Steven Amsterdam Quotes

I wish you didn't have to design so often. Try to do quality and cut down on quantity. I think fashion is very, very important.

For years I thought I was just a writer, but when I sat down to design and started playing around with it, I realized that, really, it's pretty easy. Obviously it's more than just a set of rules, but the basics of design are actually pretty simple and quite mathematical. The link between data and design works at quite a fundamental level.

My mother is an artist, and I have a strong visual sense. I almost always choose the cover art for my books. I've learned that the more I collaborate, like by having someone do a soundtrack to one of my books, the more I see my own work differently.

I look at graphic design as communication, meaning that the work has to have a vibe to connect to the viewer or perceiver. I make a black and white drawing and then add color digitally, bringing in a contemporary pattern to the composition to create a vibrance.

In architecture the idea degenerated. Design allows a more direct and pleasurable route.

As a visual person, I love a creative resume. Putting in a little effort on the design side will show that you care about making things look good.

I don't build because I am an architect. I can make true architecture because I do not build.

Readers are always surprised to learn that authors have little or no input regarding the cover art for their books.

With the Larry Bertlemann portrait, I started with a photograph that I could use for it. I built the drawing's identity to serve as a graphic identity. After a number of sketches, I went into my own abstract vernacular of drawn lines and shapes to create the composition for the poster design.

This is what I like about being a designer: You can't really get it until you see it.

Alejandro Colucci has designed covers for my books that stand out, that catch the eye, and that make me, as a reader and consumer, want to know more about the books behind those covers.

Writers usually don't get to pick our own covers. I know it's surprising to hear that.

Design is an unknown.

If you want to communicate something, you'd better make sure that your design piece is well-dressed and that its teeth are fixed. At the same time, I still believe that if it is only stylistically great and it has nothing to say, it still is not going to make a lasting impression on anybody.

Readers always seem to think that the author has some control over the design of their books.

I paint mostly from real life. It has to start with that. Real people, real street scenes, behind the curtain scenes, live models, paintings, photographs, staged setups, architecture, grids, graphic design. Whatever it takes to make it work.

You can't underestimate the importance of cover art.

Ultimately, the artistic part of architecture has always interested me.

Our style, in one word, the Image guys, our approach to the page was bold.

I have always felt that effect covers are very good covers. They bring you into the story if you pay attention to them.

I have a strong say in how my books are marketed, and the covers - I am very firm that I don't want pink and fluffy, or stick figures sitting drinking cocktails. That's simply not appealing to me.

Record designers marvel on that stuff. They go back and look at old covers, then make new ones.

I like the idea that people get engaged thinking about design, about creativity. I don't see how it could possibly be bad.

There is no excuse for doing anything which is not strikingly beautiful.

Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does.