Design

“Design” is actually a pretty loaded word, and a lot of times it sounds elusive and deep. So I don’t really talk about it too much, although I care deeply about it. It’s something that should be taken very seriously, but at the same time, it’s something very obvious and intuitive once we feel it. It’s like, “Of course, it should work this way — that’s the future!” It’s an artistic pursuit, something we don’t need to be convinced of but can feel inside us once we get it.

As with many complicated things in the world, design has a very simple core when we peel away all the confusing layers — it boils down to taste, it boils down to emotion, and it boils down to romance. Like mathematics, it’s something that can be made simple and should be made simple. My design philosophy can be condensed by Leonardo da Vinci’s words, “Simplicity is the utmost sophistication.” Whenever I revise a website as an editor, I’m not trying to complicate it, but rather to make it more artistically delicate and elegant in a user-friendly and user-oriented way. Indeed, this design philosophy applies not only to my websites but to each of my creations, including my poems and my teaching style. Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc., was once told by Mike Markkula that people DO judge a book by its cover. And in a sense, I believe that. That’s why I’ve put a lot of effort into every detail of my website’s facade.

In fact, many great mathematicians, such as Bernhard Riemann, shared this “simplicity” design philosophy. When they’re really good, they see the world as something even simpler, even more integrated, rather than the opposite. Riemann believed in his teacher Carl Gauss’s motto, “Pauca sed matura,” meaning “few, but ripe.” That’s exactly what Riemann did throughout his life: he published only 15 papers (four of which were released posthumously), but each made an incredibly significant contribution to numerous branches of mathematics, including number theory, complex analysis, mathematical physics, and the foundations of geometry. For example, the famous Riemann hypothesis (which has remained unsolved for almost three centuries) was derived from a nine-page paper among Riemann’s 15 papers, entitled “Ueber die Anzahl der Primzahlen unter einer gegebenen Grösse” (usual English translation: “On the Number of Primes Less Than a Given Magnitude”).

You know, just like Riemann, I also have a “culture” of excellence, which is deeply ingrained in simplicity, and therefore my design. The world has been complicated enough, filled with all kinds of resources good and bad. I think being bad is worse than NOT being there. If I contribute any resources to the world, whether it’s writing calculus solutions for my students or writing qualifying exam solutions for my cohorts, I have a responsibility to make them truly great, not just okay, but truly great, so that they will be genuinely appreciated by the rest of humanity. If I publish junk, it will waste my viewers’ time and lives, so why should it be there to prevent others from finding better resources? Again, the world has been complicated enough; if I do some work, I shall make it the best I can do. I shall make it truly great, with an artistic romance that can resonate with our hearts. As an example, if I can’t teach math excellently, then I won’t teach. The world doesn’t need another miserable math professor; it needs a truly excellent math professor.

You know, a college website is not Instagram, so I hope to keep it professional in a tasteful way, rather than let it be filled with boring and untasteful details about someone’s personal life, like what they eat or where they travel. For example, “Gotta admit, the height had me a bit nervous, but I just hit up the top-floor bar at the tallest building in LA — views are pretty sick” is far less tasteful than:

It’s finally here, a world of hope,
Finding bliss, overcoming fear.
Rather lost in future’s scope,
Sitting near the sky, reading an unruly year.

They both describe the same thing, and they’re both good, but if you see things the first way, then you’re a cool and normal person, and if you see things the second way, then you’re a romantic and insightful artist, because you see things as more than themselves. So it all depends on how you choose to design and present content: the worldly and pedestrian way, or the artistic and distinctive way. With this view in mind, I’ve posted a lot of my poetry and essays on my personal website — they’re personal, but they’re personal and tasteful. They offer visitors a brand-new vision to observe and apply the world in an intriguing way.

As a perfectionist who truly values design, I am improving and perfecting my websites day by day, with a commitment to taste, an appreciation for art, and a love for my visitors. My goal is to give my visitors the best viewing experience I can offer. That’s what keeps me going, and that’s why I do what I do. Simplicity, integration, taste — they are at the core of design, offering us beauty and making our hearts sing. As a designer and an artist, I’ll always continue to push perfection forward, holding onto what I truly value in design for my entire life.

Digital Prowess
Ivan Feng

Walking from yonder darkness,
Coming to seek dawn’s prowess.
Tender brushstrokes, woven in unchained minds,
Crafting webpages grand, where simplicity finds.

Standing by clouds’ eyes, watching in twilight’s lace.
Wandering to the stars, resting in moonlight’s grace.
Along breeze’s rhyme, through laughter and tears,
In the gust of romance, painting unruly years.

Under Aether’s cover, sheets of perfection align,
Homeomorphic to mystic lands, where hearts define.
Finding the unflinching path, lifting toward the skies,
Awaiting basepoint’s advent, where eternity lies.*

Sailing to dawn’s first hue,
Waving tasteful colors in sunbeams anew.
Bittersweet canvas expands, with love’s trace,
Carving out dreams, where elegance and tenacity embrace.

Aug 24, 2024
At Playa Del Rey

*By the Path Lifting Property of covering spaces

First published: Oct 12, 2022

Last update: Jan 27, 2025

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