Author: Jon


  • “When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” R. Buckminster fuller I love this quote because it gives me a constructive way to work with beauty as a strategic imperative. Beauty is, after all, subjective,…

  • “Simplicity is not the goal. It is the byproduct of a good idea and modest expectations.” Paul rand There are lots of influential design quotes about simplicity, and lord knows we all get beat over the head with the idea that good design is inherently simple enough to make us all sick. That’s why I…

  • “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.” Chuck close We’ve probably all seen this idea expressed by a lot of creative professionals because, let’s face it, people often think of what we do as something less than real work and need to be reminded. I’ve always liked…

  • “Don’t try to be original. Just try to be good.” Paul Rand I’ve always loved this quote. When I was primarily a graphic designer, it was a reminder that originality is not job number 1. In graphic design, communication is usually job number one, and everything else is in service to that. When I transitioned…

  • A brief explanation of why I decided to share the quotes that inspire my design practice.

  • Are you subtly subverting your own brand by choosing a common Front End Framework? It is often overlooked by proponents of these systems that they are equal parts User Interface Convention and Brand Expression. Although they have benefits, they have costs as well.

  • The problem is not that we can’t predict bad behavior online, it’s that we can’t agree on what’s bad.

  • This morning, I was chatting with a colleague about a contentious interaction with a stakeholder in which they asserted decision rights over our work. I think I surprised her with my response: “It’s just like working with clients. When it’s your money, and you have to live with the outcomes, you get to make the…

  • There is an almost certainly apocryphal proverb that goes something like, “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,” and I think of it often when trying to take on large/complex projects, because I see this thinking get a lot of teams in trouble. One of the…

  • Update: Upon re-reading this post, I decided that I was being a dick. So, I’m editing it, to be clearer, and less of a dick. Last night, I had a simultaneously exhilarating and frustrating conversation with a group of designers that I know through AIGA. It was the night before the national conference started in…