One thing only

Bob Gill said that if you have to explain an idea, it is not an idea. An American in London, founder of what would become Pentagram, he worked by subtraction, one problem, one solution, no ornament. His method was brutal, removing until only what cannot be removed remains.

Today that battle looks won, graphics are clean, backgrounds are neutral, minimalism has become the default style. But it is a surface victory. The pages have emptied out, the messages have not. Brands talk about the product, then the values, then sustainability, then the trend of the week, and every post says something different with the same clean graphics.

The result is a crowded minimalism, order in the form and noise in the thinking. True subtraction is not removing elements from a page, it is removing messages from a strategy, deciding the one thing you want to be and having the courage to repeat it when everything pushes you to chase.

Gill subtracted inside the layout, today you have to subtract inside the editorial calendar, and it is much harder because it does not show. I wonder how many brands could say in a single sentence the thing they want to say.