50 Inspirational Quotes on the Art & Science of Design

Apr 23rd in Inspiration by Danny Outlaw

Simple quotes can hold timeless and moving lessons. As designers, we're lucky to have an exceptional pool of people who have spearheaded the industry over the years, crafting clever insights based on years of experience. Other contributors to this list aren't designers at all, but have given an outsider's fascinating insight into the world of design.

Our hope is that these quotes will hope you approach your workday with a sense of inspiration and focus on what you really want to achieve.

PG

Author: Danny Outlaw

Danny Outlaw is best known for his work at Outlaw Design Blog. Aside from blogging, he also works full time as a Wordpress designer. Danny has freelanced from all over the world and is working on a book and website in which he will share his experience about Freelancing Abroad. Danny also has an unhealthy obsession with toys, LOST, and Sharpie markers.

We want these quotes to help as many designers as possible, so if one of them really strikes you, make sure to tweet it to your designer friends!

1. James Randolph Adams

Great designers seldom make great advertising men, because they get overcome by the beauty of the picture - and forget that merchandise must be sold.

2. Milton Glaser

The real issue is not talent as an independent element, but talent in relationship to will, desire and persistence.

3. Charles Eames

Design is an expression of the purpose, and it may (if it is good enough) later be judged as art; design depends largely on constraints and it is a method of action (there are always constraints and these usually include ethic).

4. Douglas Adams

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

5. Milton Glaser

To design is to communicate clearly by whatever means you can control or master.

6. John Maeda

If there were a prerequisite for the future successful digital creative, it would be the passion for discovery.

7. Kate Krebs

Waste is a design flaw.

8. Clement Mok

Design, in its broadest sense, is the enabler of the digital era - it's a process that creates order out of chaos, that renders technology usable to business. Design means being good, not just looking good.

9. John D. Berry

Only when the design fails does it draw attention to itself; when it succeeds, it’s invisible.

10. Jorge Frascara

Good graphic design solutions to communication problems can improve the flow of information in society and, therefore, substantially and positively affect education, social well-being and the daily enjoyment of life. In addition, good graphic design solutions can also have a positive economic impact.

11. David Hockney

Art has to move you and design does not, unless it's a good design for a bus.

12. Scott Adams

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones to keep.

13. Freeman Thomas

Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition.

14. Milton Glaser

There are three responses to a piece of design – yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for.

15. Stanley Morrison

Type design moves at the pace of the most conservative reader. The good type-designer therefore realizes that, for a new fount to be successful, it has to be so good that only very few recognize its novelty.

16. Jenaiha Woods

Design is the contrast of the core of limitations therefore there are no boundaries. It is simply an interpretation of creativity.

17. Jeffery Veen

Designers can create normalcy out of chaos; they can clearly communicate ideas through the organizing and manipulating of words and pictures.

18. Adrian Frutiger

If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape. The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page... When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful.

19. Jan Tschichold

Perfect typography is certainly the most elusive of all arts. Sculpture in stone alone comes near it in obstinacy.

20. Massimo Vignelli

I see graphic design as the organization of information that is semantically correct, syntactically consistent and pragmatically understandable.

21. Zuzana Licko

The most popular typefaces are the easiest to read; their popularity has made them disappear from conscious cognition. It becomes impossible to tell if they are easy to read because they are commonly used, or if they are commonly used because they are easy to read.

22. Adrian Frutiger

Helvetica is the jeans, and Univers the dinner jacket. Helvetica is here to stay.

23. David Carson

If you have no intuitive sense of design, then call yourself an “information architect” and only use Helvetica.

24. Alexander Gelman

Any good typeface can be completely destroyed when misused or extensively overused. Helvetica seemed to sustain a beating like no other. Still fresh, still popular, Helvetica is king.

25. Paola Antonelli

Designers may be the true intellectuals of the future.

26. Erik Adigard

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

27. Steff Geissbuhler

I have never designed a logotype without first trying it in Helvetica. It is still the most versatile, classic and readable of all typefaces.

28. Michael Ian Kaye

What a graphic designer tries to do is make sure the typography is emotionally consistent with the brand.

29. Massimo Vignelli

The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design.

30. Roi James

Great design is all about details. With innovative material selection, sensible construction techniques and modern aesthetics one can craft a unique design language that sets a new standard.

31. Frederic W. Goudy

Anyone that would letterspace blackletter would steal sheep.

32. Eric Gill

There are now about as many different varieties of letters as there are different kinds of fools.

33. Wolfgang Weingart

Berthold is still a good typeface, but even Berthold has some less than attractive features, and then I just cut them off because I didn’t like them.

