Khoi Vinh
American designer and writer of the blog Subtraction.com; design director of The New York Times Online from 2006 to 2010, co-founder of Mixel, and later a principal designer at Adobe.
Khoi Vinh did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsWhat we choose to watch in film and on television says so much about us because these stories offer up, in plain sight, an encoding of our values in narrative form. If you want to understand the hopes, dreams, anxieties and fears of a people, just look to their entertainment.
↗What Police Stories Teach Ussubtraction.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsThe past several weeks since the killing of George Floyd have coincided with a cultural realization—a frustratingly belated one, for many—that the stories we watch about police and the criminal justice system are crucial and even overt pillars in our society’s structural racism.
↗What Police Stories Teach Ussubtraction.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 8 days earlier
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Our reading
Inaction makes people complicit in racism, in a system that benefits some and brutalizes others.
Their wordsAnd I’ve also been complicit in racism’s perpetuation by dint of the fact that I’ve done virtually nothing about it. I’ve been complicit in racism in that I’ve done very little to effect change in a system that benefits me but disadvantages and brutalizes others.
↗On Black Lives Mattersubtraction.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsBut I’ve also come to understand that the real menace of fear, hatred and racism lies not just in these flash points of history, when the contrast between freedom and tyranny are most stark. The real menace is in how infinitely adaptable and resilient these forces are.
↗On Black Lives Mattersubtraction.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
Not doing wrong is not enough; people must actively do right by those who have been wronged.
Their wordsParticularly the idea that we cannot right the world simply by not doing wrong—we must do right, too, and particularly we must do right by those who have been perpetually wronged. Especially when their lives are being unjustly and viciously sacrificed by a brutal system.
↗On Black Lives Mattersubtraction.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 3 weeks earlier
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Our reading
Design's biggest challenge is explaining itself to society, not design systems or design-to-code.
Their wordsIf you care about design, I would posit that the most pressing evolutionary challenge it faces is not design systems or design-to-code or even accessible design, as worthwhile as perfecting those pursuits might be. Rather, the single most consequential barrier to design’s next level of success is simply explaining itself to society at large.
↗Interview with Scott Berkun, Author of “How Design Makes the World”subtraction.com