IAN massimo vignelli: typographer

• "The life of a designer is a life of fight: fight against the ugliness."
• "I don't think that type should be expressive at all. I can write the word 'dog' with any typeface and it doesn't have to look like a dog. But there are people that [think that] when they write 'dog' it should bark."
• "If you can design one thing, you can design everything."
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• There are people that thinks that type should be expressive. They have a different point of view from mine.
• You can say, "I love you," in Helvetica. And you can say it with Helvetica Extra Light if you want to be really fancy. Or you can say it with the Extra Bold if it's really intensive and passionate, you know, and it might work.
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• The first half hour Mr. Vignelli toured us through various of his designs related to “journeys” – including signage systems for subways, stations and airports; several logos; travel guides; street signs and so on. Then, suddenly there was a snap, and to our astonishment he started ranting and raving against the “thousands of rubbish typefaces” that polluted the visual landscape and created this “visual clutter” he couldn’t stop complaining about. He particularly had issues with digital distortions, and the fact that current type design went wide, not deep, meaning there was no depth nor research involved. Mr. Vignelli concluded by pontificating that all the world needed were six timeless typefaces that could cater to every single communication problem: Helvetica, Times, Futura, New Century, Garamond and Bodoni if I’m not mistaken. He ended his talk to rapturous applause, which puzzled me a bit as he had given a clear impression he didn’t regard the type design activities from most of the attendance very highly.
• www.fontshop.be/details.php?entry=87
• www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/275437.Massimo_Vignelli
• www.imdb.com/title/tt0847817/quotes
• www.vignelli.com/
• www.designboom.com/eng/interview/vignelli.html