My Thoughts About 'The Vignelli Canon'

Upon reading the 'Vignelli Canon' and basic research of it's author Massimo Vignelli, I got an understanding that every design must have a base. A designer must first understand the core of what their designing in order to come out with a piece of work that can fully uphold itself and convey to the audience properly. Also understanding certain design practices such as texture, light and colour so that you can produce a design that can surpass through time.
 Being ambiguous is also a good thing as it shows various perspectives within designing, though it can also connote lack of control. He also notes that preserving iconic logos and designs serve better than change as they already have certain connotation to the public and is essentially part of a culture and history. Vignelli also voiced his preference to order. Having a certain to paper sizes for example, as opposed to complicated systems that results in an endless confusion and inefficiency. 

He is also a firm modernist and believes information and simplicity is key to a good graphic design. It's not what typefaces or letterforms have certain connotations in order to portray a certain mood but what you can do with basic and standard typefaces in order to relay your intentions to the audience to.  It's by using certain features effectively e.g. type size that you can relay a message successfully. Vignelli also mentions, "It is really the white that makes the black sing." This to me screams simplicity and the importance of creating order and a phase in your design. It's being able to create a fluid design that takes an audience through a journey especially when designing a series or a set e.g. a book, magazine spread. - "White space, not only separates the different parts of the message but helps to position the message in the context of the page." 

Overall, I do agree with Vignelli to some extent. Being able to have the knowledge of the basics in order to create designs that are able to 'stand by itself in all its clarity'- something everyone can look at and understand. However, I do believe there's room for a wider range of typefaces than Vignelli's 6 basic typefaces (Garamomd, Century Expanded, Time New Roman, Futura, Helvetica and Bodoni) than can also portray simplicity and is suitable for a certain piece of design.