The Grid & Letting Go

We are increasingly seeing the appeal of going ‘off grid’ in order to find oneself in the modern world. Office workers go to morning dance parties before going to work. Digital agencies organise knitting clubs, valuing the chance to produce something physical and tangible. But it’s impossible to talk of going back to the wild and living offline without a frame of reference. We need boundaries in which to live, even if we seek to rebel against them; freedom is only understandable within the context of a framework. Or, to put it another way: you can’t break the mould if you don’t have a mould in the first place.

The Folk Circus in Brooklyn, New York is evidence of how the modern, urban lifestyle yearns for such controlled chaos. The use of organic forms in product design is another case of allowing the imagination to flourish by not feeling bound or restricted by grids.

Hence the colours in this palette are vivid and playful, yet still held back by the black and white of the grid.