OUGD403 - Vignellis 6 Basic Typefaces

On Monday the 5th of October we also were briefly introduced to Massimo Vignellis 6 basic typefaces.

"Out of thousands of typefaces, all we need are a few basic ones, and trash the rest."

(Vignelli 2015: 56)

Vignelli believes that we don't need all of the typefaces that have been produced as there are literally thousands. He thinks that these basic six, are all you need to produce a piece of design from.

Vignellis six basic typefaces:

1. Garamond
2. Bodoni
3. Century expanded
4. Futura
5. Times Roman
6. Helvetica

I thought that it was a really interesting way too look at things, on the one hand I do understand and feel that there is such a large amount of typefaces it will be easier and quicker to choose off this list. If you were to chose from this list it would probably be easier in the sense that there is less choice so you don't spend hours searching through thousands. But then again I do not know if these typefaces are appropriate in every situation/context, I feel that we should have freedom as a designer to apply whatever typeface we feel best suits. 

I intend to read 'The Vignelli Canon' to gain a better understand of why he believes that we only need these 6 typefaces.