Simon Griffee
Design consulting, art direction, photography.

February 2018

Violence and Identity #

The National Identity Is Made Up piece in the New York Times reminded me of Jiddu Krishnamurti’s words in Freedom From the Known, Chapter 6:

When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.

We don’t need a new myth. Literal interpretations of persistent myths are what got us into so much trouble in the first place.

What we need is awareness and education to encourage skepticism and critical thinking from an early age.

We Need Design That is Faster and Design That is Slower #

Jeffrey Zeldman:

Our news and information sites have succeeded so well, they are failing. We’ve designed them to be quickly scannable—at a glance, I take in the headline, the key visual, and the lead paragraph. But today’s news is anything but simple. The truth cannot be reduced to visual sound bytes. That’s how we got in this mess in the first place.

125th Street Station, New York City, December 2017

Published 2018 February 20

125th Street and Broadway, New York City, December 2017

Published 2018 February 20

Via dei Fori Imperiali, Rome, Italy, July 2012

Published 2018 February 14

Don’t confuse love with abuse.

I remembered this picture after seeing this ad by Bianca Guimarães, Danilo Boer, and my childhood friend Marcos Kotlhar.

Apartment in Via di San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome, Italy, June 2013

Published 2018 February 14

Near Ko Phi Phi, Andaman Sea, Thailand, March 2010

Published 2018 February 12

Looking for sharks.

Lake Mareotis View Towards Temple of Sekhmet in Yamu, Egypt, Ptolemaic period (49–47 BC), February 2018

Published 2018 February 8

Assassin’s Creed Origins has quickly become one of my favorite games through the breathtaking realization of its world alone. It is visually and aurally — both sound effects and music — beautiful, a stunning technical and artistic achievement.

It is also lots of fun, and an educational “Discovery Tour” version is forthcoming, as are more street photos of this digital world as I explore it (the in-game photography-mode feature is a great idea which should become a standard in all 3D games.)

Pons Aelius, Rome, Italy, April 2014

Published 2018 February 4

Out of Time, Massachusetts, 2287, February 2018

Published 2018 February 3

Drawing 20180201, New York City, February 2018

Published 2018 February 3

East Village, New York City, September 2017

Published 2018 February 1

← Notebook Archive