Ellen Lupton Quotations

It certainly is an attitude about disposability. If you're gonna have a party, you don't want to do dishes. I'd rather do the dishes than throw so much stuff away.

The exhibition is not just about art, but about life. The ideas in the exhibition relate to so many aspects of everyday life, as well as animating works of art across a huge range of media. Swarms are not controlled by a central plan or leader; they operate according to small local interactions, where individual agents don't have a picture of the global system, and yet they are building. This is like so much in our lives, from political movements and opinion-making to traffic jams and how crowds move.

The original Two-Bottle Tote is an interesting product, so functionally specific and worthy of a trademark.

A lot of designs are grounded in history even though they tend to be clean and not overly ornate. The sculptural form is often historic. If you come to our exhibit, a lot of things will look familiar.

Although its name mockingly evokes delusions of totalitarian grandeur, Planet Propaganda approaches a diverse range of media with commonsense thinking and carefree creative energy.

You have to be prepared to give creative work 150%. I hear a lot of young people talking about life/work balance, which I think is great when you’re in your 30s. If you’re in your 20s and already talking about that, I don’t think you will achieve your goals. If you really want to build a powerful career, and make an impact, then you have to be prepared to put in blood, sweat, and tears.

Readers usually ignore the typographic interface, gliding comfortably along literacy's habitual groove. Sometimes, however, the interface should be allowed to fail. By making itself evident, typography can illuminate the construction and identity of a page, screen, place or product.

Universal design systems can no longer be dismissed as the irrelevant musings of a small, localized design community. A second modernism has emerged, reinvigorating the utopian search for universal forms that marked the birth of design as a discourse and a discipline nearly a century earlier.

Are some free fonts a gift to humanity rather than a blight on typographic civilization ?

Graphic design is the spit and polish but not the shoe.

Urban public space is a stage for viewing the field of graphic design in its diversity. A mix of voices, from advertising to activism, compete for visibility.

Letters do love one another. However, due to their anatomical differences, some letters have a hard time achieving intimacy.

Working within the constraints of a problem is part of the fun and challenge of design.

Designers provide ways into—and out of—the flood of words by breaking up text into pieces and offering shortcuts and alternate routes through masses of information. (...) Although many books define the purpose of typography as enhancing the readability of the written word, one of design’s most humane functions is, in actuality, to help readers avoid reading.

Design is as much an act of spacing as an act of marking.

Design is an art of situations. Designers respond to a need, a problem, a circumstance, that arises in the world. The best work is produced in relation to interesting situations - an open-minded client, a good cause, or great content.

It is easier to talk than to listen. Pay attention to your clients, your users, your readers, and your friends. Your design will get better as you listen to other people.

Typography is what language looks like.

Design is art that people use,

Think more design less

To say a grid is limiting is to say that language is limiting, or typography is limiting. It is up to us to use these media critically or passively.