The thing I liked the most about the booklet by Vignelli was the first thing he said about Semantics, Syntactics, and Pragmatics. He opens by saying, “Semantics, for me, is the search of the meaning of whatever we have to design.” What I took this to mean is that starting of the piece of work that you’re creating has to come from an “original” idea that you come up with. No matter what other people think or say about it, all that really matters is what it means to you. It also means that you have to put time and effort in before you even start designing anything. I think that counts for a lot when trying to dissect a piece of work. You can’t just make a judgment off of your first glance. You have to look deeper and think about what the artist might have been thinking.

The next thing he says is, “The syntax of design is provided by many components in the nature of the project.” I think that he is saying that every little detail adds to the overall meaning. There could be things that none of the viewers even get the chance to see about a piece of work if they don’t get to see it in it’s original form and setting. He also says, “The consistency of a design is provided by the appropriate relationship of the various syntactical elements of the project: how type relates to grids and images from page to page throughout the whole project.” What I feel like he is pointing at is kind of like typography. As in, the way the fonts and words go together add to the overall meaning of the piece. It adds to the originality of the piece and it also adds that relationship to real life.

The last thing he said tripped me up. It through me off because of what I interpreted his first saying to mean. He says, “Whatever we do, if not understood, fails to communicate and is wasted effort.” I thought that this conflicted with the original statement about searching for the meaning. I absolutely did not see that coming. I don’t know If I was just totally of or if they have nothing to do with each other. What he’s saying is that if viewers don’t interpret the piece the way you wanted it to be interpreted then you have wasted your time. I don’t think that is true but I have to understand his side.

I really appreciated and learned from reading this booklet. Please let me know how you interpreted what he was saying.