Modernism, rebelling against the ornament of the 19th century, limited the vocabulary of the designer. Modernism emphasized straight lines, eliminating the expressive S curve. This made it harder to communicate emotions through design.
I don't like to design single objects. I like my pieces to have a relationship to each other. They can be mother and child, like the Schmoo salt and pepper shakers, or brother and sister like the Birdie salt and peppers, or cousins, like most of my dinnerware sets.
When you have clay in your hands, it's hard to avoid making birds.
The designer must understand that form does not follow function nor does form follow a production process. For every use and for every production process there are innumerable equally attractive solutions.
Men have no concept of how to design things for the home. Women should design the things they use.
If I hadn't been a designer, I'd have been a painter. I began as a painter and learned the craft of pottery in order to support myself.
My time in Weimar Berlin was the most elegant in my life. I would have parties for a hundred people - writers, scientists, artists.
My designs are meant to attract the hand as well as the eye.
Art has more ego to it than what I do.
I never wanted to do something grotesque. I never wanted to shock. I wanted my audience to be happy, to be kind.
Beautiful things make people happy.
I don't know the difference between working and not working.
When I met my designs in the market of a remote village in the West Indies, or in the airport restaurant in Zurich, I felt like the mother of many well-behaved children.
My work is very bodily. It's not a shell, but a body.
When I design something, I think of it as a gift to somebody else.
I am a maker of useful things.
I don't call myself an 'industrial designer,' because I'm other things. Industrial designers want to make novel things. Novelty is a concept of commerce, not an aesthetic concept.
