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Designers and artists are always in search of inspiration. There are happy days when we feel inspired, are full of energy and ready to pull up many trees. At other times we feel lack of creativity sitting with no ideas, no zest, and no motivation. Sometimes, when you are down, some quote or phrase can make your mind and soul more alive. It’s like being plugged into a positive uplifting power flow.
Today we have prepared for you a bunch of great quotes that belong to talented people: artists, designers, philosophers and other wise people who relate to Design and Art. We truly hope that at the very least you will enjoy reading these wonderful words of inspiration. And of course, we hope these words that come from the people’s own experience and their incredible talent to notice subtle things will motivate and assist you in your designer’s career…
Design/Art Philosophy
Personality/Emotions
Excellence/Perfection
Learning/Gaining Experience
Professionalism/Quality
Business
Witty/Funny
Design/Art Philosophy
A design isn’t finished until somebody is using it.
– Brenda Laurel.
Intelligent design itself does not have any content.
– George Gilder
Design is in everything we make, but it’s also between those things. It’s a mix of craft, science, storytelling, propaganda, and philosophy.
– Erik Adigard
Design is not the narrow application of formal skills, it is a way of thinking.
— Chris Pullman
Design is the contrast of the core of limitations therefore there are no boundaries. It is simply an interpretation of creativity.
– Jenaiha Woods
Simplicity does not mean want or poverty. It does not mean the absence of any decor, or absolute nudity. It only means that the decor should belong intimately to the design proper, and that anything foreign to it should be taken away.
– Paul Jacques Grillo
There ain’t no rules around here. We’re trying to accomplish something.
– Thomas Edison
Design is an opportunity to continue telling the story, not just to sum everything up.
– Tate Linden
Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see.
– Paul Klee
Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.
– Pablo Picasso
Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.
— Jeffrey Zeldman
Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future.
— Robert L. Peters
Anyone who says you can’t see a thought simply doesn’t know art.
— Wynetka Ann Reynolds
Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.
— Twyla Tharp
An artist never really finishes his work; he merely abandons it.
— Paul Valéry
Art is an idea that has found its perfect visual expression. And design is the vehicle by which this expression is made possible. Art is a noun, and design is a noun and also a verb. Art is a product and design is a process. Design is the foundation of all the arts.
— Paul Rand
Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definitions. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.
– Paul Rand
Designers can create normalcy out of chaos; they can clearly communicate ideas through the organising and manipulating of words and pictures.
– Jeffrey Veen
To create a memorable design you need to start with a thought that’s worth remembering.
– Thomas Manss
Good design goes to heaven; bad design goes everywhere.
– Mieke Gerritzen
Design is like a mom, nobody notices when she’s around, but everybody misses her when she’s not.
– Santiago Borray
Personality/Emotions
Sometimes you can draw more inspiration from the people who don’t believe in you, then from the ones who do.
– William Childs
Designers think everything done by someone else is awful, and that they could do it better themselves, which explains why I designed my own living room carpet, I suppose.
– Chris Bangle
I never design a building before I’ve seen the site and met the people who will be using it.
– Frank Lloyd Wright
There’s no retirement for an artist, it’s your way of living so there’s no end to it.
— Henry Moore
Fear is a darkroom where negatives develop.
— Usman B. Asif
No place is boring, if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.
— Robert Adams
Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.
— Stella Adler
I don’t paint things. I only paint the difference between things.
— Henri Matisse
For me, design is like choosing what I’m going to wear for the day – only much more complicated and not really the same at all.
— Robynne Raye
Designers are meant to be loved, not to be understood.
– Fabien Barral
In the design process, my gut instinct is my best critic. I just wished I would always listen to it!
– Bryan Tamayo
Excellence/Perfection
Design is as much a matter of finding problems as it is solving them.
– Bryan Lawson
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.
– Tom Waits
Design is as much a matter of finding problems as it is solving them.
– Bryan Lawson
The secret of joy in work is contained in one word: excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.
– Pearl S. Buck
You can’t reach the top before you start climbing from the bottom.
– Ari Suardiyanti
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.
— Salvador Dali
Learning/Gaining Experience
I am still learning.
— Michelangelo
I don’t think that design needs theory, but I think designers need theory.
– Johanna Drucker
You can have an art experience in front of a Rembrandt… or in front of a piece of graphic design.
– Stefan Sagmeister
I know the price of success: dedication, hard work & an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.
– Frank Llyod Wright
Design is creativity with strategy.
– Rob Curedale
Wisdom is to knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.
– David Starr
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
— Scott Adams
Professionalism/Quality
The definition of an expert is someone who knows what not to do.
– Charles Willson
When you eliminate quality as a requirement, the entire design process becomes a whole lot easier.
– Jared M. Spool
Good design goes to heaven; bad design goes everywhere.
– Mieke Gerritzen
Just because something looks good doesn’t mean it’s useful. And just because something is useful does not make it beautiful.
– Joshua Brewer
Don’t worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop.
– Jeffrey Zeldman
Some designers create things to show you what they did. I design things to tell you what I solved.
– Brian Yerkes
The quality of any creative endeavor tends to approach the level of taste of whoever is in charge.
– John Gruber
Everything is designed. Few things are designed well.
— Brian Reed
Business
Good design is good business.
– Thomas J. Watson Jr.
Designing a product is designing a relationship.
– Steve Rogers
Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.
— Steve Jobs
Creative without strategy is called ‘art’. Creative with strategy is called ‘advertising’.
— Jef I. Richards
The talent for discovering the unique and marketable characteristics of a product and service is a designer’s most valuable asset.
– Primo Angeli
Marketing without design is lifeless, and design without marketing is mute
– Von R. Glitschka
If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.
– Red Adair
Invention is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.
– Thomas Edison
Good design is the most important way to differentiate ourselves from our competitors.
– Samsung CEO Yun Jong Yong, 2004
Witty/Funny
A camel is a horse designed by a committee.
— Sir Alec Issigonis
Good design is all about making other designers feel like idiots because that idea wasn’t theirs.
– Frank Chimero
Design is easy. All you do is stare at the screen until drops of blood form on your forehead.
– Marty Neumier
Remember it takes a lot of shit, to create a beautiful flower.
– Jacob Cass
A computer without Photoshop is like a dog with no legs. Sure is fun, but you can’t really do anything with it.
– Benjamin Cavanagh
Good design means never having to say “Click Here”.
– Shawn Leslie
Design trends online change more often than the wind, and slightly less often than my socks.
— Suleiman Leadbitter
It is great to be inspired… great to feel you are capable to remove mountains, but we need to do something with it:) Use these moments to take actions and do true things.