Maeda's SIMPLICITY

Circle The Nightmare

Curves just want to have fun.

I've never been a fan of circles. I think as the whole mantra of shapes goes, "Circle, Triangle, Square" I have spent most of my life as a disciple of the square. Yet now I find that the square is something that I cannot escape. All modern thinking lives in a ridiculous rectangle of something -- whether it be a rectangular page of paper, one's rectangular desktop, or the rectangular screen you are now looking at. Ten years ago I felt a similar frustration and made a painting program mapped to a circular form called RadialPaint that still sort of works along with other oldies on an OS9 Mac. Hmmmm, looking back I guess I was terrorized by circles back then as well.

Today my favorite shape is a mixture of the triangle and the amorphous, hand-drawn curve. I'm not sure how they relate to each other. The triangle signifies a kind of perpetual imbalance and awkwardness; the hand-drawn curve, to me, signifies humanity in many ways. I'd like to eventually leave the pure land of circle, triangle, square and fall of the deep end to a state of shapelessness. Perhaps then, I might become friends again with the square. Of course, he may not want to be friends with me. I'll have to risk it.

Posted by maeda at August 23, 2005 09:03 AM

> Work | Posted at 09:03 AM