Massimo Vignelli (born 1931 in Milan, Italy) Italian Graphic Artist and designer who has done work in a number of areas ranging from package design to furniture design to public signage to showroom design through Vignelli Associates, which he co-founded with his wife Lella. He has said, "If you can design one thing, you can design everything," and this is reflected in his broad range of work.
Vignelli works firmly within the Modernist tradition, and focuses on simplicity through the use of basic geometric forms in all of his work.
Life
Vignelli was born in Milan in 1931; through his teenage years, he became enthralled with design and befriended many of the great architects of his day. (He sometimes says his youth was spent as an "architecture groupie.") He went on to study architecture at the Politecnico di Milano and later at the Università di Architettura, Venice.
From 1957 to 1960, Vignelli visited America on a fellowship, and returned to New York in 1966 to start the New York branch of a new company, Unimark International, which quickly became, both in scope and in sheer number of personnel, one of the largest design firms in the world. The firm went on to design many of the world's most recognizable corporate identities, including that of American Airlines (which forced him to incorporate the eagle, Massimo is always quick to point out). Vignelli also designed the iconic signage for the New York City Subway system during this period.
In 1971, Massimo founded Vignelli Associates with his wife Lella.
Presently, Vignelli continues to work as a designer from Vignelli Associates' New York office.
Vignelli was involved with filmmaker Gary Hustwit in the documentary Helvetica, about the typeface of the same name.
Vignelli recently updated his 1972 New York City subway map.
Work
Massimo Vignelli has worked in a wide variety of areas, including interior design, environmental design, package design, graphic design, furniture design, and product design. His clients at Vignelli Associates have included high-profile companies such as IBM, American Airlines.
He recently donated a large portion of his work to the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Massimo Vignelli participated in the Stock Exchange of Visions project in 2007.
In January 2009 Vignelli released an e-book titled "The Vignelli Canon" which is available for free download on his website[1]. In the introduction Vignelli writes, "I thought that it might be useful to pass some of my professional knowledge around, with the hope of improving [young designers'] design skills. Creativity needs the support of knowledge to be able to perform at its best."
Vignellli 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 copper-hewitt- museum in new york he has taught and lectured on design in the united states and abroad. He is a past president of the alliance graphique internationale (AGI) and the American institute of graphic arts (AIGA), a vice president of the architectural league, and a member of the industrial designers society of America(IDSA).
describe your style, like a good
friend of yours would describe it.
spare, essential, intellectually elegant, strong, timeless
(at least I hope! )
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/vignelli.htmlhttp://www.designaddict.com/design_index/index.cfm/fuseaction/designer_show_one/DESIGNER_ID/222/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massimo_Vignelli
excellent
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