How Minimalism Inspired Brief

Wabi-sabi, a school of Japanese aesthetics that celebrates the beauty of imperfect simplicity, has been a source of inspiration for everything from home design to lifestyle philosophy. It has also been the inspiration behind our dashboard design here at Brief.

The world we find ourselves in today is full of noise and distractions, particularly in the workplace. Everything is vying for your attention – social media notifications, emails, chat alerts, meetings – the list is endless.

Most of us rely on these tools to communicate and conduct our daily work. At Brief, our belief is that simplicity is what brings focus. In contrast to mass-market views of what is often seen as perfection – tools that have all the bells and whistles – we prefer muted beauty and functionality.

Minimalist inspired productivity

In a world that has got so busy, we sometimes struggle to even find a moment to think anymore. The team at Brief realized there was an increasing desire for personal and professional focus.

Based on wabi-sabi’s notion of elegance, that is born out of stripped back simplicity, we created a clutter-free productivity app. The tool combines all the essentials for getting work and tasks done. The platform interface purposefully focuses only on mission-critical tasks, driving the human mind to get into a focused state.

Our monochromatic black and white color scheme is deliberately minimal. It continues to stretch through the theme of simplicity to bring clean, uncluttered elegance. In today’s noisy world, we wanted our users to have a tool that allows space for mental clarity and focus.

Drawing inspiration from the aesthetic-centered wabi-sabi, which centers around modesty and the integrity of natural objects and processes, we saw beauty in this minimalist design approach. Where some may deem it to be incomplete, we see it as perfectly whole.

We kept our dashboard design clutter-free, making it less distracting to help users stay focused on what really matters. The beautifully undistracted platform allows your thinking and creativity to flow in a quiet place of reflection. Your work, your content, your chats, and tasks are then the color that rises from within Brief.

“Pare down the essence, but don’t remove the poetry,” – Leonard Koren’s in “Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers.”

Instead of having a productivity app that has tons of unnecessary features that you are likely to never use or need, Brief did away with features and design elements that we felt added distractions. Direct and meaningful conversations between team members, partners, clients and friends will not only help you be more productive and effective but will also free up your time so you can do more of what you enjoy in your personal capacity.

Wabi-sabi:  “The Japanese view of life embraced a simple aesthetic that grew stronger as inessentials were eliminated and trimmed away,” architect Tadao Ando.

Wabi-sabi means to stop, slow your mind and instead of making quick decisions about an object, pick it up and carefully examine the insignificant details that create its unique look. This is how Brief is designed to help you manage your day. Its dashboard and workflow help you to slow your mind to make more considered and focused decisions that create the most impactful outcomes.

Conclusion

We hope you love the Brief platform as much as we do. It’s the opposite of much of today’s mass-produced, repetitive and commodified culture and we have looked at ways to find the beauty in an elegantly simple, clean interface design. Incorporating focus into your life doesn’t require much preparation, money or a pandora’s box of tools and features. It merely takes reflection, focus and conscious decision making, every day. With Brief, you can manage your day like it’s your own business to achieve more personally and professionally. More productive days are in sight… with simple tools that can help you achieve more, with impact.

We invite you to give Brief a try!