less=more, more=less

From http://www.abstractconcreteworks.com/essays/lessismore/ls_s_mor.html

Have you wondered who originally said "Less is more"? 

Both Mies van der Rohe and Buckminster Fuller adopted it as a way of life--you can see it demonstrated in Mies' buildings and Bucky's geodesic domes--but they got it from a poem.

It's said by the painter Andrea del Sarto (who was a real person--1486-1531), in Robert Browning's 1855 poem by that name. You'll recognize another well-known line a little later in the same poem. Here's how Browning had Andrea del Sarto say "less is more." He's addressing his beautiful, but somewhat stupid and apparently unfaithful young wife, Lucrezia, for whom he abandoned an important painting commission and--some have said--his true calling. (click link)

So, the meaning behind this is that "The notion that simplicity and clarity lead to good design."

I for one am a fan of minimalism, never been one for novelty, garish or over the top designs. I very much prefer classic designs that age well, not like a heavily tattooed grandma in crop tops and tiny shorts. When using the minimal, it pushes ones boundary to achieve more, that's where less becomes more, as it can achieve more.it can achieve clarity and elaborate the message without clutter or over explaining. It stays relevant for a longer period of time. This is all falls back on what your goals/priorities are. It's usually down to earth in many ways.

More becomes less when there are too many distractions that rob the design of its main and ideal purpose. it just becomes a race of who has more and how much one can display at one point of time, not sending your message across successfully. Less is more as it also allows viewers./participants to decide       how they choose to perceive it, therefore gettin a whole lot of feedback and opinions and not just spoon feeding.they are allowed to think for themselves and there fore make their own desicion.

More things tend to create the restrictive pathway for a line of thought. We are fed and forced to think what is expected of them and not using their own minds/opinions.