Quick Design History: Massimo Vignelli #ThrowbackThursday

Massimo Vignelli (1931-2014)

Massimo Vignelli was a designer, teacher, writer and lecturer who worked within the Modernist day. He designed with simplicity through basic geometric shapes, few typefaces and a strict grid, believing there is an order to everything.

