Massimo Vignelli
The other night I had the opportunity to attend a lecture given by legendary modernist designer Massimo Vignelli. It was very interesting to hear this guy who’s been in the industry for over 50 years now talk about all the projects he’s been involved with, from when he worked with Venini in Milan to his work with Bloomindales, the National Park Service, American Airlines, and The New York Subway System.
Massimo divided his lecture into groups of 5 years, and the beginning of each section he had a cute little black and white of his wife and himself. Massimo really injects a lot of humor into his stories; his pretty strong Italian accent and old-man behavior lend to some funny on-stage happenings.
Over the two hours of lecture I jotted down some things that Massimo had said here and there. Here are a few of the notes I took; things he said, advice, and a few random out-of-context sentences. It should be noted though that Massimo is an unapologetic, opinionated, modernist and some of the things he says definitely aren’t for everyone.
I see graphic design as the orginization of information that is semantically correct, syntactically consistant, pragmatically understandable, visually powerful, intellectually intelligent, and above all timeless.
Don’t trust market research, do what you want.
How can people judge design if [they don't know|it never existed before].
If you can’t find it, design it.
Have imagination, have courage, be fast.
If you listen to the manufacturer you’ll still be making mickey mouse trays.
Stay away from miserable design.
The grid is a lion, and you are the grid tamer. If you stay too long in the grid, the grid will eat you.
Look at my pants!
Luck is very important, you should be lucky.
Never work with middle management, work with the president. Middle management is afraid of losing their jobs.
Adding is stupid, subtracting is genius.
At the end of the lecture I stayed behind for a few minutes to have a short word with Kely Salchow, the AIGA Detroit Education Chair, and of course, Massimo. I had also brought along Massimo’s book, Vignelli: From A to Z, which I had a copy of in my library in the hopes that he’d be so nice as to autograph it, which he did.
Tuesday the 23rd, 3:49 am
Great post, the talk sounds like it was great, I wish I could have been there.
Thanks for posting some of your notes.