CR Blog
#CR500K: Five Saul Bass books to give away
Advertising, Art, Graphic Design, Illustration
Posted by Creative Review, 2 November 2011, 13:27 Permalink Comments (220)
To celebrate reaching 500k followers on Twitter, we are giving away five copies of Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, kindly donated by Laurence King. The book contains a great list of quotes by Bass on the subject of working in the creative industry, and we'd like to hear your own personal favourites for a chance to win a copy...
This competition has now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered. The winning entries are listed below.
The 400-plus page book features a wealth of imagery of work from the US design legend (Rick Poynor takes an in-depth look at the man and his work in the latest issue of CR) but the last chapter is dedicated to Bass's thoughts on various subjects, from clients and problem solving, to collecting things and retirement.
Publishers Laurence King have kindly given us five copies (worth £48 each) to give away. To win one all you have to do is share with us your favourite piece of wisdom from a figure in the creative world. It could be a few words from an eminent designer on the subject of inspiration, or a sharp piece of advice from a seasoned ad creative.
Leave your quotes with the name of who they're attributed to in the comments below, and we'll pick our five favourites. Where repetitions occur we'll refer to the first posting of the quote, and we'll announce the winners tomorrow (Thursday) on the blog and via Twitter. The deadline for your entries is 12pm GMT this evening.
To get you started, here are a few examples from Bass himself, taken from the new book.
On work:
"Work? It's just serious play."
"Unless I have to stretch, then I'm not really interested."
On clients:
"Clients? I have a sign in my office that reads 'They need us more than we need them' but on the other side reads 'We need them more than they need us'."
On process:
"So, the good news, I say to students, is that what you are experiencing is exactly what everybody else experiences, even those people you most admire. The bad news is that it doesn't get any better."
On creativity:
"Interesting things happen when the creative impulse is cultivated with curiosity, freedom and intensity."
"Sometimes when an idea flashes, you distrust it because it seems too easy. You qualify it with all kinds of evasive phrases because you're timid about it. But often, this turns out to be the best idea of all."
This competition has now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered. The winning entries are listed below.
After much deliberation, here's our list of five winning quotes.
"You are obliged to go off at a tangent if you want to stop going round in circles," Alan Fletcher, posted by Lee.
"What I'm trying to produce is the visual equivalent of the chord change that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up," Rian Hughes, posted by George.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler," Albert Einstein, posted by Marcus.
"When people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong," Neil Gaiman, posted by Mark.
"Design isn't about what something looks like, it's about what people think when they see it," Craig Frazier, posted by Marc.
Lee, George, Marcus, Mark and Marc, please get in touch via mark.sinclair@centaur.co.uk with details of the address that you would like the book sent out to. Thanks again to everyone who entered.
Not getting Creative Review in print too? You're missing out.
In print, Creative Review carries far richer, more in-depth articles than we run here on the blog. This month, for example, we have nine pages on Saul Bass, plus pieces on advertising art buyers, Haddon Sundblom, the illustrator who ensured that Coke will forever be linked with Santa Claus, Postmodernism, Brighton's new football ground and much more. Plus, it's our Photography Annual, which means an additional 85 pages of great images, making our November issue almost 200-pages long, the biggest issue of CR for 5 years.
If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.
220 Comments
"A portfolio is for life, not just for an interview."
Craig Oldham.
2011-11-02 15:12:48
"what ever you think, think the opposite" Paul Arden I wasn't going to comment, so I did.
2011-11-02 15:13:41
"Good design is honest. It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept."
—Dieter Rams
2011-11-02 15:14:19
The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people. - Karl Marx
2011-11-02 15:14:25
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
Oscar Wilde
2011-11-02 15:14:33
"An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex." Aldous Huxley
"Less is more", Andrea del Sarto adopted years later by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
2011-11-02 15:16:37
Neil Gaiman on feedback:
"When people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong."
2011-11-02 15:17:07
"The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot" - Salvador Dali.
