Quotes by Graphic Designers

I believe I’m very normal. I’m hyper-normal. I’m more normal than anyone else I know. I think my thoughts, my indulgences, my desires, my pleasures may at first appear different, but that is only because they are more normal, not because they are more esoteric.I believe I am bored when other people are bored, only faster. I am interested when others are interested, only more interested. But I also think I’m less, rather than more, intelligent than other people.By indulging my interests through my life, and perhaps because of rather than despite many failures, I have been able to design my life.
Richard Saul Wurman
I'm a terrible person. I should have stayed in college. I should have gone skydiving while I had the chance. I should have gone swimming with dolphins. I should have seen The Spice Girls perform on their reunion tour!
Jillianne Hamilton
The most common definition of [the word information] is: "the action of informing; formation or molding of the mind or character, training, instruction, teaching; communication of instructive knowledge.This definition remained fairly constant until the years immediately following World War II, when it came in vogue to use 'information' as a technological term to define anything that was sent over an electric or mechanical channel. 'Information' became part of the vocabulary of the science of messages. And, suddenly, the appellation could be applied to something that didn't necessarily have to inform. This definition was extrapolated to general usage as something told or communicated, whether or not it made sense to the receiver. Now, the freedom engendered by such an amorphous definition has, as you might expect, encouraged its liberal deployment. It has become the single most important word of our decade, the suspense of our lives and our work.
Richard Saul Wurman
The most common definition [of the word information] is: "the action of informing; formation or molding of the mind or character, training, instruction, teaching; communication of instructive knowledge.This definition remained fairly constant until the years immediately following World War II, when it came in vogue to use 'information' as a technological term to define anything that was sent over an electric or mechanical channel. 'Information' became part of the vocabulary of the science of messages. And, suddenly, the appellation could be applied to something that didn't necessarily have to inform. This definition was extrapolated to general usage as something told or communicated, whether or not it made sense to the receiver. Now, the freedom engendered by such an amorphous definition has, as you might expect, encouraged its liberal deployment. It has become the single most important word of our decade, the suspense of our lives and our work.
Richard Saul Wurman
At some point, I had to start laughing, because I was all wrung out from crying.
Julie Metz
Design is, literally, purposeful planning. Graphic Design, then, is the form those plans will take.
Chip Kidd
Hey, have you heard that one about the difference between me, Wit, and my loutish cousin, Hilarity? No? Okay, so I walk into a bar, you see, very unassuming, and order a martini. Then the bartender, Hilarity, hauls off and squirts me in the face with a seltzer bottle, ruining my n ice new camel hair suit, dousing my monocle and my watch fob, soaking my cravat. So, do I let him have what for, and blow my top? I do not. I simply say:Sorry, I believe I said 'very dry'.
Chip Kidd
So I just went over and sat with him. Not a biggie. I wish people would stop trying to turn it into something more. He's just a kid. The weirdest-looking kid I've ever seen, yes. But just a kid.
R.J. Palacio
Hypocrisy has its own elegant symmetry.
Julie Metz
He was the most astonishing contradiction of components I’d ever encountered. Shy yet fiercely communicative when putting an idea into your head. Vocally astringent regarding his own abilities but not to the point that he couldn’t produce—he was as prolific an artist (yes, an artist, and I never use the term, especially regarding people I like) I’ve ever seen. But I could feel it. Everything he sketched, penciled, inked, made—was a payment, one he could scarcely afford; as if it physically hurt him to put pencil to paper. Yet that only seemed to spur him on, to live far beyond his means. He was unable not to. For Sketch, to draw was to breath, and so the air became lead—silvery in the right light, dark soot in the wrong; heavy, slick and malleable—into shapes he brought together in glorious orchestration, with a child’s eye and a rocket scientist’s precision, all fortified by a furious melancholy, a quiet engine of sourceless shame and humility.When it came to another’s work, he longed to praise it but then couldn’t resist critiquing it all within an inch of its life, analyzing deficiencies with uncontrollable abandon and laser accuracy. He was sharp as his Radio 914 pen nibs, and as pointed.And then he’d apologize. Oh, he would apologize: Oh my GOD, forgive me, please don’t hate me, I’m SORRY, don’t listen to me, why am I saying things, what do I know, I don’t know anything, why do you listen to me you should just tell me to shut UP, I’m awful, forgive me, you hate me, don’t you? Tell the truth. Please don’t hate me. Please don’t. Please.
