Design Integrity Quotes

If you are a designer, sometimes it is better not to delegate, because someone pays money for something that you designed, so it should be exactly the way you want it, exactly the way you would have chosen it. People call me a control freak, and I say, "Well, my name is on the shoe." It means the heel needs to be the way I want it and not the way somebody else wants it, and the toe needs to be exactly the way I want it, and the fabric and the material have to be exactly the way I want it. It is not a democracy - it is a dictatorship.

When I design a garment or a piece of accessory, the first question I ask myself is, 'Would I wear it?'

Profit and bottom line, the contemporary mantra, eliminates the very source of architectural expression.

Don't worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop.

Clearly, if a building is not functionally and technically in order, then it isn't architecture either, it's just a building.

Good design should be honest.

In terms of design, it's true the world has an influence. But, as a designer, you have to protect yourself. You have to look at the world and then forget it.

Form follows function straight to hell.

I have an admiration, even though I'm not likely to do that sort of thing myself, for [Ayn] Roark's behavior when he decided that his design was not being followed - which was a gross violation, by the way, of private property rights, because the building was his.

I hate the idea of getting in a building that someone else has designed and having to do something to it yourself to sort of dress it up - it's like using presets in your tracks.

An honest design communicates solely the functions and values it offers. It does not attempt to manipulate buyers and users with promises it cannot keep.

So many designers only sketch and leave pattern-making to others. Pattern-making is important so you know the structure. Then if someone tells me, 'I can't make a pattern from that sketch,' I can tell them, 'I will make it' and then they are quiet. If I can't make it, I don't design it.

It is so important to be really true to yourself in design, and I am.

What I've learned from different designers is that it's key to be true to who you are and your vision. That's always been my line of thinking. Working through the whole design process, I don't want to create something I wouldn't be proud to wear.

Whether it's an $11 flip-flop or a $2 key ring or a $2,000 dress, they're all done with integrity. They're all done with a design sense. As long as the creativity exists, then I don't think it's a sellout. A sellout is putting your name on any piece of crap and then expecting people to buy it because it's got your name on it.

I believe that the essence of good design is its ability to sustain long term integrity, to become classic and create a truly captivating home.

Good design is not an applied veneer.

One of the reasons I work with technology the way I do is that I can really be assured that the vision I have from the outset is what will be at the end. And that that vision isn't altered through the process.

I really try and work very closely with the designers to be as consistent as possible to their vision and for their look because I know how intricate and how much time it takes for them to make it. My mother was a seamstress and I really honor the art of each piece that's made and so for me it's all about that.

I stayed true to what I thought was good design no matter who it was for.

I'm suspicious of the idea of architects acting like business executives, brand managers, or purveyors of luxury goods.

A few brands have asked me to design shorts for them. I'm not sure about that. I don't want to have them as a mass product, and suddenly everybody is walking around in them.

Clothes should be as interesting on the inside as on the outside. Even if you enjoy it totally alone, it's important.

I'm not an interior decorator; I'm a designer, and that includes the architecture. The package must be strong and controlled, the rooms aligned, and the windows positioned to make sense with the furniture. Fluff it up, and you've got big trouble.

When something's made in the smallest volume - as a one-off couture piece - or in large quantities, deep care is critical to determine authentic, successful design and, ultimately, manufacture.