February 2008 • Observed
It’s About Time
By Mason Currey
John Maeda’s Timetanium sneaker for Reebok was inspired, in part, by the idea of simplicity. Maeda is something of an expert on the subject. The computer artist and MIT professor, recently named the next president of the Rhode Island School of Design, wrote The Laws of Simplicity, which outlines ten mantras for the chronically harried. When Reebok approached Maeda to design a sneaker, he created a polygonal graphic based on his third law: savings in time feel like simplicity.
“You have these flowing lines around the shoe, evoking this idea of time as your eyes travel across it,” Maeda says. The graphic grows progressively simpler, fading from the heel’s multicolor swirls to a monochromatic swoop across the toe. The metallic look was inspired by the titanium panels of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and the computer code that generated the graphic is printed on the lining and insole. Actually, for a shoe based on simplicity it seems pretty, well, complicated. “It’s a little bit pimped up,” Maeda admits.
Read Related Stories:
Starchitecture High
Coop Himmelblau’s wildly ambitious L.A. high school opened to great acclaim and local controversy. Two years later, we ask: how is it actually working?
Museum Geometry
For the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the architect Preston Scott Cohen reconciled large galleries and a difficult site.
Knowing Where To Stand
For 50 years, the architectural photographer Norman McGrath has displayed the unique ability to find precisely the right angle from which to convey a building’s real essence.
Trying to Make Cars Cool Again
Kids love smartphones a lot more than cars. What’s an automaker to do? With the help of big-name architects, rebrand.
BACK TO TOP