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Thiago Costa

What Thiago Costa thinks about design

@thiago-costa · 26 positions · 0 changes of mind

Designer and co-founder of Fey, the investing app Wealthsimple acquired in August 2025.

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Thiago Costa 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.

18 dated positions, 2025, in their own words. Our reading of what Thiago Costa has said — not written or endorsed by them.

The line under a date shows how recently it was said: empty within a month, full after three years.

  1. Our readingWhen beauty is the guiding principle, a product is forced to be simpler, into something most people would understand.

    Their wordsthe good thing about this is that when you have this beauty as a guiding principle you are forced to simplify you're forced to make something that most people would understand

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 1st of 26 in this recording

  3. Our readingHaving no deadline is a blessing and a curse: a designer can linger on a goalpost of perfection that keeps moving and never ship.

    Their wordsnot having a deadline is a blessing and a curse because you can Linger on this go post of perfection that keeps moving and then never ship which is dangerous

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 3rd of 26 in this recording

  5. Our readingBeing a good designer means saying no to most of your own ideas, and yes to the ones that could work within your product.

    Their wordsbeing a good designer is to say no to most of the ideas that you have and yes so the ones that could work within the context of your product

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 4th of 26 in this recording

  7. Our readingA designer improves by validating their old work through their new work.

    Their wordsvalidating your old work through your new work is how you improve as a designer

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 6th of 26 in this recording

  9. Our readingDesign sits at an intersection of art and science; in the art side, redesigning and experimenting, you are thinking about making something that looks really good, not about data or customers.

    Their wordsdesign is at this weird intersection between Art and Science and that part of redesigning and experimenting is the art side of it I think so you're always you're not really thinking about data right now you're not really thinking about your customers you're thinking about making something that looks really good

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 7th of 26 in this recording

  11. Our readingArt was the original UI: its techniques evolved over thousands of years, and too few designers draw on them.

    Their wordsthere's a lot you can learn from art it was the original UI so there's so many techniques that evolved for thousands of years that make art such a good reference and it kind of pisses me off that a lot of designers don't don't leverage this

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 8th of 26 in this recording

  13. Our readingDesigners should be curious about movies, art and music, because everything outside UI and apps has something to teach them.

    Their wordsI I know personally friends of mine designers that don't really care about movies don't really care about art don't really care about music and they don't you know like go out and try to be curious and observe everything everything outside UI and apps have something to teach you

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 9th of 26 in this recording

  15. Our readingDesigners should take inspiration from the world directly rather than from other UI, which is itself already a distillation of the world.

    Their wordswe try to avoid taking inspiration from UI because UI is basically taking inspiration from the world from nature uh in general so you're kind of like distilling down the the steps of inspiration you're breaking down the idea so go to the source directly

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 10th of 26 in this recording

  17. Our readingCaravaggio is the master of light, and a designer can learn lighting for an interface by putting one of his paintings next to it and copying the light source.

    Their wordscar vaju is the master I I talk about this all the time it's like the master of light so he always uses a light source even if it's obscure you don't know where the light source is from when you're actually you know like not analyzing everything but it creates this depth and Shadow and copy that like you can put one of his paintings next to your UI and then start to copying even copy like the light source

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 12th of 26 in this recording

  19. Our readingRules like 'elevated surfaces get lighter in dark mode' are good guides but do not hold in the real world, where a darker keyboard can sit on a lighter table.

    Their wordsmaybe the object that you're elevating is darker than the background so the rule doesn't really make sense in the real world uh you can have uh a darker keyboard on a lighter table so I think those rules are really good to guide you just for you to not create something that makes absolutely no sense to anyone

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 13th of 26 in this recording

  21. Our readingSmall details add up: people who are not attuned to design still sense a product's overall polish.

    Their wordsthese things stack up if you do a stitch there and the shadow here and any works as a cohesive product the people sense it even people that are not really at tuned to design they feel the overall package they feel the Polish

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 14th of 26 in this recording

  23. Our readingLacking founder-market fit can be a blessing in disguise rather than a weakness.

    Their wordsnowadays I think his feedback was wrong and I think it's kind of a blessing in disguise not having founder market fit

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 16th of 26 in this recording

  25. Our readingCuriosity is probably the number one quality a designer can have.

    curiosity

    Their wordsbeing curious I think it's like the number one quality that a design could have just ask questions

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 17th of 26 in this recording

  27. Our readingAI will replace designers, but not all of them.

    Their wordsthere's a lot of talks on AI and AI is going to replace the designers and and things like that and and I think he will but not all of them

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 20th of 26 in this recording

  29. Our readingAI that builds UI is trained on past UI, so breaking out of that mould will still take a person willing to break the rules.

    Their wordsAI to build UI is going to be trained with other why and everything that we've done in the past so why if you want to break out of this mold you're still going to need someone to just like Break The Rules

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 22nd of 26 in this recording

  31. Our readingA design course should start with history and art, grounding students in the world, rather than with tools that may be gone tomorrow.

    Their wordsI think you have to start with history art ground them in the world not go straight to tools tools common tomorrow maybe figma is not going to be here

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 23rd of 26 in this recording

  33. Our readingDesigners need to be good communicators: an idea they cannot articulate to their team rarely becomes something meaningful.

    Their wordsdesigners really need to be good communicators he ties back to that shower thought sometimes if you have this idea and you can't articulate them to your team it gets really difficult to do something meaningful

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 24th of 26 in this recording

  35. Our readingDesign is a visual profession, but the best designers are the ones who listen really well.

    Their wordsit's very paradoxical because design is a very visual profession but I think the best designers are the ones who listen really well

    ↗Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designeryoutube.com 26th of 26 in this recording

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