Massimo Vignelli
This man is now one of my top 5 designers. My first impression of him was that he was this cute little old man. The way he couldn’t figure out how to put on the microphone, and innocently asking “is it on?”. I seriously wanted to just run up and give him a hug.
Before this lecture, I had no idea of his name, but I did know of some of his work, such as his mushroom-like lamp made of blown glass. I remember seeing it in an issue of Wallpaper magazine a month or two ago, and I’ll never forget the caption; “I don’t care what it is, I want it.” That’s the response I think all design should get.
The moment he spoke, I immediately just admired his way of thinking. He offered a lot of great advice while describing his portfolio.
-Pursuit of quality…. how do you produce quality?
-“I don’t like designs that are transitory…your designs must be ‘timeless’ : what looks great now must be great 50 years from now…”
-“I despise wimpy design”
-“If you can’t find it design it”
-(crap I can’t read my notes but he said something like this:)
-“3 things you must have as a designer: imagination, courage, be fast.”
-“ugliness sometimes prevails design”
I love this next quote: “choose the job that will put you on the map.”
I kind of disagree with him on his take on bad clients vs good clients “you should always work for the top client” I mean (and Massimo even said), if it’s the job that will put you on the map, just deal with the client and money should not be the object. Like, right now I’m working for someone who is rather difficult, but I think the project is a dream.
I could go on and on about this lecture but I may bore you, so…. I’ll skip ahead to the breakfast thing…
During the breakfast (ok, more like sugar boost), I got a different impression of him. I mean, he was still ‘cute’ but now being in a smaller room with him, I suddenly felt very… intimidated by him. I got a sense that things were now a bit more serious, even though he was pretty light hearted and joking with us. His presence alone was very empowering.
I like how he described the difference between a Graphic Artist and a Graphic Designer. (graphic artists do more illustration stuff, hardly any text is involved; graphic designers do illustrations as well, but they also use text.)
I also liked his description of design… something about “so long as there is an essence, it’s design.”
Also, I enjoyed his response to my second question about the difference between art and design. Art and design are essentially the same, however art no use; it functions, but it has no use. Design actually has a use. I have somewhat more of an understanding now. I say somewhat because, I think that there are art forms that are useful as well. Like for instance a painting. The wall in my living room looks ugly, therefore i will put a painting on it. Isn’t that painting useful in that sense? You are using it to fill a space to be more visually compelling. I don’t know, that may be a bad example. Maybe I just want to disagree with Massimo on that issue. Is music art? or design?
Alright, I think I’m done…
