Massimo Vignelli Ameela Persaud

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“If you can design one thing, you can design everything.” – Massimo Vignelli Massimo was born in Milan in 1931. He studied architecture in Milan and Venice, and then moved to New York City in the sixties, where he worked for Unimark International, and eventually opened his own office, Vignelli and Associates. Vignelli has worked with may companies, such as Bloomingdales, American Airlines, IBM and Knoll. meel Massimo Vignelli is a well known Modernist. Modernists use practices and perspectives of the new lives and ideas provided A A by the technological advances of the industrial age that helped His work focuses on simplicity through his use of basic Persaud geometric forms. It is also evident in Vignellis designs that he pays close attention to the functionality of his designs. He is also known for his knowledge and use of typography. His design style is very clean, and reflects through his work with Helvetica. Helvetica is one the typefaces that perfectly combines functionally with modernism. It’s a typeface that can clearly be read and understood while still having a dominant, sleek look. One of Vignelli’s most well known logos is the American Airlines logo. In 1967, he created the halp red, half blue, plain type logo to stress the professional attitude of the company. The simplicity of the red and blue Helvectica “A’s” are timeless and can be recognized in an instant. Vignelli’s logo was unique because of its simple, yet elegant and modern approach. A suc- cessful logo is a logo that can be easily recognized and understood. It doesn’t represent the company as a whole. Rather, it gives a glimpse of the company. Visually it’s clear that the company is American by the logo design. The American Airlines logo encompasses a company that is both modern yet traditional, eye catching and patriotic, by using our national colors. Vignelli is also well known for his Bloomingdales and Saks Fifth Avenue Bags. Once again, he stayed true to his minimalistic approach using a Helvetica like typeface, keeping everything legible and clean. Of all his design works, one of Massimo Vignelli’s greatest con- tribution to New Yorker’s is the New York City street and subway signage and maps. The clear typeface, and the bright colors makes a complicated city, easy to navigate. The subway lines are color coordinated making it easier to understand and navigate. Massimo Vignelli says he “reimagined the MTA New York City Transit subway system as a neat grid of colored lines surrounded by a beige ocean.” I like design to be semantically correct, syntactically consistent, and pragmatically understandable. I like to be visually power- ful, intellectually elegant, and above all timeless –Massimo Vignelli .

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Oral History Interview with Massimo Vignelli, 2011 June 6-7
Oral history interview with Massimo Vignelli, 2011 June 6-7 Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. Contact Information Reference Department Archives of American Art Smithsonian Institution Washington. D.C. 20560 www.aaa.si.edu/askus Transcript Preface The following oral history transcript is the result of a tape-recorded interview with Massimo Vignelli on 2011 June 6-7. The interview took place at Vignelli's home and office in New York, NY, and was conducted by Mija Riedel for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. This interview is part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. Mija Riedel has reviewed the transcript and have made corrections and emendations. This transcript has been lightly edited for readability by the Archives of American Art. The reader should bear in mind that they are reading a transcript of spoken, rather than written, prose. Interview MIJA RIEDEL: This is Mija Riedel with Massimo Vignelli in his New York City office on June 6, 2011, for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. This is card number one. Good morning. Let's start with some of the early biographical information. We'll take care of that and move along. MASSIMO VIGNELLI: Okay. MIJA RIEDEL: You were born in Milan, in Italy, in 1931? MASSIMO VIGNELLI: Nineteen thirty-one, a long time ago. MIJA RIEDEL: Okay. What was the date? MASSIMO VIGNELLI: Actually, 80 years ago, January 10th. I'm a Capricorn. MIJA RIEDEL: January 10th.
