Graphic Design Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old graphic design quotes, graphic design sayings, and graphic design proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design. Ralf Speth
Effective problem solving in design requires a balance of strategy and spontaneity, intelligence and creativity. Maggie Macnab
Because the eye has seen, thoughts are structured upon images and not upon ideas. David Consuegra
A distinctive appearance and a simple set of characteristics lead to an extremely flexible brand. Woodrow Phoenix
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
Graphic Design for its own sake will never happen, because the concept cancels itself out, a poster about nothing other than itself is not Graphic Design, it's, makin' art. Chip Kidd
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. Steve Jobs
Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent. Joe Sparano
Graphic design is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, abnormality, hobbies and humors. George Santayana
Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future. Robert L. Peters
Commercial Art tries to make you buy things. Graphic Design gives you ideas. Chip Kidd
When I studied graphic design, I learned a valuable lesson: There's no perfect answer to the puzzle, and creativity is a renewable resource. Biz Stone
Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it's decoration. Jeffrey Zeldman
I've never had a problem with a dumb client. There is no such thing as a bad client. Part of our job is to do good work and get the client to accept it. Bob Gill
Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does. David Carson
You don't think your way to creative work. You work your way to creative thinking. George Nelson
Design is not for philosophy it's for life. Issey Miyake
Directive design gives an either or choice, similar to a traffic sign. Interpretive design allows for personal choice, in the same way symbolism allows for individual meaning. Maggie Macnab
Good design is all about making other designers feel like idiots because that idea wasn't theirs. Frank Chimero
Art is nothing more than creating an emotion in your own form. Shannon L. Alder
You have power as a designer to change the relationship someone has with an object. Your challenge is to keep people looking. Build in those little details. To some people, they might mean a lot. David Pearson
Practice safe design. Use a concept. Petrula Vrontikis
There are three responses to a piece of design yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for. Milton Glaser
Graphic designers judge a cover by its book. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
I strive for two things in design: simplicity and clarity. Great design is born of those two things. Lindon Leader
Bad design is smoke, while good design is a mirror. Jaun-Carlos Fernandez
Everything is designed. Few things are designed well. Brian Reed
Design is, literally, purposeful planning. Graphic Design, then, is the form those plans will take. Chip Kidd
You can have an art experience in front of a Rembrandt or in front of a piece of graphic design. Stefan Sagmeister
Digital design is like painting, except the paint never dries. Neville Brody
Styles come and go. Good design is a language, not a style. Massimo Vignelli
Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so comlicated. Paul Rand
Good design’s not about what medium you’re working in. It’s about thinking hard about what you want to do and what you have to work with before you start. Susan Kare
The public is more familiar with bad design than good design. It is, in effect, conditioned to prefer bad design, because that is what it lives with. The new becomes threatening, the old reassuring. Paul Rand
To be a good artist / letterer / designer / guitar player, it takes practice. A lot of it. More than you can even fathom when you’re starting out. Jessica Hische
The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design. Massimo Vignelli
You can do a good ad without good typography, but you can’t do a great ad without good typography. Herb Lubalin
The function of design is letting design function. Micha Commeren
Where you innovate, how you innovate, and what you innovate are design problems. Tim Brown
Design adds value faster than it adds costs. Joel Spolsky
Good design is like a refrigerator—when it works, no one notices, but when it doesn’t, it sure stinks. Irene Au
Whitespace is like air: it is necessary for design to breathe. Wojciech Zieliński
It is possible to speculate that a 'role requirement' of the President in the future might become 'visual communication.' Al Gore
Design is thinking made visual. Saul Bass
Painting is the exploration of visual space. Kevin Woolsey
Attractive form enhances function and function portrays beauty through its effect. Andy Kirk
Bloody great visual design is non negotiable. Harish Sivaramakrishnan
Both graphic and visual designers are invited to create a visual graphic and define its aesthetic. In both cases, the goal is to find a creative solution to communicate what it is supposed to be communicated. I would say that perhaps one of the main differences is the medium being focused on. More specifically, graphic design is about a great range of deliverables, both print and web designs, while visual design is strictly about digital applications. Tina Touli
Like all forms of design, visual design is about problem-solving, not about personal preference or unsupported opinion. Bob Baxley
Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose. Charles Eames
Problems with visual design can turn users off so quickly that they never discover all the smart choices you made with navigation or interaction design. Jesse James Garrett
Graphic design is not decoration. It is visual communication. Kerry Clark
Good design is about executing a desired outcome through visual communication. Bhavesh
Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language. Walt Disney
Visual storytelling of one kind or another has been around since caveman were drawing on the walls. Frank Darabont
Graphic design, visual communication is a massive part of good user experience! Our expectations as cognitive human beings is based on what we see. That’s how the brain works. Joe Natoli
Graphical excellence is that which gives to the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least ink in the smallest space. Edward Tufte
Graphic design is the process of visual communication and problem-solving using one or more of typography, photography, and illustration. The field is considered a subset of visual communication and communication design, but sometimes the term “graphic design” is used synonymously. Trista Liu
Graphic Design is the communication framework through which these messages about what the world is now, and what we should aspire to. It's the way they reach us. The designer has an enormous responsibility. Those are the people, you know, putting their wires into our heads. Rick Poynor
The details are not the details. They make the design. Charles Eames
Look at all those great names in graphic design history; Tschichold, Schleger, Rand, Fletcher, Aicher, Muller-Brockmann; and look at their beautiful type. They understood the need to understand it. Richard Weston
Graphic design is the art and science of combining text and graphics to communicate an effective message in the design of websites, logos, graphics, brochures, newsletters, posters, signs, and other types of visual communication. Designers achieve their goals by combining the elements and principles of graphic design. Jacci Howard Bear