From our newsletter Outside the Lines

Smart folks thinking out loud about elements of design:

“Good design doesn’t date.”
-Harry Seidler, Australian architect

“A snowball is simple, direct and familiar to most of us. I use this simplicity as a container for feelings and ideas that function on many levels.”
-Andy Goldsworthy, British artist

“Graphic design is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, abnormality, hobbies and humors.”
-George Santayana, Spanish philosopher

“Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.”
-Paul Rand, American designer

“Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world; it is the last limit of experience and the last effort of genius.”
-George Sand, French writer

“Good design is making something intelligible and memorable. Great design is making something memorable and meaningful.”
-Dieter Rams, German designer

“Art has to move you and design does not, unless it’s a good design for a bus.”
-David Hockney, British artist

“Simplicity is an acquired taste. Mankind, left free, instinctively complicates life.”
-Katharine Fullerton Gerould, American writer

“Design is not for philosophy, it’s for life.”
-Issey Miyake, Japanese designer

“A camel is a horse designed by a committee.”
-Sir Alec Issigonis, Greek designer

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
-Leonardo da Vinci, Italian artist

“If your result needs a statistician then you should design a better experiment.”
-Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand scientist

“Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world; it is the last limit of experience and the last effort of genius.”
-George Sand, French writer