Free typography book

Massimo Vignelli released his book about typography for free in PDF readable format. You may ask yourself who is Massimo Vignelli?

Massimo vignelli, born in milan, he studied architecture in milan and venice. He travelled to the united states from 1957 to 1960 on fellowships from towle silversmiths in massachusetts and the institute of design, illinois institute of technology, chicago. In 1960, with lella vignelli, he established the vignelli office of design and architecture in milan. In 1965, massimo vignelli became co-founder and design director of unimark international corporation. With lella vignelli, he established the offices of vignelli associates in 1971, and vignelli designs in 1978. His work includes graphic and corporate identity programs, publication designs, architectural graphics, and exhibition, interior, furniture, and consumer product designs for many leading american and european companies and institutions. Vignelli has had his work exhibited and entered in the permanent collections of several museums; notably, the museum of modern art, the metropolitan museum of art, the brooklyn museum, and the cooper-hewitt – museum in new york. He has has taught and lectured on design in the united states and abroad. He is a past president of the alliance graphique internationale (agl) and the american institute of graphic arts (alga), a vice president of the architectural league, and a member of the industrial designers society of america (idsa). The head office of vignelli associates is located in new york.

Vignelli Associates created many famous brand names like: United colors of benneton, American airlines, Dupont, Ford, Xerox, Lancia and many more.

Back to the book

In the Vignelli book contained on 96 pages, you will find core information about graphic designed summed in two parts. In part one you can read about basic graphic design principles: Semantics, Syntactics, Pragmatics, Discipline, Appropriateness, Ambiguity, Design is One, Visual Power, Intellectual Elegance, Timelessness, Responsibility, Equity.

Part two explains all about: Paper Sizes, Grids, Margins, Columns and Modules, A Company Letterhead, Grids for Books, Typefaces, The Basic Ones: Flush left – centered – justified, Type Size Relationships, Rulers, Contrasting Type Sizes, Scale, Texture, Color, Layouts, Sequence, Binding, Indentity and Diversity, White Space, A collection of experiences and Conclusion.

Download the book: http://www.vignelli.com/canon.pdf