El Arte del Diseño por Ordenador: Creating Graphics in 1993

Think for a moment about the most memorable characters in the world of video games. What do they have in common? One possible answer is that they are all graphically simple. Mario, the aliens of Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Link… old hardware had major limitations, but an entire generation of developers managed to do more with less and go down in history. The book "El Arte del Diseño por Ordenador" by Japanese designer and photographer Osamu Sato is inspired by that idea, and reveals a wide number of forms using very simple elements.

No matter what the industry believes, high-definition graphics are not a magical wildcard that guarantees mass sales. In recent years we have seen games that anyone could consider "retro", and yet they swept everything in their path. At the same time, we have unforgettable characters appearing in new products exactly as they were originally created. It is difficult to talk about "perfection", but it is immediately clear that sometimes, simple designs go further.

A fundamental resource is the exact combination of creativity and experimentation, and if you are an aspiring designer wondering where to start, we have a humble suggestion: "El Arte del Diseño por Ordenador" by Osamu Sato. Acquiring a physical copy of this book is crazy these days, with used copies that don't drop below $110, but the Internet Archive comes to the rescue with a digitized copy that has extraordinary quality.

The book prioritizes the creation of black and white shapes, based on basic elements like lines and curves, taking advantage of essential features of any computer. In the words of Sato himself: “A computer loves to repeat things, change shapes and sizes, connect and separate, and especially copy. It can turn a straight line into an arc, or rotate any shape on your screen. It is capable of creating symmetrical shapes just as a mirror reflects your face. Every now and then, your computer will stop working or throw something you didn’t ask for. But in general, it is a companion that will gladly help you create a whole world of interesting things.”