerks who use it.
- dasil003 14y agoOn the other hand, people who never say anything that pisses someone off probably don't accomplish much of interest.
- drostie 14y agoOne great story about Paul Rand: "He is one of the most professional people I've ever worked with, in the sense that he thought through all of the formal relationship between a client and a professional such as himself -- obviously very deep thoughts about this -- and therefore he had very clear conclusions about what the relationship meant to both parties and how it should be conducted. For example: I asked him if he would come up with 'a few options'. And he said 'No, I will solve your problem for you. And you will pay me. And you don't have to use the solution -- if you want options go talk to other people! -- but I'll solve your problem for you the best way I know how, and you use it or not, that's up to you, you're the client -- but you pay me.' And there was a clarity about the relationship that was refreshing." -- Steve Jobs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb8idEf-Iak I really enjoyed his uncompromising attitude, "I'm not going to attempt to solve the problem 4 times for you; you can consult 4 people who wholeheartedly attempt to solve the problem once." The idea that art is not something to be half-assed but something to be pursued, as the Tibetans might say, "one-pointedly", is a deep lesson which I myself resonate very strongly with.
- chimi 14y agoThere can be problems with this approach, specifically, "The best way I know how" may not be the best way for the client. There are pros and cons with nearly every potential solution and it can be beneficial to discuss the pros and cons of more than one solution with the client before proceeding. It's arrogant to assume the best way you know how is the best way for the client. For example, if you only know Ruby and the client is a PHP shop and you implement a solution for them in Ruby anyway, that could cause more problems than it is worth in the long run.
- Confusion 14y agoAs your comment shows, "the best way you know how" when applied to yourself includes the realization that a PHP solution might be better for a PHP shop. Throw in another bunch of such realizations and a life long effort to actually come up with such realizations and you will understand why Paul Rand's approach is acceptable. He set out to solve Apple's problem. Not his initial and naive conception of their problem. He first made sure he understood their problem.
- nottombrown 14y agoBoth Maeda and Rand are legends. Ironic that poor design of the ACG site clashed so much with the content of the article. Notes to self: In QA format, place the answers close to the questions they correspond to. Be consistent in placing initials before dialog.
- sktrdie 14y agoIs it just me or is everything he says very abstract? Sure he's good at his craft, but all the things about everything being subjective, and design having many meanings, and that anything can be artistic... it just seems like he has very generic sort of explanations for everything. I guess to be a good designer you have to have this attitude, but in today's business, the sort of attitude where you're like "I'll show you a single logo, and you won't have other options" won't cut it. Design is subjective and it will always be, so not giving your client many options is just plain stupid and will make you poor before you know it.