Srikumar Rao on Passion in Work
“Passion does not exist in the job, it exists in us.”
The Role of Great Web Design
“Here’s my thought on good design: don’t f*ck up the business. If the idea for the business is truly good, design’s job is to not screw that idea up. Great design is not mucking with a good thing. Excellent design is when you can raise up a good thing, make it true-er, more trustworthy, more resonant with the right person.”
John Hockenberry on Designing Our Life
“Show everyone what you intend.”
Jiro Dreams of Sushi on business balance
“Business should balance profit with preserving natural resources.”
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
The “natural resources” this had me thinking about were my time and happiness. I want to balance my work and life well.
Jerry Seinfeld on What Our Job is
Michael: “Because, sometimes I look back at the show and think I should have enjoyed myself more.”
Jerry: “Michael, I could say that myself; but that was not our job. Our job was not for us to enjoy it, our job was to make sure they enjoy it. And that’s what we did.”
Alan Watts’ Vocational Counsel
“If you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living — that is, to go on doing things you don’t like doing — which is stupid. Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way.”
A Method for Making
“He claimed that his method of writing was to hook his gonads in parallel with his thalamus and disconnect his cerebrum.”
Jubal Harshaw via
Jeff Goodby on Howard Gossage’s Ad Formula
“Ask the client what his biggest problem is, then write an ad asking readers to help solve it, providing a coupon for that purpose.”
Jeff Goodby
Massimo Vignelli on the Lousiest Profession in the World
“Never work for a bad client in your life. Because from a bad client, you will get a worse client thereafter. If you get a good client to begin, you will get a better client thereafter. It is better to starve than get a bad client, because from a bad client you just go down.
Don’t work for money, because it’s the lousiest profession in the world to make money… You do design because you feel it inside; you have a moral issue to spread quality in our environment.”
Howard Belk on Simplicity as a Core Human Need
“Simplicity matters worldwide. 70% of people around the world equate simplicity with peace of mind and say it actually reduces the stress in their lives. [This demonstrates] that simplicity is a core human need. If you’re a designer, and you know that, that can provide enormous focus as you commence any design assignment.”