“Early in 1954 – fifty years ago as I write this – my head of department at the Central School, Jesse Collins, sent me in a taxi with a job I had designed for one of the governors. As I got into the cab – one of the first I had ever taken, being 19 at the time – he said, ‘Remember that the client knows nothing of the work you have been doing during the last two weeks. Before showing him the job, take a minute or two – no more – to explain your approach. In that way, what he sees will not come as a surprise. It will be the natural outcome of your thinking.'”
— Derek Birdsall (via Notes on Book Design)