Out of Chaos

Comes order. Or does it? Chaos theory is a scientific principle describing unpredictability of systems. The behavior of these systems may appear random, but actually they have order and finite boundaries. This started to sound like the creative process to me. As I’m brainstorming, it appears chaotic. I’m researching the project, reviewing typography, sketching ideas and just formulating a visual direction. At that moment I don’t know the outcome, and yet I always arrive at my design destination. The  more I read, the more complex the ideas until my brain was swimming. For example,

“Wheatley quotes researchers John Briggs and F. David Peat explaining the process of oscillation: Evidently familiar order and chaotic order are laminated like bands of intermittency. Wandering into certain bands, a system is extruded and bent back on itself as it iterates, dragged toward disintegration, transformation, and chaos. Inside other bands, systems cycle dynamically, maintaining their shapes for long periods of time. But eventually all orderly systems will feel the wild, seductive pull of the strange chaotic attractor.”

Feel like grabbing a towel? Though completely fascinating, the theories can become esoteric. I arrived at this — something that I create seems miniscule in my life, but has far reaching affects that I may never personally realize, and yet, just that potential makes me want to create better design. I blame all this hoopla on wireframe mode. While working in Illustrator you get the option of looking at your line work in wireframe mode and suddenly you see the skeleton of your work (see below) and these thin lines that hold little form and yet fascinate me. I start changing things in this mode that wildly affect the design and it isn’t visible until I go to original view. Just maybe the Butterfly Effect even affects the world of design. I’d like to think so.