Reflection of Vignelli

To start, I love how the reading started off. At first I did not understand the first line because I was unsure of what the words Semantic, Syntactic and Pragmatic meant. Though, I loved to learn the fact that semantic was the meaning behind the graphic picture or design and to me that is very important because why would someone even think of creating something without meaning? Why create something that in the long run was nothing more than something pointless, I feel as though meaning needs to be appropriately attached to everything in life, including design.

When it came to the idea of syntactic I dreaded seeing that word because I am currently in a  linguistics class and the idea of referring to syntax and design is terrible. Though I do understand how it relates because a project and design have to have consistency throughout them in order for the meaning to become more apparent to the viewer, so they both relate back to each other.

All art should be able to stand alone by itself and thats where the idea of pragmatics come in because we want everything to be able to stand alone by itself and to be effortlessly created. We do not like boring, simple, limp designs; we want designs that are fashionable and cover fabs and that will truly grab the viewers attention. I think the idea of discipline is very important because if someone does not have goof time management skills or timeliness of completing tasks, they run in the conflict of potentially being sloppy and careless. Quality over quantity is a very important quality in which the fact that we want to truly pay attention to details and want to focus on what is being asked, not the almost easy way out.

I think the idea of appropriateness is also important. As a designer, one does not want to reach out to the wrong audience, or to use the wrong materials, they like to reach the correct level of appropriateness and use the right style of design.

Ambiguity can really help with the understanding of a design and it relates back to the original idea that all designs need to have meaning, this is the art of finding one or more meanings in something, almost like looking outside the box.

To me, visual power is the next biggest thing next to meaning because something has to be visually appealing to the eye and to the observers in order for it to be successful. It is also very important to be responsible with designs, which relates back to the idea of appropriateness and making sure you are designing things along appropriate means, but also you want to make a design that is going to stick around, one that is going to last and be around for a while.

I think paper size and the letterheads are also important because it is apart of the design, which is what draws the viewers in, makes them want more.

By reading this article, I do agree, but I also learned how important design is and that is because you have so many different options as a designer. Things like flush left, flush right, center, margins and titles are just a few ways you can express yourself in design, but also a few ways in which you can loose appropriateness and your views satisfaction. I learned thanks to this reading you truly need to be careful about what you design and there are so many factors that go into the idea behind a simple design.