Quote

Don't be governed by the grid, govern the grid. A grid is like a lion cage - if the trainer stays too long it gets eaten up. You have to know when to leave the cage - you have to know when to leave the grid.

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
Stays
Trainer
Lions
Trainers
Gets
Cage
Leave
Cages
Long
Eaten
Like
Governed
Lion
Grid
Govern
Grids

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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.
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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.
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I see graphic design as the organization of information that is semantically correct, syntactically consistent and pragmatically understandable.
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A grid is like underwear, you wear it but it's not to be exposed.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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If you do the best thing everyday of your life, but nothing shakes you nor shakes the table for you and others, it is stale and its not worth it.
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I like it to be visually powerful, intellectually elegant, and above all, timeless.
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Design without discipline is anarchy, an exercise of irresponsibilit y.
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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.
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In design, be logical, search for truth, be clear.
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If you can design one thing, you can design everything.
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It is better to starve than get a bad client.
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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.
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One life is too short for doing everything.
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There are people that thinks that type should be expressive. They have a different point of view from mine.
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