When it comes to design, I adore either the minimalistic or colorful approach. I try to get enough information and intent across in as little as possible, while using color to make everything more vivid and memorable. It’s something I appreciate about road signs. They use minimal geometry to get a message across, and have bright colors to catch your attention. They serve their purpose well often enough, which is impressive considering most drivers will only catch a 3 second long glance on them. Vignelli seems to understand this when he mentions his three main aspects of design: semantics, syntax, and pragmatism. The design must have intention, it must have just enough detail to convey that intention clearly and without confusion, and it must be elegant and aesthetic enough, but not too cluttered.

Most of Vignelli’s notes often refer to older and more physical designs. But his notes on typography are still relevant today, even to someone like me. When I attended a workshop on slideshow presentations, there was an entire section on what font to use. There’s a reason why it looks unprofessional to use Comic Sans! And there’s a whole debate on whether or not to use serif or sans serif fonts to make your work actually look appealing. But not just font type is talked about. Justification, size, and layout with respect to other objects all need to be taken into account. I haven’t used much font in my design assignments, but if I do, I’ll keep this in mind.

I also liked his section on white space. When it comes to design, sometimes empty space isn’t just a lack design; rather, it accentuates what the designer wants you to focus on. It can make all the difference in differentiating what makes a design pragmatic, and what makes it messy.  I actually learned quite a bit, even if the actual sections were short word-wise.