OUGD403 - The Vignelli Cannon

The Vignelli Cannon

Massimo Vignelli

Creativity needs the support of knowledge.

Semantics, syntactic and pragmatic.

Semantics

•       Meaning of design. Understanding in all aspects. (research on the history, company, product, market position, competitors, destination, semantic roots)
•       Design without semantics is shallow and means less.
•       ‘god is in the detail’

Syntax 

•       the discipline that controls the proper use of grammar in the construction of phrases and the articulation of a language, design.
•        Over all structure, grid, typeface, text, headlines, illustration.

Syntactic consistency is of paramount importance.

Pragmatics

•       Not understood = fail
• ·      Clarity of intent will translate into clarity of result.
• ·      Design should be intellectually elegant.

Discipline

• ·      Design without discipline is anarchy, an exercise of irresponsibility.

Appropriateness

• ·      Right kind if media, materials, scale, expression, colour and texture.
• ·      Transcends any issue of style.

Ambiguity

• ·      Plurality of meanings
• ·      The possibility of being read in different ways
• ·      Enrich subject, give it more depth.
• ·      Practice with caution when playing with ambiguity but it is more often a sign of disconuity and lack of control.

Design is one

Visual power

• ·      Design is always an expression of creative strength.
• ·      Difference of scale within same page can give a very strong impact
• ·      Bold type contrasting light type – dynamic impressions
• ·      3D manipulating light through different textures and materials.

Intellectual elegance

• ·      found in greek statues, renaissance paintings ect.
• ·      Civic consciousness, social responsibility, sense of decency.

Timelessness

• ·      Despise the culture of obsolescence.
• ·      Primary colours and shape – formal values and timeless
• ·      Design centred on the message rather than visual titillation.
• ·      Clear, simple, enduring.

Responsibility

• ·      Economically appropriate solution
• ·      Levels of responsibility: to ourselves, the client and to the public at mass

Equity

• ·      Established logos
• ·      Logo equity (coca cola, shell, American Airways)

The tangibles

• Paper size
• Using the most economically sound, without compromising end result.

Grids, margins, columns and modules

• ·      Organisation of information.
• ·      Grid = basic structure, helps organise content, provides consistency, gives orderly look.

 A company letterhead

• ·      Asymmetrical layout conveys a feeling of modernity

Grids for books

• ·      Provides structure and continuity from cover to cover
• ·      Spaces between modules and columns – tight
• ·      Ideally the size of one line of type

Typefaces – the basic ones

• ·      Garamond, Bodoni, Century Expanded, Helvetica
• ·      It’s not they type, but what you do with it.
• ·      Optima, Future, Univers, Caslon, Baskerville
• ·      Scale and size relationship

·      Good design is never boring; only bad design is.

• Flush left, centred, justified.
• Most of the time we use flush left
• Makes more sense since we read left to right
• Centred for lapidary text, invitations, or any rhetorical composition where it may be more appropriate (business cards)
• Justified is more used in text book

Type size relationships

• ·      Choose the proper size of type in relation to the width of the column

Rulers

• ·      Hierarchy of weights to clarify the different parts of the text
• ·      The type should always hang from the ruler, regardless of the size

Contrasting type size

• ·      Proper white space
• ·      Stick to 1 or 2 sizes at most
• ·      Bold, light, italic and roman held to differentiate
• ·      In a world where everybody screams, silence is noticeable

Scale

• ·      Most appropriate size of an object in its natural context
• ·      Manipulation of scale implies knowledge and full awareness of the meaning of scale

Texture

• ·      Light is the master of form and texture
• ·      Reflection or absorption
• ·      Glass reveals its colour when light shines through
• ·      Silver reflects, when engraved will trap light
• ·      Shiny reflects, dull absorbs.

Colour

•  Used as a signifier or identifier
• Not used in pictorial manner
• Prefer primary palette, red blue, yellow
• Used to convey specific messages
• Appropriateness
•   Right colour at right time.

Layouts

• ·      Layout reflect the interpretation of the designer
• ·      Basic grid – devised according to nature of publication
• ·      2,3,4 columns for books
• ·      6 or more for newspapers
• ·      when appropriate, crop pictures to follow the grid

 Management of white space

Sequence

• ·      if you see the layout, it is probably a bad layout

Binding

• ·      cover – laminated with paper, cloth or leather
• ·      spine – rounded or square
• ·      headspace – connects book to binding
• ·      sandwich

Identity and Diversity

• ·      too much diversity creates fragmentation
• ·      corporate identity
• ·      basic identifiers are constant

I found this book interesting. I think that Massimo Vingelli is very opinionated and I don't agree with everything he says, especially when it comes to the use of colour and decretive graphic design. However, I did find the tangible aspects of graphic design that have been discussed to be helpful and I aim to use some of these elements, especially girds and texture.