I never thought I'd be able to design all the things I've been able to design. I thought that I'd be far more limited to a specific kind of work, and I've been able to establish an incredibly broad practice in all different ways, and it's because the expectations have gotten elevated.

Paula Scher

Words have meaning, type has spirit.

Paula Scher

type spirit

It's through mistakes that you actually can grow. You have to get bad in order to get good.

Paula Scher

technology mistake order

The job of the designer is to make things understandable, usable, accessible, enjoyable... important to a public, that involves the public.

Paula Scher

designer important jobs

It took me a few seconds to draw it, but it took me 34 years to learn how to draw it in a few seconds.

Paula Scher

draws design years

The best way to accomplish serious design ... is to be totally and completely unqualified for the job.

Paula Scher

motivational inspirational jobs

My work is play. And I play when I design. I even looked it up in the dictionary, to make sure that I actually do that, and the definition of “play,” number one, was “engaging in a childlike activity or endeavor,” and number two was “gambling.” And I realize I do both when I’m designing.

Paula Scher

gambling play two

Design is the art of planning, and it is the art of making things possible.

Paula Scher

planning design art

Find out what the next thing is that you can push, that you can invent, that you can be ignorant about, that you can be arrogant about, that you can fail with, and that you can be a fool with. Because in the end, that's how you grow.

Paula Scher

ignorant motivation inspiration

The goal of design is to raise the expectation of what design can be

Paula Scher

design goal expectations

Be culturally literate, because if you don't have any understanding of the world you live in and the culture you live in, you're not going to express anything to anybody else.

Paula Scher

design understanding culture

The work needs to get out of your head and on to the table, and it needs to be done from the heart.

Paula Scher

design heart needs

If I get up every day with the optimism that I have the capacity for growth, then that’s success for me.

Paula Scher

get-up optimism growth

Creativity isn't about the advantage or disadvantage of a specific time or culture. Creativity is something that comes internally from a human being having a genuine mistrust of rules. And that may be the constant. It's almost like there's some rebellion in it.

Paula Scher

creativity may culture

Having no purpose is the function of art, so somebody else can look at it and ask a question. Design is different - you're supposed to understand what's going on. You can be delighted by it, intrigued by it, but you're supposed to know it's a hot dog stand.

Paula Scher

design dog art

Design exists to serve some purpose.

Paula Scher

design purpose

Identities are the beginning of everything. They are how something is recognized and understood. What could be better than that?

Paula Scher

understood identity

Your name is Windows. Why are you a flag?

Paula Scher

flags names window

I don't think of design as a job. I think of it as - and I hate to use this term for it - more of a calling. If you're just doing it because it's a nice job and you want to go home and do something else, then don't do it, because nobody needs what you're going to make.

Paula Scher

nice hate jobs

Great design is serious, not solemn

Paula Scher

great-design design serious

Art has no purpose. It exists for its own sake.

Paula Scher

purpose sake art