Vignelli Canon

Well, it was interesting. There was a lot of…I guess thoeretical?….talk at the beginning. Conceptual. Like nothing that you can turn around and DO something with, which was kind of annoying. Hostly after the first few paragraphs I just skimmed. It was all so abstract it got sort of annoying, like a little pretentious, you know? but I mean I did like what he was saying, it sounded good, it just wasn’t very useful. But then it started to get into specifics and all the design rules-of-thumb and such were great. I mean, as the guys said himself, good art involves knowing when to follow the rules and when to bend or even break them. But it’s hard to know where to start if you don’t have any rules. I found the practical and specific guidelines sensible and helpful. They all made good sense aesthetically and practically, and also somehow weren’t too constricting. All in all, it seems like a document that’s good to know about, and to refer back to when putting together any design project. The guidelines for page layouts and fonts and such were particularly useful, as was the discussion on the use of space and how it can be used and abused to affect the feel of a layout.