frog design

Desire Lines + Relativity

March 26, 2008

Have you ever tried to read Einstein’s Theory of Relativity? Wouldn’t you like to really know it and understand it? That glorious theory of the way the universe works, asking us to examine who, if anyone, is really at the center of space and time. It’s not easy reading. There have been many attempts to parse the idea, to translate it for us poor unwashed masses who are unversed in quantum mechanics. I recently came across “Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in Words of Four Letters of Less” and was completely charmed by this particular attempt. Not only was the author trying to explain the mind-bending theory in layman’s terms, but also to do it under a constriction of …

Triangulation

March 12, 2008

I find myself using this word in conversations a lot recently. I don’t remember the first time it popped up, or even the second; but by the third time I heard myself say it I thought to myself, “Ahh. Yes.” The word represents a natural progression of the learnings and strategies I’ve used over time, now moving from the background and into my consciousness as a truth of what we do in design.

The definition of triangulation involves mathematical constructs and measurements that don’t read well in prose form. It’s the essence of the definition, rather, that moves me: establishing the relationship and position of two or more points (ideas, constructs, systems, etc.) by thoughtful consideration of their very juxtaposition. If …