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Designersresearch – Copy
GraphicGraphic DesignersDesigners ResearchResearch MASSIMO VIGNELLI Massimo received his ar- chitecture degree from the Politecnico di Milano. Married Lella Vignelli and together they created a small design studio: the Lella Unimark International was launched and Massimo Vignelli Office of Design in New York as Massimo Vignelli ex- and Architecture, Milan. panded his buisness. -US National Park Service -Saint Peter’s Church NY inte- rior (1977 ) Subway Map MTA NY City Transit Authority 1953 1960 1966 (1970) 1957 1965 (1967) 1971 American Airlines In this period, Vignelli attended the Moving to Chicago,US and School of Architecture and Universi- founding Unimark Interna- ty of Venice. tional. Vignelli resigned from UI and established his new corporation: Vignelli Asso- ciates. W I M C R O U W E L Crowel is a graphic design- er and typographer born in the Netherlands. In 1963 he founded the studio To- tal Design, now called To- tal Identity. His most well known work has been for the Stedelijk Museum. His typography is extremely well planned and based on very strict systems of grids. He has also designed ex- positions, album covers and identity systems. He has published two type- faces Fodor and Gridnik, digitized versions of both are available from The Foundry. S A B A U L S S Saul Bass was an American graph- He hand draws ic designer. He was most of his de- best known for his signs. He also design of motion Saul is best known makes anima- picture title se- for simple, geomet- tions. He uses quences, film, film ric shapes and their visual meta- posters, and clas- symbolism.
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Massimo Vignelli
Massimo Vignelli Alexander Fusté Studio I Fall 2014 Massimo Vignelli, born and raised in Italy, brought to America a new style of minimalist and grid based design. Massimo did so with his wife and business partner Lella Vignelli. He began designing professionally in 1950 and never stopped until he passed on May 23, 2014.1 He and his team created the faces of some of the most iconic and well known branding and designs in the world. Because their philosophy of design isn’t limited to just graphic design, they focused on many projects in many ﬁelds throughout their career. Because, to the Vignelli’s, “If you can’t ﬁnd it, design it.”2 Massimo’s interest in Graphic Design began in Italy pre his marriage to Lella. It was here that he realized that he wanted to continue his life pursuing ‘good design’ in America with Lella. This idea of ‘good design’ was not simply limited to graphic design. Vignelli says in his book “Design is one” that “subjects change, materials change, processes change, but the creative and investigative mind proceeds relentlessly”.3 This process is applied to all created objects. After he arrived in America he cofounded Unimark and was the design director.4 This was a great starting point for Vignelli and gave him many opportunities. However, it was when he and Lella founded Vignelli Associates, did they really skyrocket to the design superstars they are today. 5 Massimo worked on a basic grid system throughout his the career. Why the grid? Because Massimo believed that good design is timeless and the grid will 1 AIGI.
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Kathy Brew in Conversation | Inspiration
Shop & Browse Inspiration In Conversation Kathy Brew Kathy Brew The Design Is One codirector talks behindthescenes with the Vignellis Kathy Brew found her way into film by way of a long career in media and contemporary art. After working in the Bay Area for fourteen years, Brew returned to her native New York in 1994 to begin work as an Associate Producer for “City Arts,” Channel 13’s Emmy-award-winning program on the visual and performing arts. While working on that series, Brew met her husband, Roberto Guerra, an accomplished filmmaker and longtime friend of the modernist designers Lella and Massimo Vignelli. In 2014, Roberto Guerra passed away on Massimo Vignelli’s birthday, January 10, after a six-month fight with pancreatic Photograph by Ana de Orbegoso cancer. Just months later, Massimo died at his home in Manhattan. He was 83. The last film that Brew made with her late husband, Design Is One: Lella & Massimo Vignelli, was created from footage that captures the Vignellis full of vim and verve, before health complications began to interfere with their ability to work. Along with Helvetica—a documentary film about Massimo Vignelli’s favorite typeface—Design Is One has helped catapult the Vignellis to a new level of public consciousness. After interviewing the Vignellis and former co-workers, Brew and Guerra compressed almost fifty years of work by the creative couple into the eighty-minute feature film, introducing many to the duo that helped shape America’s typographic urban landscape and the entire field of design in the latter half of the 20th century.