2011-11-02 15:17:21
A picture is irrelevant without a caption! - Rex Gutridge
2011-11-02 15:17:41
"The chief enemy of creativity is good sense." - Pablo Picasso
2011-11-02 15:18:08
"You are obliged to go off at a tangent if you want to stop going round in circles."
Alan Fletcher
2011-11-02 15:18:54
If it still does not work, put a bandage on the dog....
2011-11-02 15:19:16
"Fail, fail again. Fail Better." Samuel Beckett
2011-11-02 15:20:29
“Can’t please everyone,” isn’t just an aphorism, it’s the secret of being remarkable." – Seth Godin
2011-11-02 15:21:13
I've shamelessly stolen this from another conversation I was having on a forum… but I'm sure I've heard it before…
"If you can't make it good, make it big. If you can't make it big, make it orange!"
Not guaranteed to work, but made me smile.
2011-11-02 15:21:46
'The audience is more wonderful than you think. Keep thinking about them.'
Michael Bierut (Pentagram)
(spotted here) http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/february/design-indaba-michael-bierut
2011-11-02 15:22:35
Stanley Kubrick, on 'polishing turds':
"You can if you freeze it"
2011-11-02 15:24:14
"we have no money, so we've got to think."
Ernest Rutherford
2011-11-02 15:24:45
Just enough is more - Milton Glaser
2011-11-02 15:25:15
My favourite piece of wisdom is from Paul Rand, he says: '
Don't try to be original try to be good.'
In a world of ever decreasing budgets I think producing good work rather than trying to show off (which, yes, I have been guilty of in the past) is the way forward.
2011-11-02 15:25:32
In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.
Salvador Dali
2011-11-02 15:26:28
Graphic design is a means, not an end. A language, not content.”
-Tibor Kalman, Perverse Optimist
2011-11-02 15:27:12
"To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” — Aristotle
2011-11-02 15:27:53
"Rudeness is the weak mans imitation of strength" Eric Hoffer
2011-11-02 15:27:59
I never read. I just look at pictures
-Andy Warhol
2011-11-02 15:28:43
"You people, you think I know fuck nothing; I tell you: I know fuck all!"
Michael Curtiz - on set with "Charge of the Light Brigade".
"Give me the freedom of a tight brief"
David Ogilvy
“When faced with a number of different opportunities always take the one that is most terrifying. At the very least you’ll learn what humility tastes like.”
Jeremy Bullmore
2011-11-02 15:29:21
Blam, on critical acclaim:
'opinions are like arse holes - everybody's got one'
2011-11-02 15:29:32
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
― Albert Einstein
2011-11-02 15:29:56
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” — Albert Einstein
2011-11-02 15:30:29
"Funny is money."
– Lucille Ball
2011-11-02 15:31:08
The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.
2011-11-02 15:31:13
Be calm and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work. Gustave Flaubert
2011-11-02 15:31:45
FUCK COMMITTEES
-Tibor Kalman
2011-11-02 15:31:51
My favourite piece of wisdom is from Paul Rand, he says: '
Don't try to be original try to be good.'
In a world of ever decreasing budgets I think producing good work rather than trying to show off (which, yes, I have been guilty of in the past) is the way forward.
2011-11-02 15:32:07
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” — Albert Einstein
2011-11-02 15:32:41
"My wife never set out to build a business, but she – like so many founders who start from the heart – might actually end up having a pretty good one."
Anthony Lee
2011-11-02 15:33:03
The possibilities are unlimited, only you must not allow yourself to be overwhelmed. -Jed Perl, from Eyewitness: Reports from an Art World in Crisis
2011-11-02 15:33:12
"I Will Solve Your Problem and You Will Pay Me"
—Paul Rand
2011-11-02 15:33:14
The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it - banksy
2011-11-02 15:34:26
"We favor the simple expression of the complex thought." Mark Rothko.
