#designprinciple

The inclusive collaboration design process between the Akasha Academy and Team SMA has been awarded by the international STIR (See Think Inspire Reflect) editorial team with an extensive article publication in the category THINK.

Thank you STIR, Amit, Soumya, Devanshi, Prachi and Jerry for the well-timed feature as we just embarked on the third phase of the collaboration. The article talks about the journey, with the fantastic members of the Akasha Academy, of embracing natural sloping land and design with nature to create an inspiring, healthy, self-sufficient and meaningful environment. It is about listening to the land, finding out where the land was happy and where it was hurting.

We are glad to share with you the most recent situation of the stabilization of a serious 2020 landslide. The Gabion walls, Utis (Alder) trees and Vetiver grass are doing well. A bamboo pavilion will soon follow. Stay tuned!

an extremity; a conflict; a discomfort; a rule-breaker; a rebel; a narcissist; a sarcastic remark

Life makes brutal jokes and we learn lessons worth learning the hard way. 

I just turned 30 and I can’t help but admit how good I’m feeling. A year ago, I spent my birthday in Glasgow feeling very lonely, terribly longing for a friend’s hug and still I was feeling better than one year ago. This year, I was lucky enough to cook mum’s recipes for some of my best friends, who were happy to celebrate me. This is quite precious. I received lots of flowers that are still alive, fill my room with lovely scents and remind me of how rebellious staying alive is.

This year is dedicated to being and staying authentic, which is the ultimate rebellion. Being gentle and kind is a rebellion. I have recently changed many things in my life in the search for true authenticity, like a true rebel. I’m in my cave, which has been lacking for a long while, making rebellious plans. I’m feeling more loving and generous than before. And yet, thinking about all the things I wanna do give me fear. It’s hard to imagine how there’ll ever be enough time or mental space, but hopefully, we’ll have lifetimes.

I’m also thinking a lot about discomfort. The discomfort of apology. Of conflict. Of unclarity. And of fragility. And cold winters. And rejection. And lacking energy. Of Demons. And criticism. Which come up when I think about all the things I wanna do. What if I can’t make them? And die with so much trapped in my body eating my flesh like worms? And what if time flies like it always does? And Demons win? I make terrible mistakes? I end up sharing my deepest vulnerabilities with the world? I feel completely naked? 

And then I’m jealous of musicians. I’m always jealous of them. Those modern time healers and magicians. Music is medicine, and music is the drug. Music, which is so ephemeral and forgiving, can save us from all our inner conflicts moments. Like the air that feeds everything. It is so effortless and full of emotions.

I go back to the dilemma between authenticity and discomfort. It’s quite simple actually. You either are yourself, or you’re nothing at all. And that’s the end of it.

Love and peace to all.

Oh and before you go, why don’t you check out MukShop and get one of those CONTRAST notebooks as part of the design principles? Why don’t you?

Elif 🖤

an equilibrium, an aesthetically pleasing arrangement, that allows nothing to be taken away

A canvas, on its blank state, is a neutral space—like a blind canvas, a new born baby. This is the space where endless possibilities are allowed. The dawn that holds the new day. As soon as an object is placed, a pole is created. Life is created on earth. A force field. A gravity.

The balance is broken.

Now, every single new object that enters the force field will either be pulled towards a pole—if its own gravity is weaker than the former—or creates a new pole stronger—if its gravity is stronger instead. (In the former case, the object obeys the dominant trend within the field, and in the latter, it creates a new trend that overpowers the existing forces.)

A tension is created.

This push and pull between objects continue as long as a state of balance is achieved, which is an extremely rare state that is present for no longer than a brief moment in time. This state is somehow similar to a stationary moment, or maybe a snapshot in time. I would even argue that balance is never something we can achieve, but rather only aspire to. It’s such an ultimate idea that this intention itself it is often the sole hint of a balance. The duality of Yin and yang, which is an ideal equilibrium within the micro- and macrocosms is omnipresent and flowing towards its alteration. As life is always moving, the composition is always evolving, balance is always broken to be recreated over and over again. So the perception of balance as a moment of inertia might be a paradox.

However, this also means that we can only speak of balance in presence of, not necessarily two, but definitely multiple objects (or elements or things or flavours or sounds or colours or movements or any other artistic ingredient). So balance is a relationship. The astrological sign Libra, which has the scales as its symbol, rules relationships. In particular, it rules relationships of one-to-one, where a precise fairness has to be maintained by a constant equal give and take.

