The Vignelli Canon · Massimo Vignelli · 2010
Massimo Vignelli was a renowned Italian designer known for his work in graphic design, product design, and furniture design. He believed a good designer could design anything and is best known for designing the New York City Subway signage system
Highlights
Semantics is the search for meaning in design. Design should have meaning and avoid arbitrary choices. You can choose a direction only once you've researched the history of the subject and understood it. Investigate complexity, ambiguity and understand the context of the use. Design without semantics is shallow and meaningless. The semantic test is to ask: Is every detail meaningful? Does it have a precise purpose aimed at a precise target? Design without meaning is vulgar, ignoring established culture.
Syntactics refers to bringing together components appropriately so their relationship to each other creates a consistent whole. God is in the details - that is the essence of syntax. Syntactics is the discipline of structuring elements correctly: the grid, typefaces, text, headlines, illustrations etc. Grids help designers achieve syntactical consistency and coherence.
Pragmatics means if your design isn't understood, it is useless and your effort is wasted. Clarity of intent translates to clarity of result.
Discipline in design necessitates attention to detail and a commitment to quality. Every detail is important - the end result is the sum of the details. Quality is binary; it is there or it is not there. Self-impose rules and operate within them. Discipline is key to achieving quality in design, regardless of style. Design without discipline is anarchical and irresponsible.
Appropriateness is identifying the specific needs of a project and ensuring solutions are tailored to these specifics. Find solutions that are genuinely suitable and resonate with the client.
Design is One - it is a unified discipline applicable across various subjects and styles. An architect should be able to design a spoon.
Visual Power means design should be visually powerful. Bring forward clear concepts and beautiful form. Use techniques like scale and type-weight to create impact.
Intellectual Elegance is what's behind historical masterpieces across various disciplines. It's about achieving a design beyond compromise. Strive to elevate even the simplest of objects.
Timelessness opposes temporary trends and fashions. Create work that is clear, simple and enduring.
Responsibility is a form of economic awareness and finding the most appropriate solutions for a problem. Be accountable at three levels: to yourself, your client and the public. Designs should stand on their own, without excuses, explanations or apologies.
Equity in branding and design respects the history and established value of previous designs. Avoid change for change's sake. Respect and preserve the established identity and cultural significance of designs.
Grids, margins, columns and modules are crucial tools. The grid is the most important tool in layout design, providing structure, consistency and elegance. A grid provides structure but allows for flexibility. A coarse grid is too restrictive, but generally the smaller a grid the less helpful it is. After structuring the page, place the information on the grid. Match the grid shape to the content to reduce cropping.
When it comes to typefaces, it's not the type but what you do with it that counts. Key typefaces include Garamond, Bodoni, Century Expanded, Helvetica, Optima, Futura, Univers, Caslon, Baskerville. "I don't believe that when you write the word dog, type should bark". Try to make the content clear by using space, weight and alignment.
For type size relationships, choose font size in relation to the width of the column. Stick to no more than 2 type sizes on a printed page. Play off small type with large type (twice as big). Heads and subheads should be the same size but bold, with a line space above and none below, or two above and one below.
Contrasting type sizes on a printed page creates excitement. Large headlines versus smaller body text, punctuated by appropriate white space, contribute to a compelling graphic composition. Stick to one or two sizes at most. White space stands out - it provides the silence.
Scale can be manipulated for expressive purposes. The right scale conveys the intended message effectively.
Colour is primarily used as a signifier or identifier. A primary palette of red, blue and yellow is used more symbolically than pictorially. Colour choice is dictated by appropriateness and the message to be conveyed. The spectrum of colours expresses various moods and feelings, with each colour chosen for its effectiveness in the context. Appropriateness is a key rule when choosing colours.
In layouts, management of white space is the most important thing. Bad layouts have no space for breathing.
Sequencing layouts is critical, creating a cinematic experience of turning pages. The nature of the content guides the sequence, ensuring that the layout is engaging yet not overpowering. "If you see the layout, it's probably a bad layout." You want the layout to disappear.
There's a tension between identity and diversity that must be balanced in a brand identity. Too much diversity leads to fragmentation, whilst excessive identity causes sameness. Consistent identifiers with varying elements offer variety without losing the core identity.
"White space is more important than the black of the type". Space helps provide context and define hierarchy. It separates components and positions the message within the page. Manipulation of white space, margins and letter spacing gives character and expression to the composition. Masterful use of white space is a distinctive feature of American graphic design.
In conclusion, design is a process of selection and refinement. Develop your own vocabulary of your own knowledge.
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Software Processes Are Software Too
Leon Osterweil. 1987. (View Paper → )
The major theme of this meeting is the exploration of the importance of process as a vehicle for improving both the quality of software products and the way in which we develop and evolve them. In beginning this exploration it seems important to spend at least a short time examining the nature of process and convincing ourselves that this is indeed a promising vehicle.
This paper argues that we should create the process of developing software with as much rigour and precision and we the software itself. We select and follow a formal process for software development to deliver a quality product and to avoid wasting of time and money.
Book Highlights
The best way to argue for the value of designing for behavior change isn’t to argue at all — but rather to demonstrate it. As Matt Wallaert nicely puts it: “Ideally, you wouldn’t talk about behavioral science at all in the beginning. Instead, you’d do your job really well for a year, earn respect, and then tear off the mask and say ‘Ta-da! It’s because of behavioral science!’” Stephen Wendel · Designing for Behaviour Change
Larry Keeley says that "users will reject new ideas if you ask them." This makes focus-group techniques suspect for any significantly innovative products. Today, most software-based products are sufficiently innovative to be un-focus-groupable. Focus groups can be effective for some product categories, but it is a mistake to trust them for a reliable evaluation of high-cognitive-friction products. Alan Cooper · The Inmates Are Running The Asylum
Your job, as a manager, is to get better outcomes from a group of people working together. It’s from this simple definition that everything else flows. Julie Zhuo · The Making of a Manager
Marketers ultimately need the capability to build predictive journeys that happen over longer periods of time (journey building) and the ability to manage interactions in real time across channels (RTIM). Martin Kihn and Christopher B O’Hara · Customer Data Platforms
Quotes & Tweets
By the way, the Marti Cagan books suck. He basically tells you, lots of things and nothing in concrete. He is very academic and 0% practical. The dude lives in a cloud of farts. UnArgentoPorElMundo · Reddit User
Al will cause the price of work that can happen in front of a computer to decrease much faster than the price of work that happens in the physical world. Sam Altman