As everyone knows Less is more is an aphorism that is associated with the modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
But the motto appears to go back a lot further than that. In 1855 Robert Browning published a poem Andrea del Sarto which used the phrase.
Even earlier the same motto in German; Und minder ist oft mehr was used by Christoph Martin Wieland in his literary review series Der Teutsche Merkur, published on page 4 of the January 1774 edition.
Even earlier the same motto in German; Und minder ist oft mehr was used by Christoph Martin Wieland in his literary review series Der Teutsche Merkur, published on page 4 of the January 1774 edition.
The graphic designer Milton Glaser has his own take on it;Being a child of modernism I have heard this mantra all my life. Less is more. One morning upon awakening I realised that it was total nonsense, it is an absurd proposition and also fairly meaningless... However, I have an alternative to the proposition that I believe is more appropriate. `Just enough is more.'
M. Glaser (2001). Ten Things I Have Learned. Part of AIGA Talk in London November 22, 2001.
