On Design

Quotations on Design and Designers.

21 quotations — 4 Funny, 15 Serious, 2 Trivia.

Here's page 1 of 2.

  1. A common mistake that people make, when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
    Douglas Adams 1.
  2. There's a point when you're done simplifying.
    Otherwise, things get really complicated.
    Frank Chimero 2.
  3. Good design means never having to say “Click Here”.
    Shawn Leslie 3.
  4. Broken gets fixed; shoddy lasts forever.
    Unsourced 4.
  6. Fools ignore complexity.
    Pragmatists suffer it.
    Some can avoid it.
    Geniuses remove it.
    Alan Perlis 5.
  7. Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
    Alan Perlis 6.
  8. Make everything as simple as possible.
    But not simpler.
    Albert Einstein 7.
  9. 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-Exupery 8.
  10. A picture is worth a thousand words.
    An interface is worth a thousand pictures.
    Ben Shneiderman 9.
  11. Simplicity is hard to build, easy to use, and hard to charge for.
    Complexity is easy to build, hard to use, and easy to charge for.
    Chris Sacca 10.
  12. Design to express, not to impress.
    John Tanedo 11.
  13. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
    Leonardo da Vinci 12.
  14. The best design tool is a long eraser with a pencil at one end.
    Marty Neumeier 13.
  15. Good art inspires; good design motivates.
    Otl Aicher 14.
  16. A logo doesn't sell, it identifies.
    A logo derives its meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around.
    A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it means is more important than what it looks like.
    Paul Rand 15.
  17. It took me a few seconds to draw it.
    But it took me 34 years to learn how to draw it in a few seconds.
    [On a logo she was hired to do.]
    Paula Scher 16.
  18. Have no fear of perfection.
    You'll never reach it.
    Salvador Dali 17.
  19. Most people make the mistake of thinking “design” is what it looks like.
    They think it's this veneer; that the designers are handed this box and told “Make it look good!”.
    That's not what we think design is; it's not just what it looks like and feels like.
    Design is how it works.
    Steve Jobs 18.
  20. Listen to your client; take into consideration all of their input; weigh the options; study the details; know the target audience.
    Then, if necessary, ignore all of it and design what you think will work best.
    Von Glitschka 19.
  22. If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have said “a faster horse”.
    Henry Ford 20.
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