Clement Mok Quotes

Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it's this veneer - that the designers are handed this box and told, 'Make it look good!' That's not what we think design is. It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

I design for real people. I think of our customers all the time. There is no virtue whatsoever in creating clothing or accessories that are not practical.

Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works.

As if a device can function if it has no style. As if a device can be called stylish that does not function superbly... yes, beauty matters. Boy, does it matter. It is not surface, it is not an extra, it is the thing itself.

The design of everyday things is in great danger of becoming the design of superfluous, overloaded, unnecessary things.

The difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web.

Every single item that we come into contact with on a daily basis has been designed by an artist. From the toothbrush we use in the morning, to the defibrillator that could save our lives, an artist is behind the design.

Users do not care about what is inside the box, as long as the box does what they need done.

We always correct people who say, 'You're trying to make this look better.' Well yes, we want it to look better, but that's easy. The look and the function are one and the same. They are not separate. It looks good because it functions beautifully. That message is very hard.

More than trends, consumers need functionality. Everything needs an element of fashion, but that's more like a spice.

I am always looking for ways to move technology away from being over-featured. Moving to Silicon Valley in the mid-1990s meant I grew up as a designer in an environment where technology is a tool and not a means to an end. I believe that design should be driven by ideas, not style.

I'd rather have a house that's nice but usable.

People appreciate a good product, a stable system. They want to communicate easily and use a product that just works.

I think a beautiful product that doesn't work very well is ugly.

The products people like best start with function and wind up with look.

Design has to work. Art does not.

I believe consistency and orthogonality are tools of design, not the primary goal in design.

Analog is more beautiful than digital, really, but we go for comfort.

Furniture is meant to be used and enjoyed.

When you come to a hotel room, you want it to be grand, functional and beautiful. But you don't want things that are not useful. Sometimes you go to hotels and there are all these frames and pictures of people you don't know, and you end up hiding everything in the drawer, and then housekeeping come and put it out again.

Good design to me is both appearance and functionality together. It's the experience that makes it good design.

Puma was all about function and not at all about design. The founder of the company always believed functionality and performance were the only ingredients that could make Puma successful and design never mattered.

Instead of using the machine as a metaphor for architecture, as Le Corbusier did, I use the human body. I want the public to know that it's them I'm designing for.

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

'Form follows function' comes with so much baggage. It's a worthless phrase because you'll never take it for what it means.