Graphic design suffers when discipline has been abandoned in favor of the random.
Style is transitory. Attitude is permanent.
A book with square pictures will be square, a book with rectangular pictures will be rectangular. The content determines the container.
Helvetica is our ultimate typeface: objective, powerful, and delicate according to weight. But above all it is timeless and universal.
The role of fashion is temporary. The role of clothing is permanence. We designed clothing because we are only interested in permanence.
A great client brings more great clients; conversely, a bad one brings worse ones.
The answer is in the problem, not in a magazine, not in another designer’s work. If you keep digging you’ll find the answer in the question.
You’ll never forget anything you have created. It just becomes part of your language.
Design things where the user can participate, but don’t let the product lose its identity. Strike a balance between identity and diversity.
The Bodoni Table (and why design is one): http://vignellidesign.tumblr.com/post/1560385711/the-bodoni-table
Our work will appear consistent from the beginning, but it has undergone continuos refinement, to become more and more essential.
Whatever you do, if it’s not understood, it’s a waste of time.
Responsibilities of a Web Designer: http://vignellidesign.tumblr.com/post/1488012694[+]
Vulgarity is anything that is not refined. There is no beauty in vulgarity. A vulgar woman is never beautiful.
Great designs can be achieved without the use of the grid, but the grid is a very useful tool to guarantee results.
Good design is intellectually elegant. It contributes to civilization just as good literature, good music or good movies do.
We prefer a primary palette of red, blue, and yellow, but any color works if you push it to the extreme.
The past is the best thing that ever happened. Learn from it.
The most important thing for next generation designers is to fight against obsolescence; to create a culture that doesn’t throw things away.
Market research is a science invented in America to protect management from fear of failure.
The only thing you can easily produce in great quantities is junk.
Collaboration means sharing the same cultural platform, a similarity of intents and aiming to the same objectives.
Typography has very little to do with typefaces. Typography is about structure. It is the space between type, not type itself.
Distinguishing design from art: http://vignellidesign.tumblr.com/post/1297930325/[+]
If you can’t find it, design it.
There are many great designers, but few good clients.
I hate variety for variety’s sake. The amount of problems one has to address as a designer brings variety in itself.
The Euclid Table: http://vignellidesign.tumblr.com/post/1188488254/euclid-table
We are not interested in abstract shapes and contours. We prefer straight lines and geometric forms. Geometry has a timeless value.
Design has to be more responsible: towards the user, towards society, and towards the discipline of design itself.
White in typography is what space is in architecture.
If you do it right, it will last forever. It is as simple as that.
We like design to be beyond fashionable modes and temporary fads. We despise the culture of obsolescence. Good design is timeless.
I’m not a designer. I’m a sifter. I keep sifting until I’m left with just the essentials — just the good.
Train yourself to be disciplined. Train yourself to stay away from trends. Do this over time and your work will become timeless.
Good design is visually powerful, intellectually elegant, and above all, timeless.
Design for people. Meet their needs, not their wants.
It’s not important to develop your own style. But it is important to develop your own approach.
Learn from the past, think of the present, dream of the future.
Design must solve a problem. Without a problem, I don’t exist.
Confused, complicated designs reveal an equally confused and complicated mind.
The final look of anything is the by-product of the clarity (or lack of it) during its design phase.
A designer without a sense of history is worth nothing.
If you can design one thing, you can design everything, because the discipline of design is the same.
The life of a designer is a life of fight: fight against the ugliness.
