Massimo Vignelli, 1931-2014 | Hacker News Reader

Massimo Vignelli, 1931-2014

creativereview.co.uk

219 pointsmortenjorck16 comments

I didn't know the A series of paper sizes was built around the golden rectangle. Vignelli had some strong opinions on the US standard:

The international Standard paper sizes, called the A series, is based on a golden rectangle, the divine proportion. It is extremely handsome and practical as well. It is adopted by many countries around the world and is based on the German DIN metric Standards. The United States uses a basic letter size (8 1/2 x 11”) of ugly proportions, and results in complete chaos with an endless amount of paper sizes. It is a by-product of the culture of free enterprise, competition and waste. Just another example of themisinterpretations of freedom.

The A4 is the basic size for stationary. Two thirds of it is a square, a nice economical happenstance resulting from the golden rectangle. It is one of the reasons we tend to use as much as possible the DIN sizes: proportions are always leading to other nice proportions. This does not happen with the American basic size which leads to nothing. I counted 28 different standard sizes in USA!. The only reason we use it is because everybody in USA uses it, all stationary in USA is that size, so are manilla folders, files and office equipment! The repercussion of ugliness is endless.

>"I didn't know the A series of paper sizes was built around the golden rectangle."

It's late so forgive me if I'm wrong (and my maths/geometry ended at high school level back in 1985), but I don't think that's correct.

'A' series paper dimensions are based on the square root of two [1] which is a ratio of 1:4142.

The golden rectangle has a ratio of 1:1.618 [2].

'A' series paper sizes are basically halves of the parent size. You can't fit a golden spiral into that geometry.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size#The_international_s...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rectangle

The other constraint is that A0 sheets are one square metre in area. This leads to the neat formula for page sizes in metres being pow(2,(+ or -)1/4 - n/2) where n is the number of the sheet size. It's rounded to the nearest mm. Discussion here: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html

It's embarrassing but not too surprising that Vignelli confuses root 2 with phi. The culture of design and also architecture places a lot of importance on having things "just so" and much less importance on the reason why. It's an "uncertainty avoidance" thing, to use Hofstede's terms. It's not uncommon to hear strange claims about exact proportions in the human body from architects, which is part of the same attitude.

There's a recent book of investigations of phi by graphic artists that is slightly more rigorous: http://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numbe...

A sizes (1:√2 ratio) are related to the 'silver ratio' (not gold) which is "1:1+√2".

Regardless of names of precious metals, its a ratio using simpler numbers than "letter" format, which generally means it's more aesthetically pleasing

[Edit] it should be noted that (arguably) many Gothic cathedrals are based on a √2 ratio

I didn't know about the silver ratio, or rather that 1:√2 ratio is known as the silver ratio. Thanks for enlightening me.

Here's a great chart on the way the A series paper is subdivided: http://i.imgur.com/5yw7b6Q.jpg

If you're unfamiliar with Massimo's work, take some time to read The Vignelli Canon. It's a short work narrating his design principles and an influential design document.

http://www.vignelli.com/canon.pdf

The documentary 'Helvetica'[0] featured an interview with Massimo Vignelli. You can watch him talk about typography[1] and how he came to design his iconic 1972 New York City subway map[2].

[0] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847817/

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El8jDI_ZuiI

[2] http://www.helveticafilm.com/vignellimap.html

This man was an absolute giant of design. (Along with his wife, who is also an amazing designer).

For those of you unfamiliar with his work. He created a lot iconic imagery -- including the signage and maps for the subway system in New York City.

A quick google search or visit to [0] will reveal his talent. Btw, I always thought this website was quite poorly designed considering the Vignelli's abilities.

[0] http://vignelli.com/home.html

Rest in peace Massimo!

As a developer I have realized people often take so much for granted. For example, roads. You drive on them everyday and don't even think about it. For most people they are a given...almost a natural part of the world. But, someone decided where to put that road. They engineered the grade. They decided the specifications. Then crews came and worked building the road. The only time they are noticed is when the annoyances of road repair or closures occur. Otherwise, it's just like the sun coming up the morning. An accepted given. I think for most people the internet and associated applications have become the same thing.

So how much of our "reality" do key figures like Vignelli actually create? Something to think about.

As we're all very likely reading this in Helvetica font.

This is really sad to hear.

If you haven't read it, I suggest taking a look at The Vignelli Canon [0]. Some great insight into how he thought about design.

[0] http://www.vignelli.com/canon.pdf

That is an excellent read. Thanks for posting that.

"If you do it right, it will last forever." Words to live by.

How sad to hear this. As he dies, the design principles he championed are taking over the interface design world with a vengeance. The visual language in iOS 7, Windows 8 Modern UI, and even Google Now owes a lot to designers like him.

Rest in peace.

f*ck. This makes me very sad. My hero in black. RIP Massimo.

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