Design is One by Vignelli

As an architect, in the starting of my professional career, I used to wonder about the limits of designing. What an architect should be able to design and what he must (or can) not?

One day, the principal of my office asked me to describe 'Design' in not more that five sentences. That day I realized that more than architecture, its design that matters! Designing is architecture. Architecture is designing. Its been around half a decade and I have tried my hand on architecture, graphic designing, cooking, marketing and.. I see design everywhere. In a knife to a billboard.. in a chair to a movie or a song. I see it everywhere and thus, now I have started studying everything to understand design in order to complete my quest.

What has inspired me the most till date is Massimo Vignelli's quote where he says that if you can design one thing, you can design everything! Vignelli, himself being an architect by degree, is celebrated as a graphic designer, a product designer and what not. The more I read or watch about him and his wife, the more I get inspired to try out new things. Lately, as I started working on some graphic design projects, Vignelli's idea of Design is One started making more and more sense to me.

He and his wife, work and design together, and have penned a wonderful guide for people out there in the field of Graphic design - THE VIGNELLI CANON - a guide or a handbook, this is a must for all those who are studying or practicing in the field of graphics. The best part it is available for all and can be downloaded here.

As the couple themselves have been working on this philosophy for long, I would and cannot describe it anyway. Having said that, what I extract from it is the motivation and confidence of experimenting in design. 'Design' is a process and it is just that the 'thing' you are going to design is what makes the whole difference. The process remains same, every time.

Here is the sneak peek to the documentary Design is One