Who's responsible for this interesing Design Quote?

August 31, 2006 5:18 PM

Anyone know who said this quote? (may be slightly paraphrased) "Design for the classes and live with the masses. Design for the masses and live with the classes."

A teacher at school said it in first day of class...I already tried to find out using internet search engines and wikipedia - no luck. Help me get some extra credit!

posted by Kensational to writing & language (8 comments total)

I don't even know what it's supposed to mean. Are you sure you're remembering it correctly?
posted by languagehat at 5:28 PM on August 31, 2006

The idea of utilitarian design for the masses emerged during the Bauhaus. That might be a way of narrowing your search criteria. This idea has contemporarily manifested itself most clearly in designs released by Target so you may want to throw that into the search as well.

Or, it could have been Jesse Jackson.
posted by quadog at 5:29 PM on August 31, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

John Jacob Astor
posted by AmbroseChapel at 5:40 PM on August 31, 2006

>I don't even know what it's supposed to mean.

Surely it means "You can only make so much money selling to the rich. There aren't enough of them. To be truly wealthy you need to sell to the poor".
posted by AmbroseChapel at 5:46 PM on August 31, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

AmbroseChapel: Hey thanks a lot! Extra Credit for YOU! Yay!
posted by Kensational at 6:10 PM on August 31, 2006

The secret, by the way, was to search for only part of the quote: "live with the masses".
posted by AmbroseChapel at 6:18 PM on August 31, 2006

I've heard a slightly similar phrase - "design for the masses, not the classes" - used to describe the work of Russell Wright and other modernist designers of the 1930s who aimed at the middle class.
posted by mediareport at 7:02 PM on August 31, 2006

Surely it means "You can only make so much money selling to the rich. There aren't enough of them. To be truly wealthy you need to sell to the poor".

Ah, I guess you're right. I just never heard "the classes" used that way. Learn something every day.
posted by languagehat at 7:19 AM on September 1, 2006