Design Autonomy Quotes

Not many architects have the luxury to reject significant things.

I would design for anybody who gives me a free hand and who doesn't sit on my head.

My name is on the door, and I care very much about the design that gets put out. I'm sorry, but it has to be my way. You learn that by working for people like I. M. Pei. You think he isn't a design tyrant? Is Calvin Klein a tyrant? When it came to his dresses, he had to be.

As a designer, I'm not interested in trend.

I was tired of doing collections, tired of doing runway shows... there was just so much wasted time and energy doing all the runway product and all the filler product. We also decided not to do wholesale, which gives me a lot of freedom; I can basically do what I want and I don't need to fit into any department in a store.

I think that as a playwright, if I detail that environment, then I'm taking away something from them [designers]. I'm taking away their creativity and their ability to have input themselves, not just to follow what the playwright has written. So I do a minimum set description and let the designers create within that.

As designers we are influenced both consciously and subconsciously by everything we see around ourselves. Still, we always must try to avoid anything that has been defined as the latest and greatest "trend" in design.

It's very important that when you have a designer like Marc Jacobs, who is a genius, you give him complete freedom.

To me, design is very personal. I'm not one of those people who is like, 'This is right, this is wrong.' You should do things that you love, not things that magazines tell you to do.

One of the neat things about Gearbox that I love is, we don't look at our designs as a totalitarian regime and we're all really happy to let designers and creators within the studio explore in our space.

Working in the context of ultra-famous brands like Dior and Vuitton, creative spirits are always going to feel reined in. It's important that they are free to develop ideas. And rather than detracting from the principal job, it reinforces it. I think of that money as venture capital. It's not a big investment.

I don't want to find myself designing for the press.

As a designer you have to just do whatever you want to do. The second I came to terms with that, it transformed my work.

I don't want to use my creative energy on somebody else's user interface.

We don't do focus groups - that is the job of the designer.