Craft - John Maeda

“Maeda is to design what Warren Buffett is to finance.” —Wired Magazine

John Maeda is an American executive, designer, technologist. He is working at the intersection of business, design, and technology.

I first heard about Maede when I saw his TED Talk, where he talked about his life's work in the fields of art, design, and technology and summed it up with a picture of future creative leadership.

He mainly talks about four things: The first three things are about how he had been curious about technology, design and art, and how they intersect, how they overlap, and also a topic that he has taken on since a few years ago he became the President of Rhode Island School of Design: leadership (Maede, 2012). He told about how he has looked to combine these four areas into a synthesis, a kind of experiment.

As the leading thought leader in digital design, Maeda believes that the purpose of technology is to simplify our lives, not to make them more complicated. His thoughts on design have influenced me. I am keen to simplify life.

It is reflected in some of my design assignments. For example, to let the staff who read the water meter enter the garden by themselves, I made a simple handle for the outer door. Since I finished this design, my family never got up early to avoid missing the doorbell of the water meter.

In addition, in my project of the laser cutting apple pencil case. I first thought of where I felt inconvenient in my daily life, and then I chose the most practical problem that I can solve with laser cutting. Because the loss of the cap is a financial burden to me, looking for a thin apple pencil in my bag every day brings me a commitment of time. These design work all simplify the steps of my life.

In his speech, he talked about the relationship between form and content, content and form (Maeda, 2012). I think this inspired me a lot. The shape and size of the font have different feelings, and the thickness of the line is the same.

So in my work, I thicken the font and thin the lines to highlight the theme.

I hope to be a designer with different skills. In China, the popular word "Slash" refers to a group of people who no longer satisfy the lifestyle of a "single career" but choose to have a diverse life with multiple occupations and identities. For example, Maeda is not only a designer but also a technologist and product experience leader (John Maeda: Working at the intersection of design, business, and technology, 2010).

Maeda's career direction is of great interest to me. I am preparing to be this type of designer by studying for a double degree in university. I am not only interested in design, but business is also lovely to me. I did a double degree in design and commerce at the university. And even in commerce, I am doing management and marketing at the same time.

References:

John Maeda: Working at the intersection of design, business, and technology - DesignBetter. 2010. John Maeda: Working at the intersection of design, business, and technology. [online] Available at: <https://www.designbetter.co/podcast/john-maeda> .

Maede, J. 2012, June. How art, technology and design inform creative leaders. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/john_maeda_how_art_technology_and_design_inform_creative_leaders?language=en#t-54633