Sawdust & Glitter – Fill in the blanks for Vignelli’s chart

2009 Sep 01

Fill in the blanks for Vignelli’s chart

Massimo Vignelli seems to have an unusually high optimism for the Modern age, as he thinks that change is inevitable every 10 years. Nevertheless, this is an interesting analysis showing the progressions or cycles in styles in design (or mostly graphic design). Since Vignelli had already filled in 60’s to 80’s, so let’s fill in 90’s and 2000’s!

Modernism	Post-Modernism		Computer Revolution	Internet Revolution
60’s	70’s	80’s	90′s	2000′s
discipline	appropriateness	ambiguity		idiosyncrasy
idealism	pluralism	semiotics	deconstructivism	critical regionalism
objectivity	aspecificity	subjectivity		subjectivity
simplicity	complex simplicity	complexity		simplicity
structure	program	meaning	value
absolute	consistent	relative
geometry	articulate geometry	contradicting geometries	computer geometries	organic geometries
one stylistic code	contrasting stylistic codes	double stylistic coding		one stylistic code
form follows function	form & function	semiotic form	ergonomic form	formlessness
no symbolism	controlled symbolism	expressive symbolism		complex symbolism
no humor	surprise as humor	contradiction as humor	shock value as humor	irony as humor
anti-metaphor	towards metaphors	metaphor
anti-ornament	structure as ornament	ornament	ornaments for nostalgia	mass personalization
orthodox grid	loose grid	complex grid		dynamic grid
one typeface (Helvetica)	few typefaces	variety of types	counterfeit typefaces (Arial)	humanist typefaces (Myriad)
one type size	few type sizes	hierarchy concept	too many type sizes	dynamic type size
primary colors & black & red	rainbow	muted colors	over-exposed colors	silver, white and black
high gloss	soft	contrasting textures		high gloss
asymmetry	dynamic symmetry	symmetry plus asymmetry		asymmetry
sameness	identity	diversity		personality
rigid systems	modular systems	accidental systems		computational systems
less is more	less is a bore	the more the better	buy more!	spend less