Addition By Subtraction

Read an excellent post by Neil today. Gotta re-read itd 'Deep Commute-Think' about it!!

Am always conscious of the fact that very few of my posts are on design or designers...Fact is very less of my time is spent in the company of designers or on design thinking!

Had gone to Chennai some time back and at Landmark picked up this book. Design Your Self by Karim Rashid.. Karim Rashid is a famous industrial designer whose clients include Prada, Umbra, Alessi among others...

Had no previous knowledge of him. But am finding the book quite inspirational and useful for planner thinking as well! His other books are Evolution and I Want to Change the World.

Buried among the chapters I found the one on Addition By Subtraction - Ways to have more with less.

Some real gems there are! So applicable to Planning and life in general.

1. Streamline your possessions.
Analyse each object in your home and ask yourself when was the last time I used that object? Why do I have it? Do I need it? Does it bring meaning, memory, love, function, experience. pleasure, humour or energy to my life?

Most brands can earn from this. Very often we carry sacred vestiges from the brand past. Holy brand cows that better be junked

2. Live with a real reflection of yourself.Remove anything that doesn't add to your experience.

3. Downsize your technology.
Beware of over-gadget-ization!!

For planners the equivalent would be getting lost in the tools and the templates. And the jargons that we keep inventing to say the same trite stuff!

4. Stay away from junk.
Junk briefs, junk creative, junk thinking, junk meetings/tele-cons:-)

This entire book is a visual treat and a how to manual to simplify stuff! While on the subject of simplicity, must share a quote of Freeman Thomas(one of the designers of the new VW Beetle) which I read in the morning- "If you distill Mickey Mouse, it's three circles. The Beetle is three arcs on the side".