Lightness

According to The Six Memos for the Next Millennium by Italo Calvino, Lightness, Quickness, Exactitude, Visibility, Multiplicity and Consistency were included in this issue. Although Calvino’s article was primarily written in regards to literature, the point of view can also relate to the fields of art and design. In the way, the Lightness was also referred by Gui Bonsiepe in Some Virtue of Design at the first spot.

To base on Calvino, we compare the design project as a story. In additional to remove the weight from the structure of the story to attempt the Lightness, the intent, which is the core of the story, might be taken away at the same time once in a while.  Furthermore, the main idea is always one of the existed contexts after the weight removing.

Milton Glaser who is a graphic designer, best known for the I Love New York logo, belongs to a generation in which the goal of design was to make things simple. Nicholas Negroponte, on the other hand, is a Greek-American architect and computer scientist for whom the design goal is to render the complex manageable and to make complicated things meaningful.

Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe, are widely regarded as the pioneering masters of modern architecture. They simply follow the idea of architecture discipline to have the new theory for modern architecture structure, which is light and clear.

In conclusion, Lightness is a virtue to be maintained. Not only removing the weight of the structure, but also keeping the intent lighting to be presented.