Piet Schreuders in Emigre

Piet Schreuders: I believe that the day-to-day practice is an excellent way to learn graphic design. It’s not important that most of what you see is trash — just that it motivates you to make better things yourself.

Emigre: You mentioned that a design is a success if it looks harmonious to an outsider, that the work should look as if it wouldn’t have worked any other way – as if the design was inevitable. Do you think there is only one solution to any design problem?

Schreuders: No, but to an outsider it should look as if there were only one solution. 

Emigre: So you could have designed much of your work in a different way?

Schreuders: I suppose I could have, but I didn’t. But that’s not really the point. The point is to make it look inevitable to an outsider. And to a certain extent it was inevitable, because I didn’t know how else to do it. Often, I just went for the most obvious solution. […] I never worry about what people think. I do what I like to do. When I get a thrill out of it, I do it.

Emigre: And then you figure that there will be other people out there who will be equally thrilled?

Schreuders: Yes, usually there are. When you do something with honesty and love and care, there will always be a public who appreciates that.

— Piet Schreuders interviewed in Emigre #17