Arguing that design is more art than science, this stunning short video provides a rapid-fire visual tour of principles all aspiring designers should keep in mind.

Matt Greenwood ties each example into the next, speeding through basics like lines and planes before covering balance, scale, texture, symmetry, then contrasting rules with randomness and much more.

It might not teach you to be a designer in less than a minute, but it does provide a dazzling introduction to basic concepts, showing and not just telling with useful and compelling (if quick) examples.

About the creator: Matt is a “freelance art director & motion designer based in Toronto with over 10 years professional experience. Working with After Effects, Photoshop, illustrator and Cinema 4D, [he] create[s] styleframes, storyboards, hand drawn illustration, 3D animation, matte painting and compositing for both broadcast and film work.”

If you are into speed-learning new things (and have a few more minutes to spare), you may also want to check out this 15-minute Animated History of Western Architecture as well as this short 100-second animation of 26 famous buildings.

We all learned about the periodic table of elements in high school, but for most of us that’s where our knowledge of the elements ends. Japanese chemist and photographer R. Tanaka is showing the world just how beautiful the elements are with his fascinating set of elemental photographs.

The extreme close-ups of the elements show a seldom-seen world full of incredible shapes and unexpected colors. The crystalline structure of certain elements resembles trees, leaves, and other parts of the natural world at large.

Other elements resemble alien shapes or objects from a long-lost civilization. From sulfur to phosphorus to colorful bismuth, the elements are all amazingly detailed and surprisingly photogenic. These are the building blocks of our world, and they are far more complex and lovely than most of us realize.

Taken together, the series seems like a catalog of the most beautiful parts of our natural world. The gorgeous organic shapes are like the most intricate sculptures ever, captured in photographs to showcase their most delicate and ethereal qualities.