2011-11-02 15:34:55
"Every child is an artist. The challenge is to remain an artist after you grow up"
-Picasso
2011-11-02 15:35:15
"An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex." Aldous Huxley
"Less is more", Andrea del Sarto adopted years later by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
2011-11-02 15:35:59
"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." Degas
2011-11-02 15:36:42
“A camel is a horse designed by committee.” - Sir Alec Issigonis, automobile designer
2011-11-02 15:37:34
"The chief enemy of creativity is good sense." - Pablo Picasso
2011-11-02 15:37:53
The man who can't visualize a horse galloping on a tomato is an idiot. – André Breton
2011-11-02 15:38:38
Get over your fucking self - Good Fucking Design Advise.
2011-11-02 15:38:40
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
—Leonardo da Vinci
2011-11-02 15:39:49
"You say it best when you say nothing at all." — Boyzone
2011-11-02 15:41:04
"What the mind can conceive, the mind can achieve" Clement Stone
2011-11-02 15:41:46
“If you have the ability to transfer ideas from one point to another, those should be ideas that cause no harm."
-Milton Glaser
2011-11-02 15:41:56
ideas make money; money doesn't make ideas.- Fernando Gutierrez
2011-11-02 15:42:14
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. Steve Jobs
2011-11-02 15:43:03
"It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be."- Paul Arden
2011-11-02 15:43:51
"I like the buttery biscuit Bass"
Gregg Wallace
2011-11-02 15:43:57
"Style is the most valuable asset of the modern artist. That's why so many styles are reported lost or stolen each year." – Brad Holland
2011-11-02 15:44:07
"There is no longer room for irrelevant things.
We have no longer got the resources. Irrelevance is out."
Dieter Rams
2011-11-02 15:45:22
"All my life I've had one dream, to achieve my many goals."
—Homer Simpson (indeed a figure from the creative world)
2011-11-02 15:46:08
'Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.'
- STEVE JOBS
2011-11-02 15:46:17
"Simplify, then add lightness."
- Colin Chapman
He was talking about his design philosophy at Lotus, but I find it works just as well with copy.
2011-11-02 15:46:20
"If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, they can never pay you enough."- Mirko Ilic
2011-11-02 15:46:50
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein
2011-11-02 15:47:27
'imagination is more important than knowledge'
Albert Einstein
2011-11-02 15:48:29
design is thinking made visual - Saul Bass
2011-11-02 15:49:15
"It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be" - Paul Arden
2011-11-02 15:49:44
"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish"
Steve Jobs.
2011-11-02 15:49:52
"Use good quality tools that are specific to one task" David Hieatt of Howies
2011-11-02 15:50:37
'Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.'
- STEVE JOBS
2011-11-02 15:51:52
"Be stimulated by rejection" Bob Gill
Time and time this has been invaluable
2011-11-02 15:54:04
"Only dead fish swim with the flow" Jack Doom (Doom&Dickson)
2011-11-02 15:57:50
Jim Jarmusch - “It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.”
2011-11-02 15:58:04
Design isn't about what something looks like, it's about what people think when they see it, - Craig Frazier
2011-11-02 15:58:25
"A line is a dot that went for a walk."
Paul Klee
2011-11-02 15:58:40
“A camel is a horse designed by committee.” - Sir Alec Issigonis, automobile designer
2011-11-02 15:59:33
design is thinking made visual - Saul Bass
2011-11-02 16:00:09
Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does.
- David Carson
2011-11-02 16:00:15
"Maps are proof that art is equally as important as science" - Phil Jones
2011-11-02 16:00:17
''Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought" Albert Von Szent-Gyorgi
2011-11-02 16:00:19
Jim Jarmusch - “It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.”
2011-11-02 16:00:34
"It's all about doing what you love. If you don't love it, it won't happen. but when you're in love, nothing can stop you...not even death, because your work, god willing, will last for centuries beyond your mortal self and that's all that matters" – Kevin Llewellyn
2011-11-02 16:00:54
"Work hard and be nice to people" Anthony Burrill
2011-11-02 16:01:39
"Work hard and be nice to people" Anthony Burrill
2011-11-02 16:01:54
Newman’s first law: It is useless to put on your brakes when you’re upside down.
