Philippe Starck on the infinity symbol

There are some things that we use every day without realising that someone created them. Take mathematical symbols. “+” was first introduced by Nicole Oresme in 1360, “×” by William Oughtred in 1618, and “÷” by Johann Rann in 1659. The god of them all, “∞”, came in 1655. Humans had spent centuries trying to understand infinity, and in his “Treatise on the Conic Sections”, the English mathematician John Wallis introduced a symbol that expresses it. For me, it is the most intelligent piece of graphic design in the world. To say something in a complicated way is very easy. But to find a way to say it simply – that takes a lot of work.

As a designer I wake up every day hoping to have a good idea, to be useful. But I also want to be able to communicate and share that idea, that vision. To do that I need to find the clearest visual language I can. If I stick to a language that 12 people can understand, it suggests that I don’t care if anyone comprehends or not. It’s elitist. Wallis’s genius was to choose a symbol which, with its endless shape, is so clearly related to the concept that everybody agreed to use it. Mathematical signs form our only universal language. That’s why, if I’m asked if there’s anything I wish I had designed, it is this.