Design Note

CREATIVITY & IMAGINATION

"In the beginning God…"
Genesis 1:1

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."
"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking."
Albert Einstein
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
Albert Einstein

"Creativity is essentially a lonely art. An even lonelier struggle. To some a blessing. To others a curse. It is in reality the ability to reach inside yourself and drag forth from your very soul an idea."
Lou Dorfsman
"There are no days in life so memorable as those which vibrated to some stroke of the imagination."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret
of great creative people."
Leo Burnett
"Any activity becomes creative
when the doer cares about doing
it right or better."
John Updike
"You can't depend on your eyes, when your imagination is out of focus."
Mark Twain

IDEAS • CONCEPTS

“If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it”
Albert Einstein

"Practice safe design:
Use a concept."
Petrula Vrontikis
"A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on."
John F. Kennedy

"Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations."
Paul Rand
"You can't polish a turd."
David Reddig

“The idea that is not dangerous
is not worthy of being called an
idea at all.”
Elbert Hubbard
"Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication."
Leonardo da Vinci

DESIGN

"In the beginning God…"
Genesis 1:1

"Design is thinking made visual.”
Saul Bass

"Good design keeps the user happy, the manufacturer in the black and the aesthete unoffended."
Raymond Loewy
"Without aesthetic, design is either the humdrum repetition of familiar clichés or a wild scramble for novelty. Without the aesthetic, the computer is but a mindless speed machine, producing effects without substance. Form without relevant content, or content without meaningful form."
Paul Rand
“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”
Steve Jobs, Apple Computer.
"Form follows function – that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”
Frank Lloyd Wright

“Good design at least part of the time, includes the criteria of being direct in relation to the problem at hand – not obscure, trendy, or stylish. A new language, visual or verbal, must be couched in a language that is already understood.”
Ivan Chermayeff
"The public is more familiar with bad design than good design. It is, in effect, conditioned to prefer bad design, because that is what it lives with. The new becomes threatening, the old reassuring."
Paul Rand

“Design must seduce, shape, and perhaps more importantly, evoke emotional response.”
April Greiman

DILIGENCE • ATTITUDE

"Lazy hands make a man poor,
but diligent hands bring wealth."
Proverbs 10:4 (NIV)

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
Thomas Edison
"To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
Theodore Roosevelt
"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."
Lou Holtz
"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."
Thomas Alva Edison

"In all labor there is profit, But mere talk leads only to poverty."
Proverbs 14:23
"Every job is a self portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your work with excellence."
Anonymous

"Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."
Theodore Roosevelt

SUCCESS

"What is success? To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; that is to have succeeded."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes."
Benjamin Disraeli

"The most practical, beautiful, workable philosophy in the world won't work - if you won't."
Zig Ziglar

"In order to succeed, you must first be willing to fail."
Anonymous
"The real oppurtunity for success lies within the person and not in the job."
Zig Ziglar

"Design is as much an act of spacing as an act of marking."
Ellen Lupton

"Design is intelligence made visible."
Alina Wheeler
"The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes."
Benjamin Disraeli

QUOTATIONS

Several of the best quotations on design, creativity and character.

Email me! your favorites.

QUOTATIONS

Several of the best quotations on design, creativity and character. Email me! your favorites.

Several of the best quotations on design, creativity and character.

Email me! your favorites.