— Paul Newman
2011-11-02 16:02:06
"Be brave, take risks. Nothing can substitute experience." - Paulo Coelho
2011-11-02 16:02:13
“A camel is a horse designed by committee.” - Sir Alec Issigonis, automobile designer
2011-11-02 16:03:02
There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.
— Arthur C Clarke
2011-11-02 16:03:41
"The best design tool is a long eraser with a pencil at one end."
-Marty Neumeier
2011-11-02 16:03:45
“Never fall in love with an idea. They are whores: if the one you’re with isn’t doing the job, there’s always, always, always another.” —Chip Kidd from The Cheese Monkeys
2011-11-02 16:04:46
If you arent failing every now and again it's a sign that you aren't doing anything very innovative. - Woody Allen
2011-11-02 16:04:50
"My rule of life, which I guide my conduct by, and a departure from which I consider as a sin, is to act in the manner which I believe to be the most likely to produce the greatest happiness, considering both the intensity of the happiness and the number of people made happy."
Bertrand Russell
2011-11-02 16:05:10
It's a mouthful, but this is the piece of advice that I remind myself of everyday. It has dramatically shaped and continues to shape me as an artist.
Ira Glass on the Creative Process: http://youtu.be/PbC4gqZGPSY
"All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
2011-11-02 16:06:34
Computers are to design as microwaves are to cooking.
— Milton Glaser
2011-11-02 16:06:40
“When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty........ but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” ― Richard Buckminster Fuller
2011-11-02 16:07:04
“There are three responses to a piece of design – yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for.”
Milton Glaser
2011-11-02 16:08:41
"When you make something no one hates, no one loves it."
— Tibor Kalman
2011-11-02 16:09:06
“Don't chase the money, chase the opportunity.”
Sir John Hegarty
2011-11-02 16:11:00
"A typeface is an Alphabet in a straight jacket"
- Alan Fletcher
2011-11-02 16:12:18
People ignore design that ignores people.
Frank Chimero
2011-11-02 16:14:33
“If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.” - John Cleese
2011-11-02 16:14:47
This quote is about, but not necessarily exclusive to making a film.
Making a film is like a stagecoach ride in the old west. When you start, you are hoping for a pleasant trip. By the halfway point, you just hope to survive.
-François Truffaut
2011-11-02 16:15:59
"The creative adult is the child who survived" - U. LeGuin
"If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough" - Mario Andretti
2011-11-02 16:18:02
"It's not what you looks at that matters, it's what you see."
- Henry David Thoreau
2011-11-02 16:19:11
"To whom does design address itself: to the greatest number, to the specialist of an enlightened matter, to a privileged social class? Design addresses itself to the need." - Charles Eames
2011-11-02 16:25:00
"The life of a designer is a life of fight against the ugliness" — Massimo Vignelli
2011-11-02 16:26:28
A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.
- Robert Frost
2011-11-02 16:29:00
"We hate to like Helvetica" Hamish Muir
2011-11-02 16:29:26
"KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid"
2011-11-02 16:30:17
"The life of a designer is a life of fight against the ugliness" — Massimo Vignelli
2011-11-02 16:30:29
"It's not how short you make it, it's how you make it short." – Bill Bernbach.
2011-11-02 16:33:21
" Plain, simple and useful."
Terence Conrance
2011-11-02 16:34:59
"If you're going through hell, keep going!" - Winston Churchill
2011-11-02 16:36:50
"Good graphics should unroll like a film."
- El Lissitzky
"I believe in everything, nothing is sacred. I believe in nothing ,everything is sacred."
- Tom Robbins
2011-11-02 16:37:54
Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.
– Aldous Huxley
2011-11-02 16:38:19
'Second best is good enough if your standards are high enough'
2011-11-02 16:38:38
"Don't get it right, get it written" - James Thurber
Remembering this has helped me no end in my playwriting
2011-11-02 16:39:19
"To be is to do"-Socrates; "To do is to be"-Sartre; "Do Be Do Be Do"-Sinatra
2011-11-02 16:39:27
“I tried to avoid going to an office, so I just did what I wanted to do (...)"
