Tibor Kalman

In February '99, having graduated from college and with plenty of spare time on my hands, I designed a Winamp skin. It became hugely popular at the time, much to my suprise: it was featured on multiple websites and in numerous magazines, received a 5/5 rating at Winamp.com, was voted into the Top 10 on community sites, and prompted 200 people to e-mail me their feedback.

Accompanied with the skin was a text file containing personal notes, an attempt at a copyright clause, and the following quote by graphic designer Tibor Kalman:

People seem to pursue money, most commonly. Some pursue a political agenda, some pursue fame. I pursue the blissful moment of coming up with an idea. That makes me very, very happy.

What I didn't know then until now, is that he died two months later, in May, of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

...I think the word "cool" has replaced the word "content." If you have enough attitude in your work, if it's cool enough, then it doesn't matter that there's no content. The best example of this is David Carson. It's cool, and so it doesn't need to say anything. And I think this is a fundamental misunderstanding of what design is. Because it's just a language. It's just a means of communicating. It's a medium. It's not a message. It doesn't have any message in it unless somebody comes along and puts a message in it. Just because you make something cool doesn't mean that it is something. If nothing is cool, then it's nothing.