Do Positive Quotes Work? 20 quotes from creative people.

Do inspirational quotes work? Some athletic studies have shown that they do the exact opposite. Research says that after reading a motivational quote, the brain fires off the same endorphins that reward us and make us feel good. So, you’re getting all the reward without actually having to do the work. It’s like being addicted to the self-help section at Indigo if you think about it.

I stopped sharing inspirational quotes a long time ago, and it has nothing to do with it being the most addictive drug to hit middle America since sugar. It’s because I wasn’t applying them to my life and I was beginning to feel like a digital hypocrite. Like any drug user, I became addicted to the feeling instead of using that quick dose to be inspired in my work. That’s the difference between a great drug user and a lazy one. The lazy drug user uses because it makes them feel good, while a great drug user understands how the drug functions and capitalizes on the benefits.

However, the problem with being an addict is that you can’t stop even if you want to and I’m not exempt from that rule. I haven’t completely kicked the habit, but instead, I’ve changed the prescription. Here are 20 quotes from inspirational designers.


1. Chip Kidd


Never fall in love with an idea. Ideas are whores. If the one you’re with isn’t doing the job, there’s always, always, always another.

2. Jon Gledstone


The simpler the idea the better. It could break ground and it could defy physics but as long as the idea is super simple enough that I can tell my Mum, then what’s a great idea.

3. Neville Brody


Digital design is like painting, except the paint never dries.

4. Brian Reed


Everything is designed. Few things are designed well.

5. Thomas J. Watson Jr


Good design is good business.

6.Leonardo Da Vinci


Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

7. Joe Sparano


Good design is obvious, great design is transparent.

8. Steve Jobs


Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

9. Brenda Laurel


Design isn’t finished until somebody is using it.

10. Petrula Vrontikis


Practice safe design: Use a concept.

11. Paul Rand


Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations.

12. David Carson


Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does.

12. Massimo Vignelli


If you do it right, it will last forever.

13. Elon Musk


Any product that needs a manual to work is broken.

14. Leo Burnett


Curiosity about life in all its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.

15. Stefan Sagmeister


You can have an art experience in front of a Rembrandt or in front of a piece of graphic design.

16. Matteo Bologna


God is in the kerning.

17. Elizabeth Carey Smith


Type is branding.

18. John Boardley


Helvetica is the sweatpants of typefaces.

19. Paul Rand


Typography is an art. Good typography is Art.

20. Rudy Vanderlans


Design is a good idea.

I still may be in denial, but I want to believe that people have an appetite for well-expressed wisdom. Wise words tend to remind us of what we think we know or have forgotten, and whole generations can be summed up by just a few words. There is something to be said about that.


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