― Ronald Clyne (from an interview given in 2005, cited in the essay "Six Hours With Ronald Clyne" By Richard Newsome [http://www.efanzines.com/EK/eI41/index.htm#six2004].
2011-11-02 16:40:43
" Plain, simple and useful."
Terence Conran
2011-11-02 16:41:32
Design from the spine and you’ll be fine.
— CARL HEATON
2011-11-02 16:43:26
"I quote others only the better to express myself"
Me, Via Alan Fletcher (the Art of Looking sideways) via Michel de Montaigne
2011-11-02 16:45:55
“That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works”
- Steve Jobs
2011-11-02 16:47:46
6. Capture accidents. The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.
From Bruce Mau's Incomplete Manifesto for Growth.
2011-11-02 16:49:41
"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming"
- Dory A Fish
2011-11-02 16:54:58
"Happiness is not reaching your goal. Happiness is being on the way"
Ingvar Kamprad
2011-11-02 17:04:28
"No masterpiece was ever created by a lazy artist." -- Picasso
2011-11-02 17:06:54
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
Albert Einstein
2011-11-02 17:10:00
‘There is no point in having sharp images when you have fuzzy ideas’
—Jean-Luc Godard
2011-11-02 17:10:26
“Design or die”
Slogan on a wall of the Designers Republic studio, Sheffield c.1991
-Ian Anderson
2011-11-02 17:11:41
"It's not what you looks at that matters, it's what you see."
- Henry David Thoreau
2011-11-02 17:21:12
"There's a way to do it better—find it."
— Thomas Edison
2011-11-02 17:23:38
"Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around"
2011-11-02 17:27:57
“What I’m trying to produce is the visual equivalent of the chord change that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
— RIAN HUGHES
2011-11-02 17:30:47
“Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.”
— Salvador Dali
2011-11-02 17:34:15
“I warn you against believing advertising is a science.”
Bill Bernbach
2011-11-02 17:36:38
"The design is complete when there is nothing else to take away."
Massimo Vignelli
2011-11-02 17:43:58
'Less is more'
I love this quote as i love simple and effective design!
saul bass designs inspire me.
2011-11-02 17:47:03
The only important thing about design is how it relates to people.
— Victor Papanek
and
Designers are meant to be loved, not to be understood.
— Fabien Barral
2011-11-02 17:49:30
If it still does not work, put a bandage on the dog....
2011-11-02 17:50:22
‘I don’t want to be interesting, I want to be good.’ Charles Eames quoting Mies Van de Rohe
2011-11-02 17:51:06
A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.
- Robert Frost
2011-11-02 17:56:57
Get the right idea; and the idea right.
2011-11-02 18:06:14
'Science is analytical, descriptive, informative. Man does not live by bread alone, but by science he attempts to do so. Hence the deadliness of all that is purely scientific.' - Eric Gill
2011-11-02 18:14:12
“White space is to be regarded as an active element, not a passive background.”
— Jan Tschichold
2011-11-02 18:16:14
Not a designer, and im not religious but this is a damn good design ethos;
“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Til your good is better and your better is best.” - St. Jerome
2011-11-02 18:17:43
Graphic design is a type of expression, a language, but it is not a medium - Stefan Sagmeister
2011-11-02 18:20:53
"It’s not about knowing all the gimmicks and photo tricks. If you haven’t got the eye, no program will give it to you."
David Carson
2011-11-02 18:23:37
"No More Bullshit"
sign on the wall of an advertising agency referred to by a character in Elmore Leonard's novel Uknown Man No. 89
2011-11-02 18:28:25
'A piece of work is never finished, you just need to know when to stop'
A personal appropriation of a Van Gogh quote
2011-11-02 18:28:26
“Design is purposeful planning… Graphic design is the form those plans will take.”
– Chip Kidd, The Cheese Monkeys
2011-11-02 18:32:32
"Good design is all about making other designers feel like idiots because that idea wasn’t theirs."
Frank Chimero
This quote makes me laugh like Machiavelli...
