"In designing hardware to be used every day, it was important to keep both the human aspects and the machine in mind. What looks good also often feels good"
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Everyday hardware is where design either earns its keep or gets found out. Michael Graves is staking a claim against the old split between “serious” engineering and “soft” aesthetics: the door handle, kettle, or bathroom fixture isn’t just a mechanism, it’s a daily handshake between person and object. His intent is quietly insurgent. By insisting on “both the human aspects and the machine,” Graves reframes usability as a moral and cultural obligation, not a nice-to-have. The machine’s job is to function; the designer’s job is to make that function legible, inviting, even dignifying.
The subtext lives in the second sentence, which is disarmingly simple and a little strategic. “What looks good also often feels good” doesn’t argue that beauty automatically equals comfort; it proposes a frequent alliance. Graves is defending aesthetics as evidence of care: proportion, texture, temperature, and grip tend to be resolved when something has been thoughtfully composed. He’s also aiming at a broader consumer truth. People don’t just buy performance; they buy confidence. If it looks considered, we trust it will behave.
Context sharpens the point. Graves emerged from postmodern architecture and became a household name through mass-market product design (famously for Target), where “design” had to survive price points, manufacturing constraints, and millions of hands. Later, after illness reshaped his mobility, his focus on human-centered hardware reads less like branding and more like lived insight: good form isn’t decoration, it’s an interface.
The subtext lives in the second sentence, which is disarmingly simple and a little strategic. “What looks good also often feels good” doesn’t argue that beauty automatically equals comfort; it proposes a frequent alliance. Graves is defending aesthetics as evidence of care: proportion, texture, temperature, and grip tend to be resolved when something has been thoughtfully composed. He’s also aiming at a broader consumer truth. People don’t just buy performance; they buy confidence. If it looks considered, we trust it will behave.
Context sharpens the point. Graves emerged from postmodern architecture and became a household name through mass-market product design (famously for Target), where “design” had to survive price points, manufacturing constraints, and millions of hands. Later, after illness reshaped his mobility, his focus on human-centered hardware reads less like branding and more like lived insight: good form isn’t decoration, it’s an interface.
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| Topic | Technology |
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