My thoughts on the reading “ Design and the Play Instinct” by Paul Rand is design has to come from a source. I think in design there has to be some sort of structure. Designers will always go with some fancy over-the-top design over something simple, they just want to show off their “skills” within design. Rules and structure help build an organized and knowledgeable designer. As artists we always start off with other artists teaching us. No matter how much a teacher tries everything they say rubs off onto the student, the rules help both the teacher and student stay on common ground and have no biased within what looks nice vs. “test of skill”. There are many examples of this throughout history. “De Stijil encouraged functional use of material and meaningful form.” This reading talks about a very controversial topic, and was very helpful with my thoughts on design. Rand describes some different basics, such as composition, placement, color, and contrast. The importance of geometrics helped a lot with my thought about the need for a layout. Throughout this reading Rand enforces the importance of simpleness, and teaches disciplines involving good design. Through structure and form, there is a base line to work off of or completely go the other direction from.