Achieving simplicity is NOT simple!

I’m sitting here at my desk watching my fingers move across my keyboard…and I’m numb. I have had a crazy day running around, being disappointed, making a new plan, then that does not work out and so the day goes on. I feel as though I am constantly hitting a brick wall with my new bag design that I still hope to launch next week.

I have made five samples and with each one the pattern has been improved but the bag STILL does not look like the image I have in my head. Ive been looking and working with this bag for so long now that I cannot for the life of me work out what exactly is wrong, what needs to be changed or if I should just rip it apart and start all over again. Jeremy tells me that simplicity is the hardest thing to achieve. I am not quite convinced my bag will evolve into a simple but efficient design - as is the goal - but I am hoping.

According to the author of ‘The laws of Simplicity‘, John Maeda , the easiest way to simplify a system is to remove functionality. Now I ask - how can good bag design not have function at it’s core??? He explains that one must find a balance between complexity and simplicity. In the context of bag designing, the bag must have compartments that make storage easy and finding things even easier, must have a means to hold the bag, must be able to be closed…..and then on the other hand all you want is for it to hold things and be portable. I guess in theory, the bag should have as many pockets and compartments as the design allows rather than trying to force them.

He simplifies this complex theory down to a great phrase:

“The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. When in doubt, just remove.”

I feel I have followed through with this and if you could see the original pattern/sample bag, the simplification is evident. The bag started with four layers of fabric in one section and this has now been reduced to two. In so many ways I have achieved simplicity and what I would define as good design…but…there is still something that bothers me when I walk past this bag. Perhaps it’s shouting out that it is tired of being worked on and just wants to be launched …or perhaps it’s just me over-analyzing in our over-complicated lives and world again …perhaps I will just sleep on it.