to wander, stroll about, roam, be unsettled, spread abroad
The constraints, or bounds, to any system are probably the most imporant place to start:
First, the background, as the contrast ratio to this color is one of the most important determining factors when generating others colors. The background represents the upper bound for the darkest colors.
#222536 CR:1.00
|
Next, venturing into the void (maintaining cool tones, decreasing brightness):
These dark colors provide a means to create depth for background elements.
#1e2133 CR:1.05
|
#181a2c CR:1.12
|
#131626 CR:1.18
|
#0d0f1b CR:1.26
|
We still need a relatively neutral lower bound; the dark colors won't replace black:
These black colors are meant to communicate ideas of (or similar to): sophistaiton, rebellion, and mystery.
#1d1d21 CR:1.11
|
#16161a CR:1.19
|
#101014 CR:1.25
|
#0b0b0f CR:1.30
|
Now, let's start defining the upper bounds:
Like the background, the foreground represents the lower bound for the brightest colors. vagari continues to lean into the use of cool tones—resulting in a blue-ish foreground—leaving white to convey meaning as well.
#aeb9f8 CR:8.00
|
Continuing in the inverse direction (maintaining cool tones, increaseing brightness):
These bright colors provide a means to highlight foreground elements.
#b6c0f7 CR:8.56
|
#bec6f8 CR:9.11
|
#cad1fb CR:10.12
|
#d1d8ff CR:11.21
|
Finally, the neutral upper bound:
These white colors are meant to communicate ideas of (or similar to): order, peace, and simplicity.
#c9c9e2 CR:9.33
|
#d3d3ed CR:10.41
|
#ddddf6 CR:11.36
|
#e9e9fb CR:12.63
|
>>>
blue & orange duo represent:
#4a6be3 CR:3.24
|
#e56b2c CR:4.66
|
||
#6380ec CR:4.20
|
#ea834b CR:5.66
|
||
#7492ef CR:5.12
|
#eb905d CR:6.26
|
||
#8aa4f3 CR:6.26
|
#f2a170 CR:7.29
|
||
#9db2f4 CR:7.29
|
#f8b486 CR:8.56
|
>>>
green & purple duo represent:
#5b9542 CR:4.20
|
#7f61cd CR:3.24
|
||
#73ad5a CR:5.66
|
#9376d8 CR:4.20
|
||
#85ba6d CR:6.67
|
#a188df CR:5.12
|
||
#95cb79 CR:8.00
|
#b29ae8 CR:6.26
|
||
#9fd883 CR:9.11
|
#bdaaeb CR:7.29
|
>>>
emerald & ruby duo represent:
#2d9a45 CR:4.20
|
#f34657 CR:4.20
|
||
#48a95b CR:5.12
|
#f36978 CR:5.12
|
||
#5aba6d CR:6.26
|
#f07a88 CR:5.66
|
||
#5fc976 CR:7.29
|
#f08898 CR:6.26
|
||
#76d78b CR:8.56
|
#f29ca9 CR:7.29
|
>>>
sun & sky duo represent:
#f3a338 CR:7.29
|
#369fd7 CR:5.12
|
||
#f5b855 CR:8.56
|
#54b0e2 CR:6.26
|
||
#f5c069 CR:9.11
|
#6bbdec CR:7.29
|
||
#f4ce88 CR:10.12
|
#7cc5ef CR:8.00
|
||
#f5d599 CR:10.72
|
#90d1f5 CR:9.11
|
>>>
cyan & pink duo represent:
#2bb198 CR:5.66
|
#d15da6 CR:4.20
|
||
#30c9b0 CR:7.29
|
#e36cb8 CR:5.12
|
||
#38d2ba CR:8.00
|
#ea76c0 CR:5.66
|
||
#50dec8 CR:9.11
|
#e887c3 CR:6.26
|
||
#75e6d5 CR:10.12
|
#ed9acd CR:7.29
|
>>>
histidine
#824141 CR:2.00 |
#b15e5b CR:3.33 |
#c67a79 CR:4.66 |
#d09490 CR:6.00 |
>>>
glutamic (acid)
#3b557c CR:2.00 |
#5b77a4 CR:3.33 |
#7690b9 CR:4.66 |
#90a4c7 CR:6.00 |
>>>
asparagine
#6f447a CR:2.00 |
#9961a7 CR:3.33 |
#af7dba CR:4.66 |
#c193cd CR:6.00 |
>>>
proline
#505831 CR:2.00 |
#717b45 CR:3.33 |
#8a945b CR:4.66 |
#9ea876 CR:6.00 |
>>>
tyrosine
#375c47 CR:2.00 |
#4b8163 CR:3.33 |
#5a9c78 CR:4.66 |
#72b08e CR:6.00 |
>>>
grey
#373945 CR:1.32 |
#3f414f CR:1.50 |
#4f5163 CR:1.94 |
#5f6278 CR:2.52 |
#6d7089 CR:3.12 |
#7f8199 CR:3.97 |
>>>
slate
#343852 CR:1.32 |
#3c4162 CR:1.53 |
#484e75 CR:1.89 |
#585f8d CR:2.47 |
#686ea1 CR:3.12 |
#7b7fb0 CR:3.97 |
>>>
rust
#493531 CR:1.32 |
#563e39 CR:1.54 |
#694b44 CR:1.94 |
