DESIGN POWER

A collection of stimulating (I hope) design quotes …

We don’t have a good language to talk about this kind of thing. In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. … DESIGN IS THE FUNDAMENTAL SOUL OF A MAN-MADE CREATION.” Steve Jobs

Expose yourself to the best things humans have done and then try to bring those things into what you are doing.” Steve Jobs

Huge degree of care.” Ian Parker, New Yorker, on Apple design

In some way, by caring, we are actually serving humanity. People might think it’s a stupid belief, but it’s a goal—it’s a contribution that we hope we can make, in some small way, to culture.” Jony Ives, design chief, Apple

STEVE AND JONY WOULD DISCUSS CORNERS FOR HOURS AND HOURS.” Laurene Powell Jobs

But that day, in that experience, the thing that really gave me comfort was a tiny mirror [on the machine enabling patient eye contact with the tech and nurse] about as big as a Band-Aid.” Janet Dugan, healthcare architect undergoing an MRI exam, in Tim Leberecht’s, The Business Romantic: Give Everything, Quantify Nothing,and Create Something Greater Than Yourself

Every business school in the world would flunk you if you came out with a business plan that said, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re going to design and fabricate our own screws at an exponentially higher cost than it would cost to buy them.’ BUT THESE AREN’T JUST SCREWS. LIKE THE THERMOMETER ITSELF, THEY’RE BETTER SCREWS, EPIC SCREWS, SCREWS WITH, DARE I SAY IT, DEEPER MEANING.” Tony Fadell, founder, Nest

He said for him the craft of building a boat was like a religion. It wasn’t enough to master the technical details of it. You had to give yourself up to it spiritually; you had to surrender yourself absolutely to it. When you were done and walked away, you had to feel that you had left a piece of yourself behind in it forever, a bit of your heart.” On the world’s premier racing shell builder, George Yeoman Pocock, in Daniel Brown’s, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

The peculiar grace of a Shaker chair is due to the fact that it was made by someone capable of believing that an angel might come and sit on it.” Thomas Merton

It is fair to say that almost no new vehicle in recent memory has provoked more smiles.” Review of the MINI Cooper S, reported in Donald Norman’s, Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things

“For every engineer and marketer on the “Experience Design & Development Team,” you need an artist, psychologist, musician, theaterdirector—and perhaps a shaman.” Tom Peters

“I believe that emotion eats reason for breakfast. I am not a daydreamer, idealist, or social activist. I am a business romantic.” Tim Lebrecht, The Business Romantic: Give Everything, Quantify Nothing, and Create Something Greater Than Yourself

Read:

Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
, by Donald Norman
Enchantment: The Art of Changing Heart, Minds, and Actions, by Guy Kawasaki
Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands, by Kevin Roberts
The Business Romantic: Give Everything, Quantify Nothing, and Create Something Greater Than Yourself, by Tim Leberecht

Tom Peters posted this on January 13, 2020, in Design.
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