John Maeda
John Maeda
John Maeda is an American executive, designer, technologist. His work explores the area where business, design, and technology merge. He was a Professor at the MIT Media Lab for 12 years, and then became the President of the Rhode Island School of Design from 2008 to 2013. He is currently Design Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers where he advises startups on the business impact of design. He also serves on the Board of Directors of consumer electronics...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDesigner
CountryUnited States of America
Communication in every which way is everything for the leader.
All artists yearn to struggle, when they struggle they know they're alive.
I like stuff designed by dead people. The old designers. They always got it right because they didn't have to grow up with computers. All of the people that made the spoon and the dishes and the vacuum cleaner didn't have microprocessors and stuff. You could do a good design back then.
Things that I can do myself, I either do by myself, or teach a willing undergraduate who doesn't know how to do those things by doing it for me. Things that I can't do myself, my graduate students should be doing.
My role is to find strategic insights as to where design can have the most business impact. A designer can bring a viewpoint of not just aesthetics, but economics and usage.
Corporations today, by their razor sharp focus on the 'bottom line' and quarterly earnings, have lost their ability to innovate.
Creativity's about ownership.
Organization makes a system of many appear fewer.
Technology makes possibilities. Design makes solutions. Art makes questions. Leadership makes actions.
Art is a conduit toward human needs and perception,
Information is expanding daily. How to get it out visually is important.
I don't really love computers.
I don't like creating software anymore. It's too exact. It's like karate; there's no room for error.
Growing up, I found I was good at two things: Art and Math. To hear my parents say it, though, it was only, 'John is good at Math.