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Ygb(I)V: Horizontal Color in the New York Subway
Robert R. Stenson Intro to Archaeology Joanna S. Smith 25 October 2007 R(o)ygb(i)v: Horizontal Color in the New York Subway The subway arrives in color. In our minds, our stations, and our maps, the New York City subway system arrives in colors: red, blue, orange, green, purple, etc. Whether you are holding a map, navigating the station, or standing on the platform, deciphering this subway means using color as a tool of instantaneous and conscious differentiation. That is, when we trace a line with our finger, spot a sign, or peer into the tunnel, we are consciously looking for a specific color, and can know instantaneously whether or not a train is “ours.” But the nature of this scheme is to operate in a “vertical” orientation. As we ride toward our destination, we ride with a color; as we glide north and south beneath the grey city, moving against the horizontal grid of cross-streets, the A train remains blue and the 1 remains red—no matter what station, either West 4th or 200th. But little-known in the New York subway complex is a limited, enigmatic system of “horizontal” color, bands of colored tile on station walls—a system which, theoretically, gives us the sense not of moving with a color, but through changing colors: green at West 4th, red at 200th etc. As a result of poor documentation and limited use, however, what we know of the colors is preserved primarily on the subway station walls; a once-modern scheme has silently become archaic, found only in an archaeological context.
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Designed By: Lella Vignelli
Designed by: Lella Vignelli Designed by: Lella Vignelli Acknowledgements This book is dedicated My most sincere appreciation to: to Lella Vignelli, Jan Conradi, with many thanks for an inspiration to all her patience and advice in reading and correcting my English. women designers who Mauro Sarri, who endured my forcefully stand on the continuous changes of the layouts and type to achieve this book design. power of their merits. New York, NY 2013 Massimo Vignelli Introduction For decades, the collaborative role of inspiration and incentive for young women in life and in the profession, should be based women as architects or designers working who are shaping their careers. Times are on mutual respect and appreciation for each with their husbands or partners has been changing… partner’s talent, sensibility, and culture. under appreciated. Fifty years ago, it was No partnership can exist, or last, without this standard practice that the head of the office The supporting role of the woman architect fundamental basis. was the man and the woman partner had has often been created by macho attitudes a subordinate role. At best, the woman’s of the male partner. Most of the glory went Lella and I have been partners, lovers, a creative input and professional influence to the men (not accidentally) while the married professional couple for more than was only vaguely accepted; often her women, as partner architects, found that half a century. From the beginning, our contributions were dismissed and sometimes their role was dismissed or totally ignored. relationship has been bonded by our mutual even forgotten.
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(Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway by Paul Shaw November 18, 2008
FROM VOICE ~ TOPICS: branding/identity, history, signage, typography The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway by Paul Shaw November 18, 2008 here is a commonly held belief that Helvetica is the signage typeface of the New York City subway system, a belief reinforced by Helvetica, Gary Hustwit’s popular 2007 documentary T about the typeface. But it is not true—or rather, it is only somewhat true. Helvetica is the official typeface of the MTA today, but it was not the typeface specified by Unimark International when it created a new signage system at the end of the 1960s. Why was Helvetica not chosen originally? What was chosen in its place? Why is Helvetica used now, and when did the changeover occur? To answer those questions this essay explores several important histories: of the New York City subway system, transportation signage in the 1960s, Unimark International and, of course, Helvetica. These four strands are woven together, over nine pages, to tell a story that ultimately transcends the simple issue of Helvetica and the subway. The Labyrinth As any New Yorker—or visitor to the city—knows, the subway system is a labyrinth. This is because it is an amalgamation of three separate systems, two of which incorporated earlier urban railway lines. The current New York subway system was formed in 1940 when the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit), the BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit) and the IND (Independent) lines were merged. The IRT lines date to 1904; the BMT lines to 1908 (when it was the BRT, or Brooklyn Rapid Transit); and the IND to 1932.
