H. Allen Smith 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.

Design means being good, not just looking good.

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.

I don't call myself an 'industrial designer,' because I'm other things. Industrial designers want to make novel things. Novelty is a concept of commerce, not an aesthetic concept.

I'm generally a very pragmatic person: that which works, works.

Wit is a dangerous weapon, even to the possessor, if he knows not how to use it discreetly.

I do not live on false promises. I cannot afford to live on bad advice.

My first rule of consumerism is never to buy anything you can't make your children carry.

If you have to design something, choose things that we need as opposed to frivolous things that we might just want for a month or two for bragging rights.

A farmer's horse is never lame, never unfit to go. Never throws out curbs, never breaks down before or behind. Like his master he is never showy. He does not paw and prance, and arch his neck, and bid the world admire his beauties...and when he is wanted, he can always do his work.

The principle of work is part of self-discipline. Now, my dear young sisters, I have lived a good many years longer than you, but even back in Grandpa's time there was something to make you want to lie down and go to sleep-they called it work.

A brute force solution that works is better than an elegant solution that doesn't work.

Usefulness depends on tractability.

Go and get your things,' he said. 'Dreams mean work.

In modern industrial society only minimal effort is necessary to satisfy one's physical needs.

Simplicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place of an object and product.

Just because you need a quart of milk doesn't mean you have to go out and buy a whole cow.

Reason is a bee, and exists only on what it makes; his usefulness takes the place of beauty.

If you don't put out a shirt for eight months, that doesn't mean it took you eight months to make the shirt.

There are more useful systems developed in languages deemed awful than in languages praised for being beautiful - many more.

Things that are complex are not useful, Things that are useful are simple.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

To be successful, all you have to do is work half-days; you can work the first twelve hours or the second twelve hours.

Everything that I make I use.