John Maeda Quotes & Sayings

I've come to realize, however, that while technology may make it more convenient to communicate, it doesn't improve our ability to get a point across. — John Maeda

No place in the US better exemplifies the ethos to engineer new digital technologies than Silicon Valley — John Maeda

The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. — John Maeda

Simplicity and complexity need each other. — John Maeda

Knowledge is comfort, and comfort lies at the heart of simplicity. — John Maeda

I don't really love computers. — John Maeda

Information is expanding daily. How to get it out visually is important. — John Maeda

When you're younger, think less and do more; when you're older, do less and think more. — John Maeda

Communication in every which way is everything for the leader. — John Maeda

If there were a prerequisite for the future successful digital creative, it would be the passion for discovery. — John Maeda

Growing up, I found I was good at two things: Art and Math. To hear my parents say it, though, it was only, 'John is good at Math.' — John Maeda

If you have no fear, no one has power over you. — John Maeda

A designer is someone who constructs while he thinks, someone for whom planning and making go together. — John Maeda

Videogames are indeed design: They're sophisticated virtual machines that echo the mechanical systems inside cars. — John Maeda

I don't like creating software anymore. It's too exact. It's like karate; there's no room for error. — John Maeda

How do we slow down what matters the most and speed up what benefits change and progress? We don't want to impede progress, but we are seeking reconnection to ourselves, to each other, and with the world. — John Maeda

If you are going to have less things, they have to be great things. — John Maeda

Art is a conduit toward human needs and perception, — John Maeda

All artists yearn to struggle, when they struggle they know they're alive. — John Maeda

Technology makes possibilities. Design makes solutions. Art makes questions. Leadership makes actions. — John Maeda

Research universities need excellent means to communicate and express their results to regular people. — John Maeda

Amidst all the attention given to the sciences as to how they can lead to the cure of all diseases and daily problems of mankind, I believe that the biggest breakthrough will be the realization that the arts, which are considered "useless," will be recognized as the whole reason why we ever try to live longer or live more prosperously. The arts are the science of enjoying life. — John Maeda

Corporations today, by their razor sharp focus on the 'bottom line' and quarterly earnings, have lost their ability to innovate. — John Maeda

When people say, 'I don't get art' ... that means art is working. — John Maeda

Creativity's about ownership. — John Maeda

My role is to find strategic insights as to where design can have the most business impact. A designer can bring a viewpoint of not just aesthetics, but economics and usage. — John Maeda

The artist needs to understand the truth that lies at the bottom of an enigma. — John Maeda

What's next for technology and design? A lot less thinking about technology for technology's sake, and a lot more thinking about design. Art humanizes technology and makes it understandable. Design is needed to make sense of information overload. It is why art and design will rise in importance during this century as we try to make sense of all the possibilities that digital technology now affords. — John Maeda

A book is a human-powered film projector (complete with feature film) that advances at a speed fully customized to the viewer's mood or fancy. This rare harmony between object and user arises from the minimal skills required to manipulate a bound sequence of pages. Each piece of paper embodies a corresponding instant of time which remains frozen until liberated by the
act of turning a page. — John Maeda

Design is about crafting an experience that is unfamiliar enough to feel novel, yet familiar enough to instill confidence. — John Maeda

Technological advances have always been driven more by a mind-set of 'I can' than 'I should' Technologists love to cram maximum functionality into their products. That's 'I can' thinking, which is driven by peer competition and market forces But this approach ignores the far more important question of how the consumer will actually use the device focus on what we should be doing, not just what we can. — John Maeda

Artists change how we see the world - and that can have value in the way people do business. — John Maeda

The problem isn't how to make the world more technological. It's about how to make the world more humane again. — John Maeda

Too little confidence, and you're unable to act; too much confidence, and you're unable to hear. — John Maeda

We seem to forget that innovation doesn't just come from equations or new kinds of chemicals, it comes from a human place. Innovation in the sciences is always linked in some way, either directly or indirectly, to a human experience. — John Maeda

Organization makes a system of many appear fewer. — John Maeda

Art shows us that human beings still matter in a world where money talks the loudest, where computers know everything about us, and where robots fabricate our next meal and also our ride there. — John Maeda

The best scientists that I've met are those that are humanists and scientists at the same time. — John Maeda

Teaching is the rare profession where the customer isn't always right and needs to be told so appropriately. — John Maeda

I have a confession: I'm not a man of simplicity. I spent my entire early career making complex stuff. Lots of complex stuff. — John Maeda

Skill in the digital age is confused with mastery of digital tools, masking the importance of understanding materials and mastering the elements of form. — John Maeda

Squint at the world. You will see more, by seeing less. — John Maeda

Work is easier when its just work; it's much harder when you actually care. — John Maeda

In the '70s and '80s there was an attempt in K-12 to teach science through art or art through science. The challenge today is how do you build the ethos of art and design into the academy of science. — John Maeda

All I want to be is, someone that makes, new things and, thinks about them. — John Maeda

Our economy is built upon convergent thinkers, people that execute things, get them done. But artists and designers are divergent thinkers: they expand the horizon of possibilities. — John Maeda

Anyone with a computer and a design program can create a page layout. But unless you're trained in design, it won't look very good and it won't communicate very well. — John Maeda

Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful. — John Maeda

Knowledge makes everything simpler. — John Maeda

There is a construct in computer programming called 'the infinite loop' which enables a computer to do what no other physical machine can do - to operate in perpetuity without tiring. In the same way it doesn't know exhaustion, it doesn't know when it's wrong and it can keep doing the wrong thing over and over without tiring. — John Maeda

Apple products aren't simple technologies by any stretch, but there is a beautiful simplicity to them. — John Maeda

Design is a solution to a problem. Art is a question to a problem. — John Maeda

While great art makes you wonder, great design makes things clear. — John Maeda

The difference between closing or opening your eyes is the choice between the imagined vs real. Blinking is only human. — John Maeda

With regard to what is designed really well, I think people are the best-designed objects in the world. Seriously. — John Maeda

Think of the computer as a spiritual space for thinking. — John Maeda

As a genre, videogames take our minds on journeys, and we can control and experience them much more interactively than passively - especially when they are well-designed. — John Maeda

People who can focus, get things done. People who can prioritize, get the right things done. — John Maeda

Good problem-seekers are in higher demand than good problem-solvers. — John Maeda

I like stuff designed by dead people. The old designers. They always got it right because they didn't have to grow up with computers. All of the people that made the spoon and the dishes and the vacuum cleaner didn't have microprocessors and stuff. You could do a good design back then. — John Maeda

Things that I can do myself, I either do by myself, or teach a willing undergraduate who doesn't know how to do those things by doing it for me. Things that I can't do myself, my graduate students should be doing. — John Maeda