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Friends of the New York Transit Museum
Friends of the New York Transit Museum NYTM 2012 Annual Report Mission he mission of the New York Transit Museum is to collect, exhibit, interpret and preserve the history, sociology and technology of Tpublic transportation systems in the New York metropolitan region and to conduct research and educational programs that will make the Museum’s extensive collection accessible and meaningful to the broadest possible audience. 2012 Snap Shot ATTENDANCE 133,633 visitors to the Brooklyn location 133,633 390,762 visitors to Gallery Annex & Store at 12% increase Grand Central Terminal 119,167 1,063 Seniors admitted for Free Senior Wednesdays EDUCATION AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS 9,875 weekend workshop attendees 1,205 school and camp groups served (25,894 individuals) 151 special needs groups served 1,972 67 public programs and walking tours 8% increase 1,833 EXHIBITS AND ARCHIVES 7 exhibits installed 1,958 photographs cataloged and 72 objects photographed and cataloged 710 drawings, maps, posters, documents, ephemera cataloged 9,875 328 library books cataloged 18% increase 983 phone and email researchers 8,346 110 on-site researchers 47 donations and internal transfers 1 Artist Antonio Masi demonstrates his watercolor technique. Masi’s bridge paintings were featured in the exhibit, “New York’s Golden Age of Bridges.” From the Director n October 31st, 2012, two days Museum cemented its position as a resource after Hurricane Sandy slammed into and a leader in the special needs community. ONew York, the Transit Museum was Thanks to a $150,000 capacity-building grant one of the first cultural institutions in the from the Booth Ferris Foundation, the Mu- city to reopen, offering free admission and a seum created and filled the new position of much-needed distraction for families strug- finance director, marking an important step in gling to recover from the storm.
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Erven E. Van De Geer Calendars Designed by Wim Crouwel 1957–79
Erven E. van de Geer Calendars Designed by Wim Crouwel 1957–79 !PRODUCTIVE ARTS! For Sale from Productive Arts This collection of thirteen Erven E. van de Geer calendars (published from 1957–79, non-consecutive) are an exemplary example of Wim Crouwel’s graphic design method. Each one is unique in size and technique (see individual descriptions). Also included are important process and reference materials related to specific calen- dars: four original photos by Cas Oorthuys, c. 1975.; twenty-two original photos by Mels Crouwel, c. 1979; and calendar designed by Jan van Toorn (Drukkerij Mart. Spruijt, 1973–74). All items are in very good, original vintage condition with light handling throughout and moderate wear visible. This collection is from the archive of the former Managing Director of van de Geer. Price, additional photos and detailed condi- tion reports are available upon request. !PRODUCTIVE ARTS! Howard Garfinkel and Larry Zeman [email protected] www.productivearts.com 216.262.0578 3 Erven E. van de Geer Calendars Designed by Wim Crouwel 1957–79 Few graphic designers have the distinc- Crouwel’s calendars for the small printing tion of influencing the aesthetics of firm Drukkerij Erven E. van de Geer, which an entire nation. For over six decades he designed every year from 1957–82 are beginning in the 1950’s, Dutch graphic particularly notable. Van de Geer, based designer Wim Crouwel (1928–2019) in Amsterdam, published and printed the instilled a Modernist methodology into calendars as client gifts to demonstrate client projects for the cultural, commer- the firm’s breadth of capabilities.
