The rules that made me
JA
February 15
Over at the Design Observer Michael Bierut has an interesting article on his modernist upbringing at iconic type foundry Vignelli Associates. A must for type nerds (myself included):
The rules weren’t written down anywhere or even explicitly communicated. They were more like unspoken taboos. Using Cooper Black, like human cannibalism or having sex with your sister, simply wasn’t done. For many young designers in the studio, the rules were too much. They resisted (futilely), grew restless (eventually), and left. By staying, I learned to go beyond the easy-to-imitate style of Helvetica-on-a-grid. I learned the virtues of modernism.
I learned attention to detail. Working with a limited palette of elements leaves a designer nowhere to hide. With so little on the page, what was there had to be perfect. I learned the importance of content. Seeing Massimo design a picture book was a revelation. No tricky layouts, no extraneous elements. Instead, a crisply edited collection of images, perfectly sized, carefully sequenced, and dramatically paced. Nothing there in the final product but the pictures and the story they told.
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Comments
15 Feb 11 at 16:50
Fascinating piece. Relates back well to the learning of writing as well. Operate within the rules until you have the chops to break them usefully.
...16 Feb 11 at 10:20
Yes exactly – “The rules you grow up with are what make you, as a person and as a designer. The trick is to remember, every once in a while, to fuck them up a little.”
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