Favorite Quotes from GETTING A DESIGN JOB by RitaSue Siegel, IDSA

Favorite Quotes from GETTING A DESIGN JOB by RitaSue Siegel, IDSA
Here I present a collection of my favorite quotes from Getting a Design Job, a free, 67 page PDF formatted book written by RitaSue Siegel of IDSA. All quotes are by RitaSue Siegel unless otherwise noted. The PDF book is available on AIGA's website. Click here for the link.



"Today, designers are held to a higher standard. Their cognitive skills—thinking, imagining, remembering, learning, perceiving, making judgments and reasoning—are considered essential to getting the most from the design process, as well as in making a valid choice from alternatives that will impact an organization’s bottom line —“economic, social and environmental.”




"Organizations today expect their designers to play a central role in the job of innovation."




"Designers have learned to explain the value of design by how it contributes to innovation, branding, identity, positioning, ergonomics, communication, user experience, interaction, sustainability, emotional triggers, meaningfulness, aspirational behavior, the adoption cycle, etc."




"In design schools, aesthetics increasingly has become subtext and students learn early to define and defend their designs in business terms."


Today, there is an understanding in the US that design adds value, not only to differentiate one organization’s products, communications, environments, experiences and services from another’s (an earlier mantra), but also that design can frame and mold the quality of the emotional and/or rational experiences people have with them at every touch point.



"The best designers use heads and hands. We want designers who create thoughtful, meaningful designs that pay attention to details and have emotion and craft in them as well as reason and cleverness.”
- Dan Saffer at Adaptive Path



“What the eye admires, the heart desires."
- Chuck Jones of Whirlpool



"Design has evolved away from traditional form giving to becoming an integral part of corporate strategy."
- Niti Bhan




"[Design thinking] is the perfect complement to analytical thinking. Design thinking is based on insight, experimentation, and prototyping, while analytical thinking is data and planning based."
-Niti Bhan




"We work and live in a global economy. It makes sense that design for global companies be done locally and globally."



"At one point, I asked my co-workers to please not use the words brand, strategy and interactive, unless their use contributed to understanding or definition. Now user-centered, ethnography, persona, scenario, belief system, storytelling, journey, co-creation, story boarding, sustainability and design thinking have joined the lexicon along with design planning and one from the mid-80s: design language. "



“Competitive advantage lies in the ability to create an organization driven not by cost efficiencies but by ideas and intellectual know-how.”
- Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones




In the 21st century, capital is easier to come by than talent.
- Roger Martin and Mihnea C. Moldoveanu, “Capital Versus Talent,” Harvard Business Review, July 2003



"The capacity for creative thinking is common to all."



"Competency" means adequacy; "talent" means an ability of superior quality.




The following observation sums up the basic frustration for anyone involved in recruiting and assessment:
For designers to be successful in a job:
■ Talent is necessary, but not sufficient.
■ Passion is necessary, but not sufficient.
■ Training is necessary, but not sufficient.
■ Team orientation is necessary, but not sufficient.
■ Knowledge is necessary, but not sufficient.
■ Technical skills are necessary, but not sufficient.
■ Effective management is necessary, but not sufficient.
Talent [and passion] are the only necessary conditions for job success that employers cannot provide to their employees and schools cannot provide to their students. And there needs to be chemistry.
15 Bob Gately, IT recruiting consultant,
Hopedale, MA, TechRepublic
blog, March 2, 2006, modified