A Mindful Approach to Design:Why I choose Simplicity

In an incredibly fast-paced society, our minds are having more and more trouble processing all the information thrown at us. Billboards, banners, posters, flyers, radio commercials, tv ads, social media ads, thousands of applications that are supposed to help us be more productive – and the list goes on – they are everywhere and they are all screaming at us.

How could my design stand out in this sea of noise? Ironically, I think precisely the simple, straightforward content has a better chance. The one that respects your visual and mental space, the one that says what it has to say in a stripped-down, uncomplicated manner. I believe we have reached the level of saturation where people (or how they are referred to in a more technical, economical way – consumers) no longer need to be visually charged at by millions of pixels and thousands of characters. We have reached the point where a skilfully devised sentence can trigger profound emotions in the people that walk or scroll by it. We have reached the point where a simple but intuitive UI can create a strong bridge between a brand and a user.

It has therefore become more challenging for us creatives to come up with something that can have a real impact. I believe simplicity is the way to go. And I don’t mean that in the sense that we suppress our skills and design simplistically, on the contrary, I think we should focus all our skills towards the bare essential, the core of the message we have to convey in an attempt to declutter the space around us. I think we should take full responsibility for our position as creators and make the world we experience everyday a bearable place, for the sake of our mental health.

Illustration by Andrada Haș