Gordon Glegg quotes

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Gordon Lindsay Glegg. (1911 - 1984). English designer, lecturer, author, and mechanical engineer.

Problem Discovery

“Sometimes the problem is to discover what the problem is.”
  • Source: Glegg, G. L. (1969). The Design of Design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-511-79996-9. Chapter 1 page 5.

Engineering the Impossible

“One of the intriguing facts of the engineering profession is that it is not only possible but essential to do the impossible. But we must be careful to define what we mean by that word. We must distinguish between the relatively impossible and the intrinsically impossible. The relative impossibility is something which is impossible unless something else becomes possible. It always includes or implies a clause beginning 'unless'. The intrinsic impossibility contains an imprisoned self-contradiction within itself; it is absolutely impossible.”
  • Source: Glegg, G. L. (1969). The Design of Design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-511-79996-9. Chapter 1 page 5.

Engineering Stars

“A scientist can discover a new star but he cannot make one. He would have to ask an engineer to do it for him.”
  • Source: Glegg, G. L. (1969). The Design of Design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-511-79996-9. Introduction.

User Specifications

“If you are concerned in making the production of some article quicker, better or cheaper, you will naturally study how it is being done at the moment. It may seem paradoxical but the man least likely to help you is the operator in charge of the machine. The more 'down-to-earth' and 'practical' he considers himself the more 'unpractical' and 'up-in-the-air' he is likely to be from your point of view. He is too near the machine to know why it works. He only knows how it works.”
  • Source: Glegg, G. L. (1969). The Design of Design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-511-79996-9. Chapter 1, page 12.

Realms of the Design Mind

“The mind of the designer has three realms of activity... the inventive, the artistic, and the logical or rational.”

  • Source: Glegg, G. L. (1969). The Design of Design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-511-79996-9. Chapter 2, page 18.

Engineering Qualifications

“If you can do maths, engineering is waiting for you... There is one overriding qualification: you will never be a good engineer if you are frightened by hard work or responsibility.”
  • Source: Glegg, G. L. (1969). The Design of Design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-511-79996-9. Chapter 2, page 25.

Engineers and Designers Are Human

“Throughout this book we have talked about 'designers' and 'engineers' and sought, by analysing their work, to find general and helpful maxims. But there is a danger in doing this, for we may forget that a 'designer' or 'engineer' is first and foremost a human being. A human being who designs or engineers has, in addition, a wide range of complicated and interacting emotions. It is easy to become emotionally involved in a new invention and so resent criticism of it even when that criticism, if heeded, would turn a failure into a success. Confidence may be blinded by conceit or undermined by an inferiority complex. History has shown that many new inventions were not inventions at all; they were re-inventions. The idea was not new but the determination to press through with it was. Character is the foundation of ability. Develop as large a safety margin as you can against such things as laziness, impatience, prejudice and arrogance and all the other human failings that inhibit constructive achievement in all spheres, especially that of creative engineering design.”
  • Source: Glegg, G. L. (1969). The Design of Design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-511-79996-9. Chapter 6, page 92.