Quotes on Design

I’m compiling a few quotes on design for a project and ended up with a collection of my favorite. If you feel like the passion for design has been sucked out of you, read a few. Also, I’m loving all the visual quotes RichWorks post.

“If you can’t solve a problem, it’s because you’re playing by the rules.”
— Paul Arden

“Great people have great egos; maybe that’s what makes them great.”
— Paul Arden

“If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you aren’t doing anything very innovative.”
— Woody Allen

“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.”
— Leo Burnett

“When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.”
— Leo Burnett

“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals.”
— David Ogilvy

“The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.”
—David Ogilvy

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
— Albert Einstein

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones to keep.”
— Scott Adams

“The world is what YOU think of it, so think of it DIFFERENTLY and your life will change.”
— Paul Arden

“If you always make the right decision, the safe decision, the one most people make, you will be the same as everyone else.”
— Paul Arden

“Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition.”
— Freeman Thomas

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
— Albert Einstein

“Design is creativity with strategy.”
— Rob Curedale

“Stop looking at yourself as a designer and start thinking of yourself as a deliverer of ideas.”
— Stle Melvr

“To create a memorable design you need to start with a thought that’s worth remembering.”
— Thomas Manss

“Marketing without design is lifeless, and design without marketing is mute.”
— Von R. Glitschka

“Design is not the narrow application of formal skills, it is a way of thinking.”
—Chris Pullman

“Do not seek to change what has come before. Seek to create that which has not.”
— David Airey

“Everything is designed. Few things are designed well.”
— Brian Reed

“What I’m trying to produce is the visual equivalent of the chord change that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.”
— Rian Hughes

“Never do anything yourself that you can hire someone else to do, especially if they can do it better.”
— Bill Bernback

“Design is as much a matter of finding problems as it is solving them.”
— Bryan Lawson

“Truly elegant design incorporates top-notch functionality into a simple, uncluttered form.”
— David Lewis

“I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
— Pablo Picasso

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.”
— Shunryu Suzuki

“Designers deal in ideas. They give shape to ideas that shape our world, enrich everyday experiences, and improve our lives. Where there’s confusion, designers fashion clarity; where there’s chaos, designers construct order; where there’s entropy, designers promote vitality; where there’s indifference, designers swell passion; where there’s mediocrity, designers imbue excellence; and where there’s silence, designers lend voice.”
— Ken Peters

“Don’t stare at a blank page for too long, be bold, and make the first incisive stroke. The rest will come naturally.”
— James Kingman

“Think more, design less.”
— Ellen Lupton

“Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent.”
— Joe Sparano

“We don’t get hired to make pretty things or win design awards. We get hired to solve business problems.”
— James Bradley

“Design is the conscious effort to impose a meaningful order.”
— Victor Papanek

“The scariest moment is always just before you start.”
— Stephen King

“Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.”
— David Starr

“The function of design is letting design function.”
— Micha Commeren

“The secret to our enduring brand lies in delivering an experience rather than just a collection of products and services.”
— Harley-Davidson Annual Report

“Every child is an artist. The challenge is to remain an artist after you grow up.”
— Pablo Picasso

“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.”
— Jack Kerouac

“You have to be interested in culture to design for it.”
— Lorraine Wild

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
— Bill Cosby

“Remember to always be yourself. Unless you suck.”
— Joss Whedon

“Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.”
— Julia Child

“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.”
— Henry Ford

“Good design is a lot like clear thinking made visual.”
— Edward Tufte

“Life beats down and crushes the soul, and art reminds you that you have one.”
— Stella Adler

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
— Henry David Thoreau

“Only work with people you’d invite to your home for a meal.”
— Garth Walker

“Design is where science and art break even.”
— Robin Mathew

“Design is thinking made visual.”
— Saul Bass

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
— Winston Churchill

“A designer can mull over complicated designs for months. Then suddenly the simple, elegant, beautiful solution occurs to him. When it happens to you, it feels as if God is talking! And maybe He is.”
— Leo Frankowski

“Good design is all about making other designers feel like idiots because that idea wasn’t theirs.”
— Frank Chimero

“Practice safe design: Use a concept.”
— Petrula Vrontikis

“Create your own visual style…let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.”
— Orson Welles

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
— Antoine de Saint Exupéry

“Design is in everything we make, but it’s also between those things. It’s a mix of craft, science, storytelling, propaganda, and philosophy.”
— Erik Adigard

“Don’t try to be original, try to be good.”
— Paul Rand

“Do what you love and success will follow.”
— Unknown

“It’s not how good you are, its how good you want to be.”
— Paul Arden

“Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it.”
— Salvador Dali

“Creativity is a drug I cannot live without.”
— Cecil B. DeMille