Chip Kidd
(...) photography opened up quite a little Pandora's box, kiddies. (...) Once we no longer had to depend on drawing and painting to record our existence — once they became an option — they mutated . . . into a form of expression. And Art for its own sake, God help us, was born.
Chip Kidd
Today’s businesses can’t just use social media; they have to become social businesses, inside and out and from top to bottom. Ultimately, that is the goal of this book: to harness the power of being a social business to become the most highly recommended organization in your industry/category/niche.
Paul M. Rand
The No. 1 most credible source of [online] recommendations is YouTube,” Rand says. “But a friend liking a brand page and sharing that is now considered the second-most prominent form of recommendation, and third is online brand reviews.
Paul M. Rand
92% of respondents reported that a positive recommendation from a friend,family member, or someone they trust is the biggest influence on whether they buy a product or service.
Paul M. Rand
I had hoped that the rest of the world would stand still while I got myself together again, but Chaos and Tragedy had marched into other lives close to mine as well.
Julie Metz
Fire and paper - they do not mix well, n'est pas?""Perhaps they mix too well.
Jim Pascoe
And I wondered how it would feel to be in Heaven and not have my face matter anymore. Just like how it never, ever mattered to Daisy.
R.J. Palacio
sometimes i think my head is so big because its full of dreams
R.J. Palacio
One of the reasons I grew my hair long last year was that I like how my bangs cover my eyes: it helps me block out the things I don't want to see."-August thinking
R.J. Palacio
I wish every day could be Halloween. We could all wear masks all the time. Then we could walk around and get to know each other before we got to see what we looked like under the masks" - Wonder - this is absolutely beautiful
R.J. Palacio
Maybe it is a lottery, but the universe makes it all even out in the end. The universe takes care of its birds.
R.J. Palacio
Sometimes it's good to start over
R.J. Palacio
I thought it would teach them a thing or two about empathy, and friendship, and loyalty. As it turns out, Jack Will didn't need to learn any of these virtues- he already had them in abundance.
R.J. Palacio
Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.
Paul Rand
(...) I'm not much of anything, (...) besides bored and boring, punctuated by fits of scant self-amusement. And you are ...?
Chip Kidd
Nudity and explicit sex are far more easily available now than are clear images of death. The quasi-violence of movies and television dwells on the lively acts of killing – flying kicks, roaring weapons, crashing cars, flaming explosions. These are the moral equivalents of old-time cinematic sex. The fictional spurting of gun muzzles after flirtation and seduction but stop a titillating instant short of actual copulation. The results of such aggressive vivacity remain a mystery. The corpse itself, riddled and gaping, swelling or dismembered, the action of heat and bacteria, of mummification or decay are the most illicit pornography.The images we seldom see are the aftermath of violent deaths. Your family newspaper will not print photos of the puddled suicide who jumped from the fourteenth floor. No car wrecks with the body parts unevenly distributed, no murder victim sprawled in his own juices. Despite the endless preaching against violent crime, despite the enormous and avid audience for mayhem, these images are taboo.
Sean Tejaratchi
But the good thing about life is that we can fix our mistakes sometimes. We learn from them. We get better.
R.J. Palacio
Because the eye has seen, thoughts are structured upon images and not upon ideas.
David Consuegra
its better to know some question than all answers -James Thurber
R.J. Palacio
You sorta lose the fear of failure when everyone thinks you already gave it your best shot and blew it.
Brian Wood
-"Do people look the same when they get to heaven?"-"I don't know. I don't think so."-"Then how do people recognize each other?"-"I don't know, sweetie."She sounded tired."They just feel it.You don't need your eyes to love,right? You just feel it inside you. That's how it is in heaven. It's just love, and no one forgets who they love.
