{"id":111,"date":"2025-07-04T17:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T17:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/typingtomyself.ericisinschool.com\/?p=111"},"modified":"2025-07-16T00:17:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T00:17:29","slug":"the-vignelli-canon-a-written-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/typingtomyself.ericisinschool.com\/?p=111","title":{"rendered":"The Vignelli Canon- A Written Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reading through The Vignelli Canon<\/em> by Massimo Vignelli felt a bit like sitting quietly with someone who\u2019s spent decades thinking about design, someone who doesn\u2019t need to raise their voice to be heard as they\u2019ve already laid out their experiences for any willing listener. Vignelli talks about design like it has its own world, a language. He says, \u201cIt is imperative to develop your own vocabulary of your own language — a language that attempts to be as objective as possible, knowing very well that even objectivity is subjective\u201d<\/em> (Massimo Vignelli, p. 96). I think that line stuck with me because it\u2019s a reminder that while design can feel structured, it\u2019s still deeply personal. Everyone\u2019s \u201ccanon\u201d will end up different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing I noticed throughout the book was how much he cares about the topic of appropriateness<\/em>. Whether he\u2019s talking about grids and typefaces or colors and materials, he always asks, \u2018Is this appropriate for what it\u2019s trying to say?\u2019 He believes that design should have an economy to it but not in a cheap way. More like a sense of restraint and clarity. He wrote, \u201cDesign means to be in control of every detail and scale is one of the most relevant ones\u201d<\/em> (Vignelli, p. 74). I guess that\u2019s the opposite of what we often see online today as with random fonts, distorted text, loud colors, and clutter. Or everything just following the same uncreative patterns. It feels like there’s a sense of panic in some modern design like it\u2019s trying too hard to grab attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What stood out to me was his dislike of using typefaces<\/em> as decoration. He calls it \u201cintellectual vulgarity\u201d (Vignelli, p. 72). At first, that sounded harsh, but reading his explanations made it clearer. He\u2019s not trying to kill creativity. Rather, he\u2019s trying to make sure there\u2019s meaning behind choices. He writes, \u201cIn other words, it is not the type but what you do with it that counts. The accent was on structure rather than type\u201d<\/em> (Vignelli, p. 54). I think that\u2019s something I want to remember in my own work. Sometimes I get caught up in finding the coolest looking font instead of thinking about whether it really fits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll design the same way he does but I do think I want to carry his mindset that is sort of asking, \u2018Is this appropriate? Does this have a purpose?\u2019 rather than just making things look flashy. Because like he said, \u201cGood design doesn\u2019t cost more than bad design. The opposite is quite true, very often\u201d<\/em> (Vignelli, p. 94). I think that\u2019s something worth holding onto, especially in a world that often chooses speed and trends over substance and quality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading through The Vignelli Canon by Massimo Vignelli felt a bit like sitting quietly with someone who\u2019s spent decades thinking about design, someone who doesn\u2019t need to raise their voice to be heard as they\u2019ve already laid out their experiences for any willing listener. Vignelli talks about design like it has its own world, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[9,22],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intro-design","tag-ds106","tag-introdesign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/typingtomyself.ericisinschool.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/typingtomyself.ericisinschool.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/typingtomyself.ericisinschool.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typingtomyself.ericisinschool.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typingtomyself.ericisinschool.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/typingtomyself.ericisinschool.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112,"href":"https:\/\/typingtomyself.ericisinschool.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions\/112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/typingtomyself.ericisinschool.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typingtomyself.ericisinschool.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typingtomyself.ericisinschool.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}