Keep it simple.

Haven’t you heard the saying that if you can’t explain something to a 5-year-old and make him understand, then you don’t understand it yourself?

Well… that is what I mean when I say that simple is better — in every discipline.

In a previous story about creativity I stated that creativity isn’t just creating something new from scratch; you can innovate by taking something that already exists, and finding a way to make it better or make it yours. For example, with clothes; there are a lot of types of clothes, and designers differentiate from one another depending on their creativity, but they all fall into one path, either trendy or casual or high fashion, or all the other types of fashion. (It is evident I don’t know much about fashion, but I thought it was a fair example).

People often tend to think that creating something different and complex, gives their creation an interesting touch. And it might, but most people won’t get it, and therefore they won’t consume it. And that interesting touch would be the cause that your creation wasn’t successful.

Things can be interesting and complex, but within a frame of simplicity and familiarity. People consume what they are familiar with, or what they understand; we like what we see in others, or what we are used to consume. For example, with music… we like the same type of songs because the genre follows certain rules. There is a lot of space for innovation and to differentiate your song from others, but if you want your followers to like the song, you will continue to pursue the same guidelines of that particular genre.

Adding this interesting touch without falling outside the frame of familiarity is the real obstacle to creating something. The creator has the decision as to what goes inside that frame, what colors to use, how sophisticated, how simple, how complex… And it’s also your decision if you want to risk it and fall outside the frame.

It is always the creators’ decision, and it depends to how much success you aspire to have and how you define success. Not everyone has the same definition; maybe getting one or a few people to understand your complexity is already success for some. So, as always, this isn’t a life threatening rule, but it’s an advice I’ve managed to take and has worked for me.