Keep it complicated, stupid

I'm probably the last planner in the world to discover John Maeda's site about the Laws of Simplicity. Their reductionism is an exercise in elegant simlicity in itself. His tenth law summarises planning rather well, I think: Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful. I sometimes use a quote by Picasso to describe a planning function - about seeing like a child. In other ways, recognising the complex but trying to keep things simple.

Clients and account management seem to love this stuff. Having someone in the agency dedicated to making life simple is something worth paying money for.

But, the problem is, would you rather stare at a uniform 41% grey sky or a dramatic sunset? Would you rather look at a plain white wall, or a Vermeer? Why is running in a maze fun? Or as Russell says, "no one comes out of the cinema saying that movie was really clear."

So, is it just the job of creatives to make the simple (i.e. the brief, with all it's simplified meaning) complicated again? And by complicated I mean interesting and worthwhile and rich. Where does planning end and creativity begin - what's that transition point between the simplicity and the complexity? And are we in danger of over-simplifying the role of planning?

Flickr fun stuff

First off, Planning Eye has just accepted its 100th member, a planner from Kyoto (hope you don't mind me grabbing the image, Akiyo?). This isn't just a place to grab images for presentations, or to give insight into other places, but is starting to become an exchange of ideas and networking. I only know 18 of these folks personally, and a few more by 'e-' so I think it's terrific everyone's found it and joined in. Onwards and upwards

Secondly, someone found a copy of the creative brief image posted there some time ago. Apparently it's the only creative brief on Flickr found with the search term 'creative brief' - does that make it a Flickr-whack? Have we invented a new form of playtime?