The Living Half

I had an image drift through my mind of the word “uncomplication” where half of it was crisp and simple, and the other was noisy and chaotic.

I started playing with the idea by combining fonts, and had a few combinations that looked cool… I particularly like the one in the middle above (that may end up on a shirt!). While these came close to expressing the original idea, I suspected that hand-drawing the chaotic portion could result in something more interesting… so the tunes came on, the pencil came down, and this came out: (click images to enlarge)

Sadly, the crazy level of detail probably won’t be seen on any kind of wearable object… but I like knowing it’s there! Just like how everything around us (and we ourselves) unfold endlessly under observation, having lots of detail nobody will ever see felt right for a design like this.

I was happy with this, but it seemed that the only way to do this properly was to also “complicate” one half of the un logo:

And here’s the result! (Click to enlarge!)

I’m super stoked on how this turned out, and am even more excited to wear it on a tee shirt, which you now can too in the uncomplication store!

The irony is, of course, that this design is insanely complicated… at least half is! For me the fun of uncomplication is that the world is staggeringly complicated – but at moments of clarity all that complexity resolves into one whole that is completely self-evident and obvious.

So which side do you prefer? Crisp and clear? Chaotic and blooming?
Uncomplication includes everything, just as it is.

So, what do you think? Would you wear this on a shirt? Want it on a poster? Any ideas to expand or simplify based on this first attempt? Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Thanks for checking it out!