Quotes on Design

My wish is that we design the future of learning. We don't want to be spare parts for a great human computer.

Wherever there is a design that is highly successful in a broad range of similar environments, it is apt to emerge again and again, independently - the phenomenon known in biology as convergent evolution. I call these designs 'good tricks.'

God is weaving His tapestry according to his own grand design. All flesh is in His hands. We have no need to fear. We have no need to worry. Our imperative need is to be found doing our duty.

Most large mistakes in organizational design come from putting the individual ambitions of the people at the top of the organization ahead of the communication paths for the people at the bottom of the organization.

Any time you see signs or labels added to a device, it is an indication of bad design: a simple lock should not require instructions.

Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.

Any design, whether its for a ship or an airplane, must be done in anticipation of potential failures.

A book cover is a distillation. It is a haiku of the story.

The goal of design is to raise the expectation of what design can be

Luck is the residue of opportunity and design.

If we think about things having multiple lives, cradle to cradle, we could design things that can go back to either nature or back to industry forever.

I think as designers we realize design is a signal of intention, but it also has to occur within a world and we have to understand that world in order to imbue our designs with inherent intelligence.

Secure against the designs of men, secure against the malignity of the Gods, they have accomplished a thing of infinite difficulty; that to them nothing remains even to be wished.

I don’t think the shortage of artists has much to do with the innate ability to create or initiate. I think it has to do with believing that it’s possible and acceptable for you to do it. We’ve had these doors open wide for only a decade or so, and most people have been brainwashed into believing that their job is to copyedit the world, not to design it.

Designers provide ways into—and out of—the flood of words by breaking up text into pieces and offering shortcuts and alternate routes through masses of information. (...) Although many books define the purpose of typography as enhancing the readability of the written word, one of design’s most humane functions is, in actuality, to help readers avoid reading.

Fair Flora! Now attend thy sportful feast, _x000D_ _x000D_ Of which some days I with design have past; _x000D_ _x000D_ A part in April and a part in May _x000D_ _x000D_ Thou claim'st, and both command my tuneful lay; _x000D_ _x000D_ And as the confines of two months are thine _x000D_ _x000D_ To sing of both the double task be mine.

The constructive intellect [genius] produces thoughts, sentences, poems, plans, designs, systems. It is the generation of the mind, the marriage of thought with nature.

Simplicity is the final achievement.

The difference between a good and a poor architect is that the poor architect succumbs to every temptation and the good one resists it.

If you only design menus that are essentially junk or fast food, the whole infrastructure supports junk.

Don't bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals.