Minimalist Howard Langston
He had some architectural models that he wanted to play wargames on. Putting a Space Marine onto a board with a hotel (or in his case, a school) looked a little silly. So he made new models to fit!
Minimalism as an artistic style is said to have started in the 1920s in the Netherlands. It progressed to becoming popular in the 1950s and 60s in the US and inspired a lot of artwork. It’s pretty old! And yet, it continues to be relevant because it is more of a design principle than an artistic style. You may be familiar with it from the discussion as to why the iPhone became popular, since that is one of the most mass market uses of the principle. The design of the iPhone brought minimalism to the front of peoples minds, and everyone wanted to know how to do that to make more money. If you compare the squalor was that web design in the 90s to that which we’ve come up with today, you can clearly see that minimalism has influenced computer design a lot in the last decade. But the idea is less is more has pushed, and continues to push, design in many industries.
As model builders, we cut and glue and scrape and assemble all of sorts of complicated things because we want our army to be the coolest damn thing in the room. I think what I love most about these photos, is that they make me philosophical about conversions. Why do we add more, thinking it better? These models are art and they show us that you don’t need the wet palette and mega paint sets and $120 models and $120 conversions to make something that looks amazing. You can start with a few pieces of metal, or fewer colours or just black and white or…
(IANAArtHistoryMajor. I tried to do enough research to not embarrass myself here, but I’m a web/UI/UX designer and programmer, so I only really know about the modern parts of minimalism :))
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