MINIMALISSIMO EDITED
A designer who wants to achieve good design must not regard himself as an artist who, according to taste and aesthetics, is merely dressing up products with a last-minute garment. The designer must be the creative engineer. They synthesise the completed product from the various elements that make up its design. Their work is largely rational, meaning that aesthetic decisions are justified by an understanding of the product’s purpose.
– Dieter Rams
What's happening?
We returned this week after a short break to showcase some more beautiful minimalism spanning a range of topics. Besides that, I have been tentatively experimenting with OpenAi's DALLE-2. The whole concept is pretty mind-blowing to be honest. I'm not sure I'm ready for it, but it's fun to play with. Especially the new feature that is Outpainting; helping users extend their creativity by continuing an image beyond its original borders—adding visual elements in the same style, or taking a story in new directions—simply by using a natural language description. What some people are creating with this tool, along with StabilityAI's Stable Diffusion is in one sense, incredible, and in another, scary. It will be interesting to see what impact this has on the art and design industries and beyond. How do you feel about it?
– Carl
Features
GHENT HOUSE
Thomas Phifer's minimalist albeit slightly dense Ghent House was designed as a linear collection of structures, slightly askew from one another and partially embedded into a hillside. Each structure contains one room. The building's low profile minimises its impact on the sprawling 78-acre site.
SOROE
In a bid to avoid the visual noise of typical architectural hardware, Japanese studio nendo has designed SOROE; a collection of uniform and minimal hardware. The items and accessories that are typically placed haphazardly on countertops become more organised, naturally, through the design. While the items in the collection are not the main characters of a living space, by having them share the element of a sliced off “face”, they help bring a sense of unity to the spatial whole.
EXTRA BOLD
The EXTRA BOLD armchair designed by BIG-GAME takes up the radical constructive principles of the BOLD range by combining two large tubes and, contrary to what it suggests, offers surprising comfort according to the designers. Its minimalist and strong sculptural form contrasts with the sensation of comfort experienced once seated on the large diameter tubes, upholstered with a very thick layer of injected foam.
ROLLER JET PRINTER
Korea-based industrial designer Jisan Chung has brilliantly conceived Roller Jet; an innovative and aesthetic printer that utilises a roll of paper instead of individual sheets to print out any length the user wants. Jisan's Roller Jet proposes new use-cases for home printers in this digitalised world. By using a roll of paper rather than sheets, you can print out any length or purpose you want—from tickets, check-lists, daily schedules, grid lines, or gift wraps to A4 size or larger for documents. After printing, the paper can be easily torn off with a single hand.
SILVER CURTAIN OFFICE
This two-story office extension designed by BUERO WAGNER is located in the backyard of a turn-of-the-century building near the Isar River in the Au district of Munich. The new unit can be accessed via fixtures made of galvanised steel gratings. Windows were extended into the basement to provide adequate lighting. Silver curtains made of aluminium vapour barriers on the back conceal the kitchen, storage shelves, as well as the passages to the toilet and to the storage rooms.
Supply spotlight
minimal design made to own (and made by us):
M–OWL
Owl is a minimalist theme powered by Notion and Super for photographers and artists alike. By removing the non-essential, we have created a fast, simplified, and more focused site design that puts your work first.
Where next?
Discovery
other things for you to read, explore, and maybe even admire:
Steve Jobs Archive: a wonderful and beautifully designed tribute to Steve
WikiHouse: simple, beautiful, zero-carbon reusable building blocks for accessible housing (and it's open source)
This House Does Not Exist: using AI to let you generate modern architecture on the fly
Frigg.eco: a really interesting approach to using crypto in a much greener way
This monthly edition of the Minimalissimo newsletter was supported by aprile, the hanging chair
inspired by spring days and designed by Matteo Modica, aprile is a simple suspended chair that oozes elegance—a floating seat, shaped after spring petals, swinging gently. designed and handcrafted in Italy with artisanal love.
whether you're looking for visual inspiration or design insights, you can visit our gallery to discover the very best of minimalism in art and design.
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