R.J. Palacio
Do people look the same when they get to heaven?""I don't know. I don't think so.""Then how do people recognize each other?""I don't know, sweetie."She sounded tired."They just feel it.You don't need your eyes to love,right? You just feel it inside you. That's how it is in heaven. It's just love, and no one forgets who they love.
R.J. Palacio
olivia reminds me of a bird sometimes, how her feathers get all ruffled when she's mad. and when she's fragile like this, she's a little lost bird looking for its nest.
R.J. Palacio
We’re always looking, but we never really see.
Milton Glaser
Anarchy is a state of society where the only government is reason.
Michael Schwab
No, no, it's not all random, if it was really random, the universe would abandon us completely, and the universe doesn't. It takes care of its most fragile creations in ways we can't see.
R.J. Palacio
So doesn't that make the universe a giant lottery, then? You purchase a ticket when you're born. And it's all just random whether you get a good ticket or a bad ticket. It's all just luck.
R.J. Palacio
Somtimes silence can be the loudest thing.
Ellie Mathews
We cook, we fight, we win. That simple.
Brian Wood
Never let your mouth write a check that your ass can't cash.
Chip Kidd
...we should be remembered for the things we do. The things we do are the most important things of all. They are more important than what we say or what we look like. The things we do outlast our mortality. The things we do are like monuments that people build to honour heroes after they've died. They're like the pyramids that the Egyptians built to honour the Pharaohs. Only instead of being made out of stone, they're made out of the memories people have of you. That's why your deeds are like your monuments. Built with memories instead of with stone.
R.J. Palacio
Sometimes when I have the feeling like I’m almost crying, it can turn into an almost-laughing feeling.
R.J. Palacio
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. But by definition, when you make something no one hates, no one loves it. 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
The most important precept is to be aware of WHO WE ARE!“Who we are,” he said, underlining each word as he said it. “Who we are! Us! Right? What kind of people are we? What kind of person are you? Isn’t that the most important thing of all? Isn’t that the kind of question we should be asking ourselves all the time? “What kind of person am I?Learning who you are is what your are here to do.
R.J. Palacio
Never mistake legibility for communication.
David Carson
It's so weird how that can be, how you could have a night that's the worst in your life, but to everybody else it's just an ordinary night.
R.J. Palacio
The only thing that I know that truly heals people is unconditional love.
R.J. Palacio
...use design as a secret disguise to infiltrate whatever world you want to go into. If you do that over and over again, and then translate that interest and curiosity into the work that you’re doing, you’ll do great.
Michael Bierut
He meticulously tries to get every hair in place. He tilts his head to look at himself from different angles, like there's some magic perspective in the mirror that could change the dimensions of his face'-Olivia/Via thinking
R.J. Palacio
Such a simple thing, kindness. Such a simple thing. A nice word of encouragement, given when needed. An act of friendship. A passing smile.
R.J. Palacio
Always try to be a little kinder than necessary.
R.J. Palacio
It's not enough to be kind. One should be kinder than needed. Why I love that line, that concept, is that it reminds me that we carry with us, as human beings, not just the capacity to be kind, but the very choice of kindness. And what does that mean? How is that measured? You can't use a yardstick. It's like I was saying just before: it's not like measuring how much you've grown in a year. It's not exactly quantifiable, is it?
R.J. Palacio
If you don't know what to do, just be kind. You can't go wrong.
R.J. Palacio
You don't need your eyes to love, Right?
R.J. Palacio
At first I thought he was laughing because his shoulders were shaking, but then he put his palms on his eyes and I realized he was crying. It was the quietest crying I've ever heard. Like a whisper. I was going to go over to him, but then I thought maybe he was whisper-crying because he didn't want me or anyone else to hear him.
R.J. Palacio
The most essential prerequisite to understanding is to be able to admit when you don't understand something
Richard Saul Wurman
Nothing worth knowing can ever be taught in a classroom.
Chip Kidd
The perfect state of creative bliss is having power (you are 50) and knowing nothing (you are 9). This assures an interesting and successful outcome.
Tibor Kalman
Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions, there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.
Paul Rand
I learned that day that there is no more lonely state than being in a lonely marriage.
Julie Metz