Design Sayings and Quotes

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

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. Steve Jobs
Good design is making something intelligible and memorable. Great design is making something memorable and meaningful. Dieter Rams
To design is to communicate clearly by whatever means you can control or master. Milton Glaser
Design is a response to social change. George Nelson
Design must reflect the practical and aesthetic in business but above all... good design must primarily serve people. Thomas J. Watson
I don't design clothes, I design dreams. Ralph Lauren
Design is directed toward human beings. To design is to solve human problems by identifying them, examining alternate solutions to them, choosing and executing the best solution. Ivan Chermayeff
Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated. Paul Rand
If you can design one thing, you can design everything. Massimo Vignelli
Design is body language for inanimate objects. Jarod Kintz
Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent. Joe Sparano
Design is the application of intent - the opposite of happenstance, and an antidote to accident. Robert L. Peters
Design is as much an act of spacing as an act of marking. Ellen Lupton
The design process, at its best, integrates the aspirations of art, science, and culture. Jeff Smith
Design is an opportunity to continue telling the story, not just to sum everything up. Tate Linden
Design is not the narrow application of formal skills, it is a way of thinking. Chris Pullman
Behavioral design is all about feeling in control. Includes: usability, understanding, but also the feel. Don Norman
Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future. Robert L. Peters
A design isn't finished until somebody is using it. Brenda Laurel
Truly elegant design incorporates top-notch functionality into a simple, uncluttered form. David Lewis
The only important thing about design is how it relates to people. Victor Papanek
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 a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose. Charles Eames
Only when the design fails does it draw attention to itself; when it succeeds, it's invisible. John D. Berry
Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition. Freeman Thomas
Design is the contrast of the core of limitations therefore there are no boundaries. It is simply an interpretation of creativity. Jenaiha Woods
Design is intelligence made visible. Alina Wheeler
Design is the intermediary between information and understanding. Richard Gref
Design is where science and art break even. Robin Mathew
Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition. Freeman Thomas
Design is more important than technology in most consumer applications. Dave McClure
The beauty of design ought to be totally incidental to the enterprise itself. Stephen Metcalf
Design is all about learning from doing, that's how we evolve to the best solution. Tim Brown
Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it's decoration. Jeffrey Zeldman
Design is the search for a magical balance between business and art; art and craft; intuition and reason; concept and detail; playfulness and formality; client and designer; designer and printer; and printer and public. Valerie Pettis
Design everything on the assumption that people are not heartless or stupid but marvelously capable, given the chance. John Chris Jones
Design implies a sense of mapping something out and then you follow the plan. Andy Goldsworthy
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
Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present. Jim Rohn
Good design is a lot like clear thinking made visual. Edward Tufte
The word design is everything and nothing. The design and the product itself are inseparable. Jonathan Ive
Design is the beauty of turning constraints into advantages. Aza Raskin
Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design. Charles Eames
In design as in life, smart can also mean wise, kind, inspiring - and cost-effective. And that has a charm all its own. Nancy Gibbs
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
Styles come and go. Good design is a language, not a style. Massimo Vignelli
The design of each element should be thought out in order to be easy to make and easy to repair. Leo Fender
Design isn't crafting a beautiful textured button with breathtaking animation. It's figuring out if there's a way to get rid of the button altogether. Edward Tufte
Design is a dreadful form of expression. Philippe Starck
Design isn't just about making things beautiful; it's also about making things work beautifully. Roger Martin
Designs are increasingly winning competitions because they are literally green, and because somewhere they feature a small windmill. Rem Koolhaas
Design is so simple. That's why it's so complicated. Paul Rand
Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it. Dieter Rams
You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality. Walt Disney
Good design is long-lasting! It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Dieter Rams
Great design is a multi-layered relationship between human life and its environment. Naoto Fukasawa
Design is about making things good (and then better) and right (and fantastic) for the people who use and encounter them. Matt Beale
Making good design is easy. It's polishing the half-assed stuff that takes time. Stefan G. Bucher
Design is the art of planning, and it is the art of making things possible. Paula Scher
I think design covers so much more than the aesthetic. Design is fundamentally more. Design is usability. It is Information Architecture. It is Accessibility. This is all design. Mark Boulton
In design, Mother Nature is our best teacher. Van Day Truex
Design is the conscious effort to impose a meaningful order. Victor Papanek
The design should make the product speak to you. Dieter Rams
In design, be logical, search for truth, be clear. Massimo Vignelli
Design is a word that's come to mean so much that it's also a word that has come to mean nothing. Jonathan Ive
Designs of purely arbitrary nature cannot be expected to last long. Kenzo Tange
Design is defined by light and shade, and appropriate lighting is enormously important. Albert Hadley
The best design tool is a long eraser with a pencil at one end. Marty Neumeier
Great design is not democratic; it comes from great designers. If the standard is lousy, then develop another standard. Edward Tufte
Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones. Herbert Simon