Quotes from Marty Neumeier

The narrow gauge mindset of the past is insufficient for today's wicked problems. We can no longer play the music as written. Instead, we have to invent a whole new scale.

Design is the underlying skill that activates innovation. If you want to innovate, you've got to design.

Designers don't actually solve problems. They work through them.

In a sense, traditional business is design blind.

The best design tool is a long eraser with a pencil at one end.

Design can also be used to invent strategic futures, make complex decisions, and craft a bold corporate vision. We need to move design up the ladder of influence.

A genius is someone who can tolerate the discomfort of uncertainty while generating as many ideas as possible.

The cave you fear to enter, goes the ancient proverb, holds the treasure you seek.

We just go where we want to go, do what we want to do, and become who we want to become. We want to be unique, but we want to be unique in groups. We want to stand out, but we want to stand out together. In the age of easy group-forming, the basic unit of measurement is not the segment but the tribe.

Even back in the command-and-control days of the production line, Henry Ford's decision to manufacture automobiles was driven by intuition rather than market research. "If we had asked the public what they wanted," he explained, "they would have said 'faster horses.

A brand is not a logo. A brand is not a corporate identity system. It's a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or company. Because it depends on others for its existence, it must become a guarantee of trustworthy behavior. Good branding makes business integral to society and creates opportunity for everyone, from the chief executive to the most distant customer.

1) Who are you? 2) What do you do? 3) Why does it matter?

Great ideas are not polite. They never say they're sorry. They don't try to fit in. On the contrary, they force the world around them to make changes in self-defense.

There is no great genius without a mixture of madness. —Aristotle

Miles Davis once said: "Do not fear mistakes—there are none.

Creativity is the discipline you use when you don't know the answers, when you're traveling to parts unknown. On this type of journey, missteps are actually steps. Every mistake brings you closer to the solution.

Uncluding is the art of subtracting every element that doesn't pull its weight.

They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind. So I left 'em sweating and stealing, a year and a half behind.

If a man writes clearly enough," said Hemingway, "anyone can see if he fakes.

If we can't find valuable work, it's not because we're in a recession; we're in a recession because we can't find valuable work. We've been confusing cause and effect.

All the lessons of invention come down to this: The best design tool is a long eraser with a pencil at one end.

The truth is, most people love change until it affects them.

Extreme resistance can be a portent of extreme success.

The human mind loves either/or choices. We prefer a choice of A or B. Yes or no. Chicken or beef. Simple choices give us a feeling of control, while open-ended choices give us a feeling of unease. Therefore we'd rather choose between than among.