Visual Culture

Design is the application of intent—the opposite of happenstance, and an antidote to accident.
Robert L. Peters

Many desperate acts of design (including gradients, drop shadows, and the gratuitous use of transparency) are perpetuated in the absence of a strong concept. A good idea provides a framework for design decisions, guiding the work.

Noreen Morioka

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“…once you become complacent that’s pretty much it—you’ve got to push and challenge yourself or there’s no point.”

Si Scott

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Image from AIGA

“Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.”

Walter Landor

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Mauboussin Kaleidoscope from labatrockwell on Vimeo.

Designers are in a great position, because we do make stuff that’s better. It’s too bad for the bankers, what do they do? We actually provide wealth, really, whereas other people just manage it and move it around. We take the raw materials and improve them.

Tucker Viemeister

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

Milton Glaser

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People think that design is styling. Design is not style. It’s not about giving shape to the shell and not giving a damn about the guts. Good design is a renaissance attitude that combines technology, cognitive science, human need, and beauty to produce something that the world didn’t know it was missing.

Paola Antonelli

If we think about the tree as a design, it’s something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, provides a habitat for hundreds of species, accrues solar energy, makes complex sugars and food, creates micro-climates, self-replicates. So, what would it be like to design a building like a tree? What would it be like to design a city like a forest? So what would a building be like if it were photosynthetic? What if it took solar energy and converted it to productive and delightful use?

William McDonough

“I always think of the design world like the medical world; we have people who are plastic surgeons, but we have a lot of people who are in the emergency room and a lot of our designers are in the emergency room dealing with the critical issues like post-disaster issues or systemic issues or poverty.

Cameron Sinclair

Photo from AIGA

Be culturally literate, because if you don’t have any understanding of the world you live in and the culture you live in, you’re not going to express anything to anybody else.

Paula Scher