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# Background

Upon completion of my first project, Adherence, I had the full intention to take a step back and release a "simple" project for my follow-up.  I fully believe that simple projects can be just as striking and beautiful as more complex projects.  Adherence, while successful, had gotten away from me as I struggled to cram in all of the neat ideas that would continually pop into my mind.

I started by looking for simple inspirations.  I took note of several ideas over the next few weeks.  One evening, while out to dinner with my family at a local sushi restaurant, I found inspiration in the design they had etched into their windows.  It doesn't get much more simple than this; I'm sure you've seen this design several times today!  Depending on how you look at the tiling design, you may see stars, triangles, or cubes. &#x20;

To be honest, I wasn't so sure this would be the foundation of my next project, but I thought it would be fun to see how I would go about coding the recreation of the design.  I decided to create a simple grid and calculate the algorithm for determining which points of the grid should be connected to match the pattern.  I would then let randomization take part as parameters in the algorithm to mix things up in interesting ways.  This worked very well and is still roughly how A Simple Fail is generated.

# The Failure

While the foundations are all very basic, I once again failed completely at keeping it simple.  I worked on multiple techniques for filling the tile faces.  I struggled with different ways to introduce controlled chaos into the project.  I developed brand new (for me) methods for drawing imperfect lines, circles, and hatchings.  I introduced multiple ways of playing with color throughout the faces of the tiles.  With each new element, I did so as if I were just playing around on the P5 Playground.  The result was a very unruly code-base which eventually caused me a significant amount of pain.  You may be familiar with the programming principle called DRY which stands for Don't Repeat Yourself.  Well, I repeated myself.....a lot!  Instead of stopping to clean things up, I could only find motivation to immediately improve my outputs.  In general, I piled bad code on top of bad code.

What was supposed to be a simple project that I would be able to release in a couple of months at most ended up taking me nearly three quarters of a year to reach the standards of a project that I would be excited to mint as a collector.  While the development of this project was a failure in at least one key way, failure isn't all bad.  I am thoroughly excited about the quality of the outputs and I hope you will receive the same enjoyment from such A Simple Fail.

# Core Project Features

### Draw Styles: Human and Computer

I enjoy generative artwork that incorporates elements of both human and digital artistry.  A Simple Fail does so by using both "perfect" and simulated human drawing styles. &#x20;

![A test output drawn in a perfect, digital style](ipfs://QmSry4g5JnaPj47vBGqF5bwFBdhHbZ9S4rogoze9SAsmYo)

![The same output drawn in the style of a human armature](ipfs://QmTTgQmZWb9TCaG7adwTSxZtju84NQvNc73nWJbhhKJVZz)

### Tile Style: More Imperfections

I found it enjoyable to find different way of disrupting the tiling pattern to varying degrees.

![Test output with perfect tiling](ipfs://QmaKnrp2cDcSwjawdt5DhW2eFPNujyZPEa5EMP8ueg8Czp)

![Test output with broken tiling](ipfs://QmSCcYSTbcnB8TxqPNL1zrgLYcKV6g4b6qpvmiDq2i3M6e)

### Aspect Ratios

My first project, Adherence, had a single 1:1, square aspect ratio.  A Simple Fail incorporates multiple aspect ratios as a feature.  Additionally, any output can be altered to adapt to the screen size of whatever device you are viewing on with a press of the "A" key.  Press "A" a second time to rotate the adaptive output 90 degrees.  This is in case you are on a device that you would prefer to see the output rotated.  Press "A" again to return to the original aspect ratio.

You can accomplish the same thing via the use of a url parameter:

?params=1 will return the adaptive output

?params=2 will return the rotated adaptive output

![This articles title sample rendered to adapt to the size of my ultra-wide monitor](ipfs://QmWAB1KQuGMPPnwZQmcmoXCyBgBaCC32EDQLucLnXnanxV)

# Inspirations

I thought it would be fun to share a list of projects that have, in one way or another, been an inspiration for me and A Simple Fail.  Some of these inspirations will be very well known, but I hope that this call out will at least introduce a few new eyes to projects that they haven't seen before!

(All of these pieces showcased are own by me!)

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SOL - 365 by Cory Haber - <https://foundation.app/collection/sol-365>

![](ipfs://QmQgF9eRBha29NK4vtg6UT3AikgAz21HfeDspVRHai8CYH)

Here is a selection of random outputs to give you a greater understanding of the types of outputs you might expect to mint!

![](ipfs://QmXwETyGpQ1yYSSC8fbDLgu68KWSCBipWNcQsed4mQA1cV)

![](ipfs://QmfKoALgwE5QjGrNxd4sRHRwycJ13puKJ86a3c4TxVUPPi)

![](ipfs://QmatcKPkpnqFNU3t6fLBx1zvHwGHSzPbwujiXb2tMD6ihF)

![](ipfs://QmSXdjVUVNLns2bDUCz42zmfFq32egDt5yRxtsgLHzwtLT)

![](ipfs://QmSMafSr2wMGrwUJhem3bKdeF2y2eufzRaSGVp19nPRCE6)

![](ipfs://QmcyJtfLkhNQCHrFLx14FPQREQzRfYaJzsJLxTAuq4rkpr)

![](ipfs://QmZyzoocFchvCTWiKGP1HPsARRyHfJ61Ae3z7iVkad4DmY)

![](ipfs://Qmb9quX5xFTdwoMFgy2be9vMCPiWXGJJBUskgCdnM6XXFK)

![](ipfs://QmPCSTtg9CeBsKBgG97nX2yKfyoNdkooyFvi96gok392et)

![](ipfs://QmWDizK1aiV9Hmv65JjyvwujoqwVkHz9JKx5qyYBf4KxHc)

![](ipfs://QmbFJTQAcA2a2jDWsTghAXZdPxVLqbndkAqNHHM75wW2qF)

![](ipfs://QmQ92VJ9MmhXyhzHXNhWjUCfcEdW4cnLufNTJxdaFWTm1o)

![](ipfs://QmVK3TQgrYSx4twX4Qfci1FbTfBL5fua7edWJxWy6fK6r3)


This article shares the background and function of my project A Simple Fail as well as an explanation of the name.

A Simple Fail will be released in early May, 2023.

A Simple Fail

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