A collection of words by Russell Taylor, and by those who inspired him, with which he used to inspire us.
Unknown
How many designers does it take to change a lightbulb?
Russell Taylor
Don't design in your heads!
Bruce Lee
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
Yves Behar
For me technology is not a way to digitize the world or put humans in a world of zeros and ones, I don't see technology as an end in itself at all. It's just a means to removing frictions and get you useful information. Technology for technology's sake means absolutely nothing to me. Technology on the other hand that reveals and supports real life activities is a good thing. I used to say this a lot and have it for years, but technology with humanity is what I'm thinking about. Technology is less important than innovation.
David Kelley
Fail faster to succeed sooner.
Russell Taylor
The more reference points for your work you have, the more your experience and exposure, the better you will become as a designer. That’s good to know!
Russell Taylor
Despite the argument that we are ALL designers to some degree, when it comes to DESIGNING FOR OTHER PEOPLE? That is simply not true. It takes training, and a lot of practice.
Russell Taylor
We don’t have time to get all emotional about our failures, all we see is the challenge before us to get it right, and not make that mistake again. And eventually, if you do that enough: it WILL start to become easy, or easier.
Albert Einstein
If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask… for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.
Clement Mok
The quality of your process, will determine the quality of your results.
Russell Taylor
Designing is first off about THINKING. Before you design anything, think first.
Russell Taylor
As you design: remember this bigger picture. And you continue as a designer, be in the practice of continuing to ask: what is design? What is good design? And, why do we design? As well as the seemingly easier question of whom are we designing for.
John Ruskin
Do not think of your faults, still less the faults of others; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.
Russell Taylor
There are two things deadly to a student design project team process: laptops up and thinking in words.
Russell Taylor
The most important thing about effective process is to keep it moving. Good process should feel like you are active, in motion.
Inga Sempe
When you begin to question your surroundings and find out how to solve the problems that you see, you start to become a designer.
Russell Taylor
Make sure that your motive is the love of each other, much more than the THINGS we create.
Ellen Lupton
Isn’t all design centered around users? No. In fact, the forces that drive product development range from short-term economic interests of manufacturers to the expressive or theoretical intent of designers, to a community’s entrenched habits and customs. Sometimes things look the way they do because that’s the cheapest and fastest way to make them, sometimes because that’s the way things have always been done.
Buckminster Fuller
When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
Russell Taylor
I have faith in you. I have faith that any rough edges can be worn off.
Russell Taylor
You probably have heard the saying, 'it's important to care, but be careful of caring too much'. When we over-invest, our egos can get in the way, and, as our work is so collective, we simply cannot let things go there.
Bill Moggridge
When designers create products, spaces or media they ask along the way how human beings will interact with their work. Engineers start from technology and look for a use for it; business people start with a business proposition and then look for the technology and people. Designers start with people, coming towards a solution from the point of view of people.
Russell Taylor
IN THE ROOM: we are here to learn, to inspire each other, to inspire ourselves, to be changed by the learning, and what we are learning. The walls of the classroom are for me sacred. When we enter that space, it is a context, worthy of our deep respect, and a container for our hopes, dreams, goals and ambitions collectively.
Russell Taylor
I take my work seriously and I expect you to also. The work is serious. The play is also serious. But we play AFTER we work. The work is never funny, or light.
John Maeda
Design makes what is hard, easier, and what is easy, memorable.
Satchel Paige
If they boo ya, you gotta make em pay.
Russell Taylor
Give it all away.
T.S. Eliot
But all shall be well and / All manner of thing shall be well / By the purification of the motive / In the ground of our beseeching.
Alexey Brodovitch
Étonnez-moi.
Russell Taylor
Give a shit.