Hence balance is a constant equal give and take, the flirt between the female and male.

It’s a peaceful tension, where you feel at ease. The more tension there is, the closer we are to quietude. Or Balance. Like the moment before a rubber band snaps. Or tip of a rollercoaster. Or orgasm.

Aesthetically, balance can create immense pleasure to senses and that’s why we’re drawn towards it as creators. A balanced face is a beautiful symmetrical face, which every feature is counterpoised by an opposite one; where your eyes can rest as long as they want to. It feels like the artist’s job is done. To the outside gaze, it can look perplexing to analyse the meticulous calculations that were put into the construction of the piece. Because there is not a single extra grain that tips the scale. A perfect nothing. The lack of tension. It is perfectly decluttered. Not in the sense that it is minimalistic. Not necessarily. But rather, it’s crystal clear that every single element in the composition exists to fulfil a noble purpose in the exactly right place. Like the way, God created each of us with a special purpose that no-one else but us can fulfil that in the whole contributes to a complex system. It’s without a doubt impossible to substitute any single object with another. 

Nothing is redundant, or arbitrary.

I love Hemingway’s quote “Write drunk, edit sober”. It may take courage to start the creative process, so losing your head over it might certainly help. But equally, it takes a sharp mind, a steady hand and a strong will to refine the outcome and to take things out. And the latter is what makes the work great. Getting rid of the unnecessary and stripping the work down is what makes mastery. And in my own experience, and according to others like Hemingway, this is the hardest part. Artists ultimately manifest a human nature, which more often than not holds onto overstatement.

I recently went to a shaman, because, like everyone, I have issues that I can’t solve with a sharp mind, a steady hand and a strong will. I show addictive behaviour and am drawn to extremes. I’ve been looking for a long time to find my state of balance. This shaman told me that my soul wasn’t willing to let go of the soul of a long passed loved one, even though he wanted to let me go already. She said that our souls finally separated peacefully through her guidance and that when two souls do separate, they always do so with love. I was so so so mad to hear this. Like, so mad. I could not believe that I was being dumped on the soul level. I was just so so so mad. I clearly wasn’t willing to let go of the past and or to be in balance whatsoever. And then I was so so so sad. After the experience, I cried for days, which felt like a fresh grief. But in an ironic way, this started a healing in me.

Finding balance can be dramatic.

You might have to be very brave to let of things, that you know bring you (or your work) harm. It’s quite heart breaking to “killing your darlings.” It might feel like cutting your own limb off. But in fact, the more you dare to lose things, the more you (or your work) get stronger.

So indeed, balance can only be achieved by letting go rather than adding on, in that as artists, we tip the initial balance of nothingness by creating in the first place.

Esher illustrations

I found this two pics on Pinterest.com they really got my attention as I think if you look at them properly you will find lots of rules of design principle. Analysing this two picture I can see the guests principle of design

The first picture is named : women and man ’s legs . Is in grayscale and from the beginning i could just the women leg. After i opened the picture and read the caption I actually saw man’s leg ( as it was written in the caption ) in the other side. Quite impressive

In this image, the figure and ground relationships change as the eye perceives the the form of a shade or the silhouette of a face. this is one of the rule of gestalt principle. I can see that there is similarity as well because one object look similar to one another.

The second image, is called “outfit six”.

The object is incomplete and the space is not completely enclosed. Even if the shape is indicated, I percieve the whole by filling in the missing infomations.

I like this picture. It represent a skirt with women shirt, basically women’s outfit

What does consistency mean in a multi-platform world?

A lot of times, the discussion about consistency revolves around the visual design style. User tests seem to validate this assumption that the different visual treatment of user interface is causing the issue. 

Well, is that really the problem? 

I would argue that the visual treatment is just a symptom on the skin level.

What are we trying to achieve by making things look consistent?

Familiarity.

Familiarity removes or reduces the need to re-learn how to use a product.

Making a button look the same from one application to another assumes that once a user uses one application, he won't have to re-learn about that button's behavior when he interacts with the 2nd app. So it is one of the techniques that we can apply to improve familiarity.

However, consistency should not be about making things look exactly the same or even about making them work the same way across many platforms (because it's impossible unless you deal with a limited set of platforms that are pretty uniform).