It wasn’t because all these sites imitated Khoi’s style; it was because the result of prolonged exposure to Khoi’s Subtraction.com gave me x-ray vision. Like a mathematician obsessed with the divine proportion, I now saw the underlying elements of good, solid design.

A strong grid. Horizontal lines demarcating vertical boundaries. A small colour palette. The relentless pursuit of subtraction. Antoine de St-Exupery’s said:

Perfection, then, is finally achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

I learned that from Khoi too.

Krypton

So when I flew over to Boston for An Event Apart, I made sure to visit New York, and it became unmistakably clear that Khoi Vinh’s home city had a profound influence on his design philosophy.

New York speaks with a very distinctive voice. Brash, but not garish, and totally devoid of the teetering self-consciousness so syrupy thick in Singapore. She comes forward with a “this is what I am, take it or leave it” attitude, and no one is able to fault her for being her. Stark, high contrast.

Subtraction.

The Gridiron

A visit to The Museum of Modern Art brought me to the works of Piet Mondrian. The grid laid out on canvas was a mental concept that I - more information designer than graphic designer - felt a connection with.

Khoi’s “Grids are good” presentation has a similar feel.

Khoi the Man

Khoi was kind enough to meet up with me and have a short chat in his office at the New York Times. As this article was halfway in the writing, we spoke about his recent post on how some sites were stealing his design wholesale. The problem with minimalistic designs is that there are too few ornaments to provide an elaborate checklist to prove plagiarism. The beauty behind Subtraction was that it was great design fundamentals reduced to a very flexible framework.

The strong grid accommodated various forms of content - text was kept at a readable width while images were allowed more width. The black and white colour scheme removed all hassle of making sure images didn’t clash too badly with the site’s design. To sum it up, the design facilitated the content, and graciously stood out of the way.

During our conversation I asked Khoi if he missed being in a design agency. Working for a large organisation myself, I sometimes feel a little claustrophobic design-wise. Where once I was able to craft visual collateral for many different clients with different colour schemes and identities, now I had to make sure all my designs conformed to one. Khoi’s answer was that the New York Times provided him ample opportunity to expand his creativity. The NYT is perhaps the most prominent producer of content on the web, and it is his job to make sure the design facilitated its communication.

Just like Khoi himself, his design philosophy is both understated , elegant and possibly even timeless.