Graphic Design Truisms

Whatever we do, if not understood, fails to communicate and is wasted effort.

We design things which we think are semantically correct and syntactically consistent but if, at the point of fruition, no one understands the result, or the meaning of all that effort, the entire work is useless.

Massimo Vignelli: “The Vignelli Canon”, p. 14

Sometimes you sacrifice legibility for impact.

Herb Lubalin

Don’t confuse legibility with communication. […] It’s a very thin line between simple and clean and powerful; and simple and clean and boring.

David Carson in Helvetica (59:50)