34. Luke Wroblewski

Visual organization is the deliberate prioritization of meaning within a visual design. It’s the process of applying the principles behind perception - how we make sense of what we see - to illuminate relationships between content and actions.

35. Jeff I. Richards

Creative without strategy is called ‘art’. Creative with strategy is called ‘advertising’.

36. Serge Zuev

The original idea makes design distinctive, function makes it work and quality adds value.

37. Don Newgren

Design is intelligence made visible.

38. John Maeda

Skill in the digital age is confused with mastery of digital tools, masking the importance of understanding materials and mastering the elements of form.

39. Paul Rand

It is no secret that the real world in which the designer functions is not the world of art, but the world of buying and selling.

40. Linda van Deursen

Grids do not exist in a vacuum. They exist in relation to the content. We never start with a grid. We start with an idea which is then translated into a form, a structure.

41. Steve Jobs

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

42. Richard Grefé

Design is the intermediary between information and understanding.

43. Nolan Bushnell

The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.

44. George Santayana

Graphic design is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, abnormality, hobbies and humors.

45. Hans Hofmann

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.

46. Jon Franklin

Simplicity, carried to an an extreme, becomes elegance.

47. Edward R. Tufte

Confusion and clutter are the failure of design, not the attributes of information.

48. C.W. Ceram

Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.

49. Jim Jarmusch

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it.

50. Robin Mathew

Design is where science and art break even.

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User Comments

( ADD YOURS )
  1. PG

    DKanuga April 23rd

    Pretty Cool quotes

    ( Reply )
  2. PG

    moataz April 23rd

    great post

    ( Reply )
  3. PG

    Anthony April 23rd

    Umm…if this article is based on great quotes why did you choose a font size so small to represent them?

    ( Reply )
    1. PG

      v April 24th

      yup, the font size too small

      ( Reply )
      1. PG

        jessica May 1st

        I agree.. I thought I was going MORE blind…

    2. PG

      Marc April 29th

      Yeah…

      This post is about quotes. Not about names. Better switch the quotes and names.

      ( Reply )
    3. PG

      Indopendent May 12th

      I disagree,

      “Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.”

      Why complicate things?

      ( Reply )
  4. PG

    Tim Soret April 23rd

    Very interesting. Thanks.

    ( Reply )
  5. PG

    Ricardo April 23rd

    I can’t see the pictures…

    ( Reply )
  6. PG

    Kumail.H.T April 23rd

    Design is the art of communication – Kumail.H.T

    I just made that up but it doesn’t sound all that bad ;)

    ( Reply )
  7. PG

    wiley April 23rd

    i dont there is supposed to be pictures

    ( Reply )
  8. PG

    Free CSS Tutorials April 23rd

    Inspirational indeed, thanks for the list of quotes.

    ( Reply )
  9. PG

    ds April 23rd

    thanks!

    ( Reply )
  10. PG

    neri April 23rd

    Nice! This is my favorite art and tech quote.

    Technology, like art, is a soaring exercise of the human imagination.
    - Daniel Bell

    ( Reply )
  11. PG

    snnaqvi April 23rd

    Very interesting and inspiring, thanks for nice post.

    ( Reply )
  12. PG

    sriganesh April 23rd

    the 33 and 48 th comment i like

    ( Reply )
  13. PG

    Jace April 23rd

    i cant see the pictures!!!!

    ( Reply )
  14. PG

    Dennis April 24th

    Great quotes. Something different than the usual you see on most design sites.
    I like 14 & 25.

    ( Reply )
  15. PG

    John Mindiola III April 24th

    Graphic design is the visual lubricant for our consumer-driven society. Gosh damn, I love it.

    ( Reply )
  16. PG

    Leguian April 24th

    My favorite, not here :

    >> Less is more (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe)

    ( Reply )
  17. PG

    Ashish April 24th

    Interesting Post, as far a content goes.

    And for “Design”, I think this is somewhere on top amongs worst designed posts on PSDtits!!!!
    The author names are way toooo big than the actual quote itself, the quote is hardly readable with author names shouting too harshly

    ( Reply )
  18. PG

    geir b nystad April 24th

    i wonder if anyone of theses great, good designers have ever made a mistake that resulted that something had to be reprinted or something like that. i would be funny to hear their story.

    ( Reply )
    1. PG

      Joe K April 24th

      we’ve all done it :/

      ( Reply )
  19. PG

    Ashish April 24th

    Interesting Post, as far a content goes.

    And for “Design”, I think this is somewhere on top amongs worst designed posts on PSDtuts!!!!
    The author names are way toooo big than the actual quote itself, the quote is hardly readable with author names shouting too harshly

    ( Reply )
  20. PG

    underdog April 24th

    why i cant see the pictures???????????

    ( Reply )
    1. PG

      Steve April 24th

      There’s not supposed to be pictures here! (I don’t think)

      ( Reply )
  21. PG

    Victoria Web April 24th

    Design is a combination of art, communication and expression with the element of functionality.

    ( Reply )
  22. PG

    dos April 24th

    rather deep in shallow waters, hey!!!

    ( Reply )
  23. PG

    Dany Syahban April 24th

    Thanks for share…
    Inspiring me a lot there…

    ( Reply )
  24. PG

    martin Leblanc April 24th

    My next 50 tweets will be quoters :-D

    ( Reply )
  25. PG

    pica-ae April 24th

    nice colleaction :)

    ( Reply )
  26. PG

    Design was here April 24th

    Woah! I have the same post scheduled next week. Sigh!

    ( Reply )
  27. PG

    Constantin Potorac April 24th

    Hmmm that’s new. :) Thank you for the quotes.

    ( Reply )
  28. PG

    RUGRLN April 24th

    Some truly fantastic quotes there but sadly some are very long….Shakespeare once said ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’…I’m not syaing they’re bad but they could be smaller! Jus my 2 cents!

    ( Reply )
  29. PG

    fezbullah hajid April 24th

    cant see pictures

    hye scott?

    ( Reply )
  30. PG

    Robbie April 24th

    #4!!!!! Douglas Adams is one of my favorites authors and that is one of my favorite quotes of all time! it’s amazing to see it on this site!!!!!

    ( Reply )
  31. PG

    Rubber Cheese April 24th

    some really cool quotes. I like this one: Don Newgren: The original idea makes design distinctive, function makes it work and quality adds value.

    I thought of one the other day, that i might use for my own company, or something along these lines.

    “A designers success is only as good as their clients success”

    what do you think?

    ( Reply )
  32. PG

    Dimi April 24th

    “To arrive at true simplicity, one must travel a complicated road.” ~Dimi Arhontidis

    ( Reply )
  33. PG

    faardeen April 24th

    super…I just love these quotes…

    ( Reply )
  34. PG

    Alan Ballard April 24th

    “Thanks for the post” ~Alan Ballard (2009)

    ( Reply )
  35. PG

    kotxe April 25th

    i have one, well, it can works..jejjje:
    “the brand is what define us, is the story we want to talk..”

    ( Reply )
  36. PG

    Sushimoron April 25th

    “too bad, the images won’t load”

    Sushimoron Alvarez (2009)

    ( Reply )
  37. PG

    Franky April 25th

    Way cool.
    Perfect twitter material!

    twitter.com/lessfame

    ( Reply )
  38. PG

    Gyrel Dagooc April 26th

    Cool! This is one of my favorites!…Thanks!

    ( Reply )
  39. PG

    deSenator April 26th

    trully optimist.
    I will try to extract romanien qoutes by romanian designers.

    ( Reply )
  40. PG

    rishteria April 26th

    uuu 50 next tweet xD !!!

    ( Reply )
  41. PG

    Andris April 27th

    Nice quotes. Like the one from Douglas Adams. But wouldn’t it have been nice to have some extra information about the authors of the quotes. Sometimes it makes more sense if you know who the author of a quote is.

    ( Reply )
  42. PG

    Amit April 27th

    Nice post :)

    ( Reply )
  43. PG

    Anthony Alexander April 27th

    Here’s my quote:

    Design is more important than food, unless you’re hungry

    ( Reply )
  44. PG

    davido April 27th

    Nice post too, but I agree Andris, Would be better wiht some extra information about the authors…any way, google is our friend!! :P

    ( Reply )
  45. PG

    RUGRLN April 28th

    Why’s everyone thinking there are pictures. Just bcoz these boxes hold pics normally don’t mean there are pics….anw..the quotes are too small….this article has been badly laid out…sry

    ( Reply )
  46. PG

    andream April 29th

    “unexperienced designer steals shape, the experienced one steals concept”

    and I forgot to memorize who said this -_-

    btw, nice post, really refreshing :)

    ( Reply )
  47. PG

    Martin Leblanc April 30th

    Good.

    ( Reply )
  48. PG

    ByColor May 1st

    Very good. :)

    ( Reply )
  49. PG

    Warren Branson May 1st

    Isn’t it interesting how great minds of different fields can think alike.

    48. C.W. Ceram
    Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.

    Charles Mingus

    Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple,
    awesomely simple, that’s creativity.

    ( Reply )
  50. PG

    edikenkoy May 17th

    beautiful quoutes

    ( Reply )
  51. PG

    Janelle Miller May 18th

    I LOVE these quotes and have book marked them to use laters!

    ( Reply )
  52. PG

    Youssef Sarhan May 31st

    Poorly formatted by yeh some cool thoughts in there

    ( Reply )
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