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I see graphic design as the organization of information that is semantically correct, syntactically consistent and pragmatically understandable.

Massimo Vignelli

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Massimo Vignelli
Age: 83 †
Born: 1931
Born: January 10
Died: 2014
Died: May 27
Architect
Designer
Furniture Designer
Graphic Designer
Interior Designer
University Teacher
Milano
Italia
Understandable
Graphic
Correct
Consistent
Organization
Design
Information
Pragmatically

More quotes by Massimo Vignelli

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I don't think that type should be expressive at all. I can write the word 'dog' with any typeface and it doesn't have to look like a dog. But there are people that [think that] when they write 'dog' it should bark.
Massimo Vignelli
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One life is too short for doing everything.
Massimo Vignelli
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It is better to starve than get a bad client.
Massimo Vignelli
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If you do it right, it will last forever.
Massimo Vignelli
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A designer without a sense of history is worth nothing
Massimo Vignelli
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You can reach timelessness if you look for the essence of things and not the appearance. The appearance is transitory — the appearance is fashion, the appearance is trendiness — but the essence is timeless.
Massimo Vignelli
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I grew up with a pencil. A pencil was my computer at the time and so drawing, drawing, drawing and the tools of drawing where the usual ones and eventually then you graduated from the tools when the work increases and you start to draw by freehand as precise as possible and as accurate as possible, and I was pretty good at that.
Massimo Vignelli
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Design without discipline is anarchy, an exercise of irresponsibilit y.
Massimo Vignelli
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I like it to be visually powerful, intellectually elegant, and above all, timeless.
Massimo Vignelli
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Scale is a mental - you can say that a lounger has scale, a building has scale, or an object has scale, or a page, or whatever if it's just right. A scale is a relationship to the object and the space surrounding it. And that dialogue could be music, or it could be just noise. And that is why it is so important, the sense of scale.
Massimo Vignelli
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There are people that thinks that type should be expressive. They have a different point of view from mine.
Massimo Vignelli
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A grid is like underwear, you wear it but it's not to be exposed.
Massimo Vignelli
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The pencil you leave it there, and it's dead. It doesn't do anything and it doesn't move by itself. It doesn't offer anything it's totally submissive to you.
Massimo Vignelli
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Most of the manufacturers they tend to design things to sell they are more interested in the money side than anything else.
Massimo Vignelli
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The only way to stay in fashion is never be in. If you are never in fashion, you are never out of fashion.
Massimo Vignelli
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Men's clothing hasn't changed in 200 years, maybe a lapel gets a little wider or a tie gets narrower from time to time. But it's usually always the same. There is stupidity in men's fashion. But women know who they are. They can change. Clothing is seductive for women. They get different personas by buying new clothes. But men don't.
Massimo Vignelli
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Graphic Design is the communication of information in an appropriate visual manner.
Massimo Vignelli
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Intellectual elegance [is] a mind that is continually refining itself with education and knowledge. Intellectual elegance is the opposite of intellectual vulgarity.
Massimo Vignelli
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In design, be logical, search for truth, be clear.
Massimo Vignelli
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The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design.
Massimo Vignelli