John Maeda is a graphic designer and computer scientist dedicated to linking design and technology. Through the software tools, web pages and books he creates, as well as his devoted students at MIT's Media Lab, he spreads his philosophy of elegant simplicity.
Why you should listen to him:
John Maeda is a programmer and an artist -- and is committed to blurring the lines between the two disciplines. As a student at MIT, studying computer programming, the legendary Muriel Cooper persuaded him to follow his parallel passion for fine art and design. And when computer-aided design began to explode in the mid-1990s, Maeda was in a perfect position to influence and shape the form, helping typographers and page designers explore the freedom of the web.
He jokes about himself as "the guy who makes the flying letters." But behind this joke is a deep insight into the way good programming can create new forms of good design -- the guiding principle of Web 2.0, where type and images can behave in brand-new ways to communicate and amuse.
He's the author of several books, including his latest, The Laws of Simplicity, and the retrospective MAEDA@MEDIA.
"Maeda's vision finds its purest expression in his open-source infrastructure for creativity on the Web -- a kind of Linux for art tools -- in which the browser becomes a global hub for editing, annotating, and sharing digital media."Fast Company
Blog Posts on TED
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Simply John Maeda, on TED.com – September 20, 2007
The MIT Media Lab's John Maeda lives at the intersection of technology and art -- a place that can get very complicated. Here, he talks about paring down to basics, and how he creates clean, elegant art, websites and web tools. In his book Laws of Simplicity, he offers 10 rules and 3 keys for simple living and working -- but in this talk, he boils it down to one simply delightful way to be. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 16:10.)
Watch John Maeda's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.
Read more about John Maeda on TED.com.
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"RISD is MIT for the right brain," says John Maeda – September 3, 2008
On the eve of his inauguration as president of the Rhode Island School of Design, John Maeda gave a wide-ranging interview to Dominique Browning in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. Among the Maeda-isms:
"I want to reform technology. All the tools are the same; people make the same things with them. Everyone asks me, 'Are you bringing technology to RISD?' I tell them, no, I'm bringing RISD to technology."
"Companies know that they can't get any further with their left-brain processing; they are dying to engage the right brain. Artists change how we see the world -- and that can have value in the way people do business."
"A designer is someone who constructs while he thinks, someone for whom planning and making go together."
Check out the new RISD blog ... or follow John Maeda on Twitter >>
Illustration: Ismael Roldan
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