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Massimo Content Outline
Massimo Vignelli 1. WEB SITE RESEARCH Topic research: On the topic of your choice 1. What is the educational benefit of the information related to your topic? People will learn about the design influence that Massimo Vignelli had on the design community and ultimately their lives. 2. What types of viewers will be interested in your topic? Mainly those interested in the field of graphic design. 3. What perceived value will your topic give to your viewers? A better understanding of Vignelli's work and it's place in design history. 4. Primary person(s) of significance in the filed of your topic? Massimo Vignelli, Lella Vignelli, Vignelli Associates 5. Primary person(s) that made your topic information available? Massimo Vignelli, AIGA 6. Important moments or accomplishments in the history of your topic? The implementation of the grid system, the introduction of Helvetica, the introduction to Modernism in design. 7. How did the media of times of your topic treat your topic? They didn't cover it often, but they were all affected by the designs. 8. Current events related to your topic? The American Airlines rebranding 9. Anything else that will help you better understand your topic for this project? e.g. related academic research and or related books and articles on your topic? Similar websites research: Links to the examples of effectively organized and designed similar websites 1. A topical educational website? What makes this website effective? 2. A collection based website? What makes this website effective? 3. An archival or museum website? What makes this website effective? 4.
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Vignelli Was a Celebrated Italian Graphic Designer Around the Twetnieth Century
Vignelli was a celebrated Italian graphic designer around the twetnieth century. His V art work conveyed his ideas of simplicity through his extremely geometric and clean M designs. He did a lot of work for corporate companies and industries such as ‘American A I Airlines’ as well as designing the entire New York subway map. Massimo Vignelli was born on January 10, 1931 in Milan, Italy. During his life he G attended art schools and earned an architecture degree from the ‘Politecnico di Milano’ in 1953. S During the start of his career, his main area of expertise was graphic design for N corperate identity creation and products. S After marrying his wife Lella Vignelli in 1957, a few years later they established E their own design studio, the ‘Lella and Massimo Vignelli Office of Design and Architecture’ in Milan, Italy. The studio focussed on designing office products, I L furnitue, graphics and domestic products. Vignelli employed many geometric shapes in his designs such as cubes, pyramids, L spheres and cylinders in many, if not all of his designs. In 1971, Massimo and his wife M founded another firm, Vignelli Associates. His firm attracted very high profile clients seeking new and interesting designs for their products. Some of these clients included O I Knoll, Bloomingdale’s and IBM. Bass Saul Saul Bass was born on May 8th, 1920 and died April 25th, 1996. He was a graphic designer and filmmaker, well known for his design of film posters and title sequences. During his 40 year career, Bass worked for some of Hollywoods most renowned and greatest filmmakers at the time, these included Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder and Martin Scorsese.
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MOVIES The New Mexican's Weekly Magazine of Arts, Entertainment & Culture Tuesday, August 4, 2015 HOME ART BOOKS CALENDAR COLUMNS MOVIES MUSIC OPERA PERFORMANCE RESTAURANTS ABOUT CONTACT SUBSCRIBE "Design Is One": Designers Massimo and Lella Vignelli Posted: Friday, November 8, 2013 5:00 am Paul Weideman | 0 comments Massimo and Lella Vignelli may not be household names, but everyone knows their work; it includes the logos of J.C. Penney, American Airlines, Knoll, and Bloomingdale’s, the design of Ford’s blue oval, and the brochures for the national parks. The couple “brought the freshness of Italian design” to the United States in the 1960s, according to the 2012 film Design Is One, which opens Friday, Nov. 8, at the Center for Contemporary Arts. Besides their iconic graphics, the Vignellis have designed teapots, jewelry, lamps, glassware, books, decanters, clothing, cutlery, and architectural spaces The Knoll Handkerchief Chair (1982) including the Bauhaus-reminiscent Vignelli Center for Design Studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Lella is an architect, born in Udine, Italy, to a family of architects. She is the “grounding” force in their collaboration, the one who brings her husband’s creative flights down to the realm of possibility. “I try to be really very rational and explain why the thing doesn’t work or is not right. The trust came out with the years. We were much more competitive when we were young,” she says in the film. “It is important to bring the objectivity to Massimo, because he is very subjective.” The two often bicker and shout at each other; it’s part of their process.
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