David Carson Quotes

Just because something's legible doesn't means it communicates. More importantly, it doesn't mean it communicates the right thing. So, what is the message sent before somebody actually gets into the material? And I think that's sometimes an overlooked area.

Dont confuse legibility with communication. Just because something is legible doesnt mean it communicates and, more importantly, doesnt mean it communicates the right thing.

How well we communicate is determined not by how well we say things but how well we are understood.

Never mistake legibility for communication.

For me, until I know that the audience really gets what I'm trying to communicate I'm not done.

What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.

You want to be understood by the sophisticated few but you also have to be more loud somehow, otherwise your message doesn't go through.

I don't start with a design objective, I start with a communication objective. I feel my project is successful if it communicates what it is supposed to communicate.

The combination of pictures and words together can be really effective, and I began to realise in my career that unless I wrote my own words, then my message was diluted.

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.

There's a direct relationship between how difficult it is to send a message and how strongly it is received.

When we launched a new company, I reviewed the ads and marketing materials and asked those presenting the campaign to read everything aloud to test the phrasing and concept. If I could grasp it quickly, then it passed with muster. We would get our message across only if it was understandable at first glance.

You want what you write to be essential.

I make sure I say something important without being preachy through all my performances.

Great communication depends on two simple skills-context, which attunes a leader to the same frequency as his or her audience, and delivery, which allows a leader to phrase messages in a language the audience can understand.

The key test for an acronym is to ask whether it helps or hurts communication.

The difficulty is not to write, but to write what you mean.

What is said determines who listens and who understands. Graphic design is a language, but graphic designers are so busy worrying about the nuances - accents, punctuation and so on - that they spend little time thinking about what the words add up to. I’m interested in using our communication skills to change the way things are.

A multitude of words is probably the most formidable means of blurring and obscuring thought. There is no thought, however momentous, that cannot be expressed lucidly in 200 words.

You can beat the drum so hard that people stop listening. I wanted to use my voice wisely and not expend it wastefully.

Communication must become total and conscious before we can stop it.

If you don't pick your audience, you're lost because you're not really talking to anybody.

Just because somebody hears something you say, or reads something that you write, doesn't mean you've reached them.

Poor or fuzzy communications are major time-wasters. Take the time to be crystal-clear in your communications with others.

A leader's ability to convey confidence and his ability to communicate effectively are similar.