On Oct 14, 2012, at 2:56 PM, Ken Friedman wrote:
> For example, we cannot design anything that violates the laws of physics.
Perhaps "laws" is a bad metaphor for physics. Analogical confusion may be the reason that physicists often seem to think that the universe is following laws rather than laws describing what the universe does. Can I argue this without being (perhaps rightly) accused of personifying? Maybe not. But the distinction is important and too many writers about physics seem to miss it completely.
The same seems to be true with a lot of design rules and principles. (So far, we seem to be spared much in the way of supposed design laws.) I'm never sure what people actually mean when they talk about design principles, design rules, etc. Most of the rules that have been recited to me are not rules but rather simplified and out of focus descriptions of an aspect of common cases.
That may help to explain the designer favorite: "You have to know the rules to break them." (Huh?)
Gunnar
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Gunnar Swanson
East Carolina University
graphic design program
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/graphic/index.cfm
Gunnar Swanson Design Office
1901 East 6th Street
Greenville NC 27858
USA
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+1 252 258 7006
http://www.gunnarswanson.com
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