#805a52 CR:2.52 |
#92675d CR:3.11 |
#a3786d CR:3.97 |
>>>
plum
#453445 CR:1.32 |
#523c52 CR:1.53 |
#634a64 CR:1.96 |
#765a77 CR:2.52 |
#876888 CR:3.15 |
#977998 CR:3.97 |
>>>
olive
#383a39 CR:1.32 |
#414342 CR:1.51 |
#505251 CR:1.92 |
#5f6361 CR:2.48 |
#6e7270 CR:3.10 |
#818382 CR:3.97 |
i.e., wherever possible, inject genre, inspiration, or any relationship of signficiance.
Quantum Chromodynamics – What Makes the Strong Force Strong?
The video that catalyzed the creation of vagari.
Awakening from the Meaning Crisis
A wonderful series about history, philosophy, and the
meaning of meaning; it provided the energy needed to publish vagari.
Arrival: A Response To Bad Movies
An awakening to the importance of linguistics, story, non-zero-sum games,
and ultimately, the craft of combining good ideas.
i.e., acknowledge that color (and design itself) is a system of communication with an evolutionary history.
An obsession with the language of film provided much insight and some rationale for this general philosophical (or rather, biological) concept. Hence, the following represents a way to mine meaning from media, or rather, the exploration of culture via the some of the most dominant mediums:
- What is Cinema Language? (importance of ...)
- Hitchcock and the Language of Cinema (Silence)
- How Studio Ghibli Makes Animation Feel Alive (Sound)
- Akira Kurosawa – Composing Movement (Motion)
- The Soul of Good Character Design (Desire)
- Frank Ocean – Musical Identity (Depth)
- Every Face Tells A Story (Emotion)
- GoT – How to Evoke Emotion (Structure)
- How Sicario Fools its Audience (Expectations)
- Tenet – A Misunderstood Masterpiece (Subjectivity)
- Edgar Wright – How to Do Visual Comedy (Creativity)
- This Top Gun Scene Is Like A Perfect Pop Song (Universality)
- Why Mass Effect Should Be the Next Game of Thrones (Adapatation)
- You Can Make a Netflix Style Doco About Literally Anything (Theme)
- Childish Gambino – Storytelling Through Hip-Hop (Cohesion)
- The Secret Ingredients of Great Hospitality (Belonging)
- The Role in Filmmaking No One Talks About (Detail)
- Satoshi Kon – Editing Space & Time (Transitions)
- What Matters is What You Do (Humility)
- Optimistic Nihilism (Motivation)
i.e., Chaos is a mathematical concept; an intrinsic pattern of the universe that arises in non-linear systems.
Creativity is not a some special, dualistic force ("the muse,") that only humans possess. Creativity is Chaos—it's an emergent property that originates from the of the embrace of—and the eventual obsevraiton of—sensitive starting conditions in dynamical systems (e.g., human minds), coupled with, but not limited to:
- curiosity in the unknown, and an deep desire to understand.
- courage to challenge the status quo, and everlasting itch to explore.
- humility in allowing the process to unfold, and willingness to fail.
i.e., Most Advanced, Yet Acceptable; evolution acts on mutations during replication of existing entities.
Style is analogous to the concept of fitness in evolution applied, when applied to culture—it's easy to think that fashion (evolution) is a forward march that makes better and better styles (organisms). Instead, fashion is a "bumbling mess that just gets lucky sometimes," i.e.:
- Expression (and imitation) of a style is the primary way that it is replicated.
- The primary niche to be filled is in the domain self-expression, with a sub-domain of functionality.