2011-11-02 18:35:22
"If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse."
Henry Ford
2011-11-02 18:35:35
"Knowing stuff makes you better" - Timothy Donaldson
2011-11-02 18:36:18
Only when you know the rules of typography are you allowed to break them.
College tutor.
2011-11-02 18:40:42
"If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got."
Albert Einstein
2011-11-02 18:41:02
After being asked which lamp to purchase for a certain room, Alvin Lustig replied, "I can't tell you which lamp to buy, but I'll redo the room for you."
2011-11-02 18:47:27
"Design should illicit an emotional reaction"
Kyle Cooper
2011-11-02 18:49:52
“People adopt ideas when social, personal, and financial trends intersect — a confluence that may seem random but that usually happens “by design.” 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.”
- Clement Mok in Designing Business
2011-11-02 19:17:43
“Eventually everything connects – people, ideas, objects…the quality of the connections is the key to quality per se.” Charles Eames.
2011-11-02 19:18:10
Practice safe design: Use a concept.
— Petrula Vrontikis
2011-11-02 19:18:21
"Tomorrow you'll know that I wasn't kidding and you'll think I was crazy. But look I figure it this way: Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime." - Paul D. Zimmerman for Rupert Pupkin
2011-11-02 19:21:08
“People adopt ideas when social, personal, and financial trends intersect — a confluence that may seem random but that usually happens “by design.” 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.”
- Clement Mok in Designing Business
2011-11-02 19:21:11
"Take care of your work and your work will take care of you."
James Victore said that once about presenting your work. Stuck with me.
2011-11-02 19:22:58
'the philosophers have only interpreted the world; the point, however, is to change it.'
Karl Marx
First heard this quote from Ken Garland at this years Typography Summer School, where he hand wrote it, back to front, left to right (& maybe even left handed)...
see this link
http://tinyurl.com/6zoqmq5
2011-11-02 19:45:08
"There are no short cuts to any place worth going." Beverly Sills
A truism for life as in art, and the driving force behind so many big changes in my life.
2011-11-02 19:59:42
Help me , help you
Jerry McGuire
It sounds almost sarcastic but in truth we try to engage our clients to find out what they need , what their business needs and what their customers need.
2011-11-02 20:05:31
Stress is like sitting in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere.
– Van Wilder.
2011-11-02 20:07:05
it's NOT about YOU, bob.
- Mrs. Incredible
2011-11-02 20:13:21
A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.
Frank Capra
2011-11-02 20:15:51
"To be deemed to be OK, to be part of the culture, that's the kiss of death".
Terry Gilliam
2011-11-02 20:24:17
"To be deemed to be OK, to be part of the culture, that's the kiss of death".
Terry Gilliam
2011-11-02 20:32:55
"The work should speak, not the individual."
Oskar Altherr
http://mikedempsey.typepad.com/files/oskar-final-cut.mp3
Thanks to Mike Dempsey for his 'mountain man' blog. Nothing has EVER inspired me more.
The irony is not lost on me, however, that I am appreciating the sentiment of a man, that should 'others' not have intervened (and disrespected his wishes), would never have seen the light of day. Oh, the moral dilemma!
2011-11-02 20:40:02
“I want everything we do to be beautiful. I don’t give a damn whether the client understands that that’s worth anything, or that the client thinks it’s worth anything, or whether it is worth anything. It’s worth it to me. It’s the way I want to live my life. I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares.”
- Saul Bass
2011-11-02 20:41:20
KISS. Keep it simple stupid.
2011-11-02 20:47:01
"The work should speak, not the individual."
Oskar Altherr
http://mikedempsey.typepad.com/files/oskar-final-cut.mp3
Thanks to Mike Dempsey for his 'mountain man' blog. Nothing has EVER inspired me more.
The irony is not lost on me, however, that I am appreciating the sentiment of a man, that should 'others' not have intervened (and disrespected his wishes), would never have seen the light of day. Oh, the moral dilemma!
2011-11-02 20:48:03
"It’s very easy to be different, but very difficult to be better."
