Designers should reject the ineffectual commonplace for effectual originality

“A designer…has the true responsibility to give his audiences not what they think they want, for this is almost invariably the usual, the accustomed, the obvious, and hence, the unspontaneous.  Rather, he should provide that quality of thought and intuition which rejects the ineffectual commonplace for effectual originality.” – Lester Beall

This quote is from the July/August 1990 edition of Step-by-Step Graphics, in an article entitled “The Creative Process of Lester Beall” by Roger Remington.

1. Abandon the comforts of habit and strike out in new directions
2. The one characteristic that separates designers from others is action
3. Good designers are open minded and comfortable with ambiguity
4. Design is a “whole brain” process
5. Creative people describe how the world could be