03 September 2008

"RISD is MIT for the right brain," says John Maeda

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

Posted by Emily McManus | Permalink

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20 September 2007

Simply John Maeda, on TED.com

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.

Posted by TED Staff | Permalink

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