Artists & designers

 "She handled her brushes with a certain ease and freedom which came, not from long and close acquaintance with them, but from a natural aptitude"- Kate Chopin
  • David Bailey: photographer
  • Chuck Close: photo realist portraits.
  • Walt Disney
  • Gustave Flaubert
  • Søren Kragh Jacobsen: Danish film director
  • Hugh Newell Jacobsen: architect, winner of 90 different awards for design.
  • Tommy Hilfiger: fashion designer.  Biography, Designs and products of Tommy Hilfiger.

"I performed poorly at school, when I attended, that is, and was perceived as stupid because of my dyslexia. I still have trouble reading. I have to concentrate very hard at going left to right, left to right, otherwise my eye just wanders to the bottom of the page." – Tommy Hilfiger 

"In reference to his being the class clown: "I didn’t want anyone to know that I didn’t get it." - Tommy Hilfiger

  • Andrew Menzies

"We were intelligent, but we were dyslexics. And that toughened us up, made us strive harder. I'm sure we turned to artistic things to prove to other people that we weren't stupid." – Andrew Menzies: Hollywood Art Director

  • Allison Merriweather
  • Patricia Buckley Moss

"Sometimes I felt dumb. I felt like everyone knew I was dumb." Now she says, "I think my learning disability was an asset because I was able to concentrate on what I can do." - Patricia Buckley Moss

  • Pablo Picasso
  • Robert Rauschenber

"I'm dyslexic, quite seriously dyslexic - I still have trouble reading – so I hated school. It was the worst period of my whole life, the first 12 years of growing up". – Robert Rauschenberf : Described as "The greatest living painter"

  • Auguste Rodin
  • Jørn Utzon (architect, designed Sydney Opera house)  
  • Leonardo da Vinci
  • Marco Pierre White

"Like many people with a handicap, I compensated elsewhere. When I had difficulty with spelling and reading, I concentrated on mathematics and sports. However back in class, I found traditional teaching methods such as standing up and reading aloud in class pure torture. Dyslexia gave me a different way of looking at things. A compulsion to dissect ideas and concepts from every possible angle has stayed with me. " – Marco Pierre White: chef and restaurateur  

  • Margaret Whittington