AEN UI

Photo of ADA aquarium tank from ADA.

This is the chapter of Kanso 簡素 (simplicity).

By definition Kanso is simplicity and keeping things basic and plain, free of decoration and gimmicks. There are two obvious schools of thought which designers belong to. One sees design as a means of decoration and the other sees it as craft. Decoration serves the purpose of amusement and craft serves the purpose of function, the function that form follows. A fancy dish garnished with top quality ingredients amuses our taste buds while plain rice serves only to ease our hunger. Kanso is rice, not pasta. You will get tired of eating fancy food but not basic food like rice. Kanso is plain white paper and black ink on paper, not oil on canvas. You only use what you need and nothing more. Kanso is the bare essential.

As a design consultant, my work schedule is very often hectic and stressful. I tend to find solace in things that are peaceful and natural. I like simplicity in the things I use so it is not surprising I am a devoted follower of MUJI, whose guiding principle is flexibility, providing the savvy customer with products that are simple and essential “objects for good living”. MUJI is distinguished by its design minimalism, emphasis on recycling, avoidance of waste in production and packaging, and no-logo policy. MUJI “無印良品” simply means quality products with no mark.

One of my favorite MUJI product which I buy and use very often are the B5 paperback notebooks which I buy for slightly more than three Singapore dollars at their two stores in town. They are made from recycled paper and look very simple. Because they are relatively cheap and cheap-looking, I can doodle on them and not have the worry of wasting expensive paper in the back of my mind. I have a Moleskin notebook which I bought out of novelty. It is expensive and elegant. In fact it is so expensive that I find it mind-restricting. I prefer cheap things I can waste.

The MUJI notebooks sold in Singapore are very light grey, unlike the yellow version in the image which I took from MUJI’s website. I actually have at least a dozen of the notebooks because I love them so much I worry they will go out of stock. My bed sheet, coffee table, book stands, storage boxes, kitchen broom and many other things are all MUJI!

So you can see I love simplicity. I designed my meishi (name cards) in a simple way too. My company name is “AEN” which is my name too, so there is no need to list both names. It also gives the message that my client deals with me personally. I used only one color—white, silkscreen printed over translucent plastic cards. The result is a card that blends itself into any background you hold it up against. I only put essential information on the card, which are my email address (which contains my website url/domain), what I do and my contact number, which is as minimal one can safely get.

While we are at name cards or if you prefer to call them business cards, let’s have a look at designs which oppose the Kanso principle.

Designers come up with crazy ideas all the time. Some end up “too creative” and stray too much from the original purpose. I found this business card design on Flickr. It is certainly cool and fun-looking but now imagine trying to stuff that sheep into your wallet or card case. Wool fabric instead of actual wool could be used instead so the card remains relatively flat and store-able.

Other than simplicity in design, a product can be simple in functionality too. The problem with today’s advances in technology is that it is often too easy to get carried away with features. Phones now support web browsing and email, can play music and video and have built-in mega-pixel cameras. Cars have GPS navigation systems, anti-theft systems, traction control systems, this system that system… Things are so choked full of features that product designers are now going back to the bare essentials, so we can catch our breath and escape from this feature choke.

This wall-hung CD player from MUJI is designed by Naoto Fukasawa in 1999. Quoted from iconeye.com: A tug on its pull string causes the exposed CD to turn and music plays through its integrated speaker. Fukasawa purposefully based it on a kitchen fan to give it an identity that people naturally recognize. “It’s totally synchronised with your image of the kitchen fan turning round,” he says. “You already have some memory of the fan, so it overlaps the two images and your body already knows how to turn on the fan by pulling on the switch.”

This is simplicity in functionality. This CD player does not come with surround sound, a fancy LED display nor a remote, it is a simple CD player that is a joy to use.

Keeps things simple when they should be. Use only what you need. One saying goes “Perfection is not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”. But there is no perfection. What is true then? There is no truth, only perception. Perception is clear when the mind is not clouded or burdened. Keep things simple as they should be and the mind will not be burdened.