- Thus, a relatively good (fit) style is one that allows the users to express something about themselves (color), while maintaining functionality (design grammar), in order for expression to be noticed by others.
- Hence, vagari's primary use case: a color scheme; further design principles are simply means to create a more cohesive and deep meaning behind the selection of color.
If the hypothesis of vagari is correct, then in a sense fashion is discovered. I.e., the most fashionable style of the time is found via somewhat random exploration. However, in a sense fashion also invented, because ultimately style (the result of the process of fashion) is created as a means to out-replicate competing styles.
i.e., the "Swedish number for six", or the maximum number of objects in focus at a given time.
Funny, but the sex principle is more than just a joke—it's primarily about dealing with cognitive overhead. As a whole, design must be simple and sexy, not minimal and mundane. This principle is core to vagari and represents the adherence to the selfish memes/genes theory of replicators with unbounded evolution, i.e.:
- Something is sexy if it is attractive or exciting, and in the realms of ideas, desire for replication.
- Communication is all about replicating an idea inside another mind, but it's not perfect—mutations occur.
- Thus, a good design is one that is enticing, welcoming a new idea, with minimal (but not zero) mutations.
- Hence, the adoption of, and iteration on, well known and attractive design principles:
The essential idea here involves minimizing the impact of anything that stresses working memory, i.e.:
- Maximum of 6 objects in a scene, i.e., 6 things that require increased discernment.
- Maximum of 3 layers to an object, i.e., 3 variations, choices... or better... dimensions to an object.
Ideally, properly embracing this principle ought to result in an easier to manage punctuated equilibrium between abstraction and coupling (a tradeoff that exists in idea-space as well as code) thanks to the embrace of evolution, powered by sexual selection of interested minds.
i.e., imagination is the key to cooperation; shared exploration of fiction is how we create useful norms.
Essentially, if you could not tell already, story (meaning) is a huge factor in the philosophy of vagari. Anyone can make a color scheme, and many others will be better for certain people in certain contexts. In the end, vagari is not trying to be the best, or the most popular, color scheme (functionality/appeal is are merely useful qualitieis).
Instead, at it's core, vagari is trying to be the most meaningful color scheme. vagari assumes that most other color schemes do not allow the art of color to transcend functionality. The solution is to allow the users to say something about themselves—a reason to choose, share, and improve this color scheme, rather than any of the other adequate (and exceptional) color schemes out there.
Related principles and concepts not already mentioned:
Ideally, properly embracing this principle ought to compel users to want to proudly display and share vagari, resulting in a positive feedback loop of meaning via the injection of new ideas, provided by new users.
i.e., a dance involving computational irreducibly, information, and chaos.
Particularly, vagari's philosophy is obsessed with complex systems. Because of this, the embrace of chaos is at the core of the design philosophy. vagari is not looking for the answer—vagari is looking for an answer; always open to a new answer, or a new way of approaching problems.
The starting point of many decisions usually draw upon inspiration from the apparent universality of various mathematical concepts or patterns (e.g., fractals and holomorphic dynamics), hopefully resulting in the injection of mathematical meaning (e.g., the logistic map and Feigenbaum constants for some contrast ratios).
"There are no separate systems. The world is a continuum. Where to draw a boundary around a system depends on the purpose of the discussion." – Donella H. Meadows
Ideally, properly embracing this principle means a embarking on constant exploration of alternative approaches via the willingness depart from the respectable (but not holy) constraints initially set by (ideally) interesting maths.
id est, ignoramus et ignorabimus, tamen id conamur
i.e., we do not know and will not know, yet we try regardless.
The above phrase is the best simple representation of the core philosophy of vagari.
Perhaps, the two most relevant books to the formation of this principle:
- The Beginning of Infinity, by David Deutsch
- The Network State, by Balaji Srinivasan
One might be tempted to ask: "why so does vagari seem so… pretentious?"
Well, to be frank: vagari is pretentious; it's kind of essential to success of the project, actually. To conjecture:
projects like vagari ought to grow to represent a digital flag of some order. Design frameworks ought to move past representing brands, and move towards being a means to virtue signal the digital community (nation) you are a part of. Overtime, frameworks should to evolve like languages, and be less universal (diversity ).
Ideally, shared participation in this fiction will hopefully manifest a reality among the participants. The philosophy of vagari is built upon the idea that collaboration is the ultimate force for discovery. Sure, one node in a network may be the seed, or the spark, for a cascade of activation... but it's the activity in the networks' activity that creates the gestalt, i.e., the unique property of a whole that is more than the sum of its parts.