Obvious Arts – websites | graphic design | photography

What is the meaning of life? That was all—a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one. This, I thought, as I looked at the blank canvas, represents a woman’s life. Virginia Woolf

“The art-work opens up a world and at the same time sets this world back again on earth, which itself only thus emerges as native ground… The work of art lets the earth be an earth. It lets the world be a world.” Martin Heidegger

Design should not be an exhibition of skill. It should reflect the harmony of form and spirit, combining simplicity with strength. Ikko Tanaka

Perhaps the reason common objects in still lifes seem so transfigured and everything in paintings appears in a supernatural light is that we stop seeing things in the flux of time, and we are snatched out of that eternal flux of life. Arthur Schopenhauer

Beauty is not a mere accident of matter. It is a power that moves, that captivates, and that connects us to something higher. It is not the symmetry of parts, nor the perfection of line, but a quality that speaks directly to the senses and the soul. It arises from smoothness, delicacy, and an aspect that engages the imagination without overwhelming it. Susan Sontag

Design is in everything we make, but it’s also between those things. It’s a mix of craft, science, storytelling, propaganda, and philosophy. Erik Adigard

The starting point for all systems of aesthetics must be the personal experience of a peculiar emotion. I call it the aesthetic emotion. This emotion is evoked by significant form—by combinations of lines and colors, shapes and forms, that stir our aesthetic sensibilities. Clive Bell

Design is the conscious and intuitive effort to impose meaningful order. It is not just about creating beautiful or functional objects; it is about solving problems and addressing human needs. Good design is not decoration but a bridge between ideas and action—a way to make the world more livable. Victor Papanek

A picture can represent a fact. A picture can also represent an idea. It is an image. Art is a kind of language. Ludwig Wittgenstein

The task of design is to mediate between the material and the lived. It must speak to the body, not just the eye; to memory, not just function. In this way, design is an art of intimacy — it structures how we dwell in the world. Juhani Pallasmaa

The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design. Massimo Vignelli

The capacity for art, for music, for beauty, is an essential aspect of being human. These are not external adornments but fundamental elements of the human experience. Noam Chomsky

The greatest works are those in which form and content are most tightly interwoven, where form is not a vessel into which content is poured, but the very expression of historical suffering, of social contradiction, of spiritual experience. Theodor Adorno

Good design is as little design as possible. Less, but better—because it concentrates on the essential aspects. Products should be designed in such a way that they are unobtrusive and neutral…and integrate seamlessly into the life of the user while enhancing it. Dieter Rams

Beauty brings copies of itself into being. It makes us draw it, take photographs of it, or describe it to other people. It also brings fairness—both in the sense of loveliness and justice. By focusing our attention and making us alert, it incites a desire for truth, for balance, and for goodness. Beauty…reshapes how we interact with the world. Elaine Scarry

Everything is design. Everything! Paul Rand

The visible is not what we see, but what we inhabit — a flesh of the world in which we are entangled. Art reveals this flesh, this interweaving of seer and seen, subject and object, without collapsing one into the other. Maurice Merleau-Ponty