JONATHAN IVE
2011-11-02 21:03:50
Perhaps believing in good design is like believing in God, it makes you an optimist.
Terence
2011-11-02 21:25:24
What is the use of a book without pictures ...
- Alice
2011-11-02 21:26:58
"Eventually, everything connects." - Charles Eames
2011-11-02 21:41:58
'I have two goals. The first is that everything I do as a designer must have an idea: it cannot just look nice. The second is, it has to look nice.' - Paul Rand
A rule i live by. I put another quote as my favourite one has been used already.
2011-11-02 21:55:22
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” — Dr. Seuss
2011-11-02 22:07:27
"Work harder."
Steve Jobs' advice to us when we faced an impossibly difficult situation.
2011-11-02 22:12:18
'go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.'
Kurt Vonnegut
2011-11-02 22:13:12
“We spend our entire lives looking into mirrors believing the illusions reflected there and being comforted by the reality of appearances. Unfortunately people are seldom what they appear to be, and what is seen is what we expect to see. We look for reassurance not revelation. We do not know.” - Duane Michals.
2011-11-02 22:24:57
Enjoy what you do.
2011-11-02 22:32:04
'If Ernest Hemingway, James Mitchener, Neil Simon, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Pablo Picasso could not get it right the first time, what makes you think that you will?'
PAUL HECKEL
2011-11-02 22:36:31
"The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life"
Jessica Hische
2011-11-02 22:41:43
“We spend our entire lives looking into mirrors believing the illusions reflected there and being comforted by the reality of appearances. Unfortunately people are seldom what they appear to be, and what is seen is what we expect to see. We look for reassurance not revelation. We do not know.” - Duane Michals.
2011-11-02 22:42:11
Designers are Wankers - Lee McCormack
2011-11-02 22:55:05
“My cow is not pretty, but it is pretty to me.”
David Lynch
2011-11-02 22:58:02
It takes two to lie, one to lie, and one to listen. Homer Simpson
2011-11-02 23:28:47
“The hero is kind of making it clear. Clear about what we're trying to sell, clear about what does this app do. So it's almost like the language is far more important than visual design. Where visual design is really supporting the idea, which is the words or the UI.” – Jamie Dihiansan from 37signals
2011-11-03 00:49:20
“We give ourselves to the art that we love, and especially to the art that we hate.”
—Patricia MacCormack
2011-11-03 00:50:08
"Take your dreams seriously" from workisnotajob
2011-11-03 01:05:44
"Hate makes me creative"
"It's only crazy when you think about it"
- Brian van Anderson
2011-11-03 01:29:15
“Inspiration exists but it has to find you working.” Pablo Picasso
2011-11-03 02:24:44
My hope still is to leave the world a bit better than when I got here.
Jim Henson
2011-11-03 03:14:20
"When you turn on the lights, there's nothing to worry about anymore." - Macaulay Caulkin, Home Alone.
2011-11-03 03:14:43
"You can always make more money, you can’t make more time." - David Hieatt
http://davidhieatt.typepad.com/doonethingwell/2011/10/how-to-start-a-great-brand-with-very-little-money.html
2011-11-03 07:02:51
Wow… a lot of people want this book! Anyway, here it is, one of the winning 5 (fingers crossed).
Practice safe design: Use a concept. - Petrula Vrontikis
2011-11-03 08:50:14
Just realised someone else beat me to that last one… here is another!
I want this book! I find modernist design boring, but it so much faster! – Christine Suewon Lee
2011-11-03 08:58:37
"Learn to draw, if you don't you're going to live your life getting around that and trying to compensate for that"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7l0mIlzx_I
These words could not be truer, only a year ago I was a student, struggling to communicate my ideas I felt as if I couldn't express myself, as I was speechless. By just addressing such a small problem helped me get so far.
2011-11-03 09:07:19
The comp may be over but I still wanted to add this...
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."
