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Most of us are aware of "constraints" in design, in the software or the design brief, and even in our processes. Constraints are certain kinds of limitations that need to be imposed during a project, but the "thoughtful use of constraints" can actually focus the design work and the process, and lead us to effective solutions more rapidly. But how can we use them to do good design? Read on to see how Apple's Dynamic Island leveraged a constraint, the limits imposed by language on AI, what we can learn from how engineers apply constraints in their work, principles to help apply the theory of constraints, and the limitations of the web that gave birth to the beloved gif.

Anni Albers

Magical constraints (or How to turn bugs into features)

A lot has been said about Apple's new Dynamic Island, but this Medium post makes some good points about constraints, and that sometimes the only way to arrive at good design is to live with our constraints for a while.

AI And The Limits Of Language

We're all playing around with Midjourney, which of course uses a text interface as the entry to creation - but how powerful is language when it comes to creating visuals? This article from Noema Mag posits that an AI system trained on words and sentences alone will never approximate human understanding.

Don’t ask if artificial intelligence is good or fair, ask how it shifts power

We've come across enough opinions on the benefits of AI, but as most AI researchers tend to focus only on providing highly accurate information, remarkably little research focuses on actually serving the subjects of the data.

🧰 Your toolkit

The Three Essential Properties of the Engineering Mind-Set

The engineering mindset is primed to design under constraints. In his book Applied Minds: How Engineers Think, Guru Madhavan explores the three essential properties of the engineering mindset that will help you improve your problem-solving.

Theory of Constraints Principles, Simplified

In his blog, Ivaylo Durmonski explains the Theory of Constraints, which helps to identify the weakest links inside a system, derived from the novel The Goal by Elliot Goldratt.

💖 Eye Candy

The creative legacy of Gifs: Past, present and future — www.itsnicethat.com

The invention of the Gif transformed creative practices overnight and gave birth to a whole new medium of expression. This history (or giftory?) speaks to experts and artists about the continued evolution of the funnest file type.

This breathtaking fashion film by Raw Mango, and the brand's latest collection Peacock Country is inspired by Urdu opera from the 19th century.

Inspirational Websites Roundup #42 — tympanus.net

The latest, most trendy websites with excellent design for your inspiration.

Black Gobi by Jonas Daley — phodaley.com

Photographer Jonas Daley drove to an uninhabited region in China near Haixi and Dunhuang, where a weird, little-known landform took its shape more than 75 million years ago, called Black Gobi.

🌿 Happy Monday! Embrace the constraints,

@soosixty & @jdallcaps