John Maeda’s ‘Nature’ – La Fondation Cartier, Paris 2005 from Designflux : Devoted to Motion on Vimeo.
I have been interested in John Maeda for a few years now. John Maeda is President of the Rhode Island School of Design and serves on the board of trustees for the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. He received both his BS and MS degrees from MIT, and earned his PhD in design from Tsukuba University Institute of Art and Design in Japan.
I was fortunate enough to shake his hand and witness him speak in front of a small audience about 2 years ago in Minneapolis. He’s good people. He’s exactly what you would expect from a brilliant young RISD President. A bit “quirky”, a bit difficult to predict his train of thought and full of simple ideas that are somehow very “brain awakening”. As he spoke I found that I shared many of the same interests as he does. He’s always taking random pictures, creating strange and beautiful works of art (see above video) and is in constant search of interesting solutions for the digital medium, or as he calls it “humanizing technology”. To say the least, for me, It was easy to be drawn in by him.
Recently, while browsing through my Delicious bookmarks I discovered that I have collected a good deal of information/links in regard to him over time. Hence this post. If you are a designer, creative, mathematician or just a curious soul, you should do yourself a favor and jump into John Maeda’s head and swim around for a while. He’s a great source of inspiration.
John Maeda’s Bio/site contact info -> John Maeda
John Maeda on Dezeen -> Dezeen Blog
John Maeda -> TED Blog
Thoughts on Simplicity -> Simplicity
Selected works -> Maeda Studio
His Book -> The Laws of Simplicity
AIGA Interview -> Out of the Lab Jan 2008
RISD Student Blog -> Our (and Your)
Random find -> How to start a business in Providence RI (for RISD students on Vimeo)