- Groucho Marks
2011-11-03 09:09:30
The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it - banksy
2011-11-03 09:23:41
"Beware the Trophy Hunter", Ben Hughes (2010)
2011-11-03 09:32:21
“Do or do not... there is no try.” - Yoda
2011-11-03 09:42:10
"If this book helps only one designer to get only one original idea, then all the months i spent putting it together will not have been worth it." — Bob Gill (i think this was on the cover of a Graphis Annual?)
brilliant.
2011-11-03 09:42:21
I have not seen so many comments on a CR post....! This months magazine is a visual feast. INteresting comments from art buyers, article on Saul is too short, and a curious mix in the photography annual.
Win a book, I should be so lucky!
Bip
2011-11-03 10:01:52
"You cant polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter!" Jimmy Carr
2011-11-03 10:04:01
"Don’t hire a dog, then bark yourself", David Ogilvy
2011-11-03 10:07:49
"An experienced person is just someone that's made a lot of mistaks."
Hoss Gifford
2011-11-03 10:12:52
“To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse.”
– Paul Rand
Nick
2011-11-03 10:18:40
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" - Hunter S. Thompson
2011-11-03 10:21:48
“Creativity is essentially a lonely art. An even lonelier struggle. To some a blessing. To others a curse. It is in reality the ability to reach inside yourself and drag forth from your very soul an idea."
– Lou Dorfsman.
"Be excellent to each other"
– Bill S. Preston, Esquire,
Nothing like a good giveaway to get the commenters clicking!
2011-11-03 10:30:23
Thanks to everyone who enterered the competition. After much deliberation, here's our list of five winning quotes.
"You are obliged to go off at a tangent if you want to stop going round in circles," Alan Fletcher, posted by Lee.
"What I'm trying to produce is the visual equivalent of the chord change that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up," Rian Hughes, posted by
George.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler," Albert Einstein, posted by Marcus.
"When people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong," Neil Gaiman, posted by
Mark.
"Design isn't about what something looks like, it's about what people think when they see it," Craig Frazier, posted by
Marc.
Lee, George, Marcus, Mark and Marc, please get in touch via my email below with details of the address that you would like the book sent out to.
Mark Sinclair
2011-11-03 11:46:38
"My intention was to fail in business, but to fail as brilliantly as possible. And only if i failed in a truly fabulous fashion would i ever have the chance of succeeding"
Malcolm McLaren
2011-11-03 12:02:49
So Mark has decided that Marcus, Mark and Marc are the winners? FIX!! :P
2011-11-03 12:18:04
@Rob
Runner-up: Marquita with a great line from Marx : ) Mark Sinclair
2011-11-03 12:43:42
glad my sense of timing remains impeccable.
2011-11-03 12:50:18
@Graham Wood
However, it does seem to fit well with the McLaren quote ; ) Mark Sinclair
2011-11-03 16:13:10
Had to add this one:
"You don’t want to do too many projects of a similar type. I’ve done two commercials in my life; I don’t want to do three. I did two of a number of things. The first one, you fuck it up in an interesting way; the second one, you get it right; and then you’re out of there.” He continued: “I think as long as I don’t know how to do something, I can do it well; and as soon as I have learned how to do something, I will do it less well, because it will be more obvious. I think that goes for most people. I think most people spend too much time doing one thing.”
Tibor Kalman
2011-11-04 02:29:26
Get the RSS Feed
Most recently commented
| Pretty Ugly or plain ugly? (30) |
| Olympics ticket designs revealed (26) |
| The story of Pentagram (21) |
| Brand New Debris Quilt (2) |
| CR June 2012 issue (8) |
Most read
| Olympics ticket designs revealed |
| Freehand: the software that wouldn't die |
| Lance Wyman in Norwich |
| The story of Pentagram |
| FF Chartwell: a graph-making font |
Subjects
| Advertising | (1082) | |
| Art | (420) | |
| Books | (268) | |
| Digital | (437) | |
| Graphic Design | (1225) | |
| Illustration | (676) | |
| Magazine / Newspaper | (215) | |
| Music Video / Film | (742) | |
| Photography | (368) | |
| Type / Typography | (268) |
