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
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.
