“However much we would like advertising to be a science—because life would be simpler that way—the fact is that it is not. It is a subtle, ever-changing art, defying formularization, flowering on freshness and withering on imitation; where what was effective one day, for that very reason, will not be…”— Luke Sullivan, Bill Bernbach, amazon.com
“It always seemed clear that the real challenge for the designer was to help make our world a better place than it would be without our efforts.”— Burton Kramer, designcanada.com
“Typography is not only a technology but is in itself a natural resource or staple, like cotton or timber or radio; and, like any staple, it shapes not only private sense ratios but also patterns of communal interdependence.”— Marshall McLuhan, amazon.com
“The invention of typography confirmed and extended the new visual stress of applied knowledge, providing the first uniformly repeatable “commodity,” the first assembly-line, and the first mass-production.”— Marshall McLuhan, amazon.com
“I operate very strongly with my instincts… If I don’t get it in the first crack I get it in the second and if I don’t get it in the second I almost never get it.”— Paula Scher, vimeo.com
“There is a great misconception in this era of graphic design that it is a medium of self-expression”— Peter Saville, amazon.com
“Design is supposed to be about something else, and not about you; but I think the only way it’s actually any good—and to get people to care about it—is if it’s also about you at the same time.”— Paul Sahre, amazon.com
“I never know if anything I’ve created is good, but I know I’m done when I give up looking for other ideas.”— Seymour Chwast, amazon.com
“Logic will get you nowhere. But imagination has the opportunity to rescue you from the quicksand of logic.”— Stephen Doyle, amazon.com
“I’m often asked for advice on how to become a better graphic designer, and this is my response: Two things—learn how to do crossword puzzles, and learn how to write.”— Chip Kidd, amazon.com
“What interests me in architecture and design is work that is awkward, and not beautiful, and a little bit idiosyncratic.”— Abbot Miller, amazon.com
“The essence is what is left when there’s nothing else that you can throw away.”— Massimo Vignelli, amazon.com
“We’re products of an Internet-fed culture that pulverises every idea into a dozens of smaller pieces, the pieces mingling with others and reforming into “new” ideas which are in turn smashed and so the cycle continues, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly… An ever evolving sequence of fragmentation and co…”— Richard Turley, medium.com
“The idea of the artist as auteur, the virtuoso, is so rarely applicable and yet so needfully desired.”— Richard Turley, medium.com
“I find it far more interesting, dare I say it — original — in this day and age to be honest to the fact that anyone involved in any creative practice is knitting together other peoples ideas, influences to create their own outcomes.”— Richard Turley, medium.com
“Humans like to copy. We’re sheep. We like to be part of a gang, to belong. Aesthetic themes and approaches have been circulated and replicated through the ages regardless of the presence of online mood boards.”— Richard Turley, medium.com
“Intelligent people have spent far too much time talking about robots. What we need is fewer people imagining what robots could do and more people thinking about racism.”— Tibor Kalman, wired.com
“So I am interested in imperfections, quirkiness, insanity, unpredictability. That's what we really pay attention to anyway. We don't talk about planes flying; we talk about them crashing.”— Tibor Kalman, wired.com
“We live in a society and a culture and an economic model that tries to make everything look right. Look at computers. Why are they all putty-colored or off-fucking-white? You make something off-white or beige because you are afraid to use any other color - because you don't want to offend anybody. B…”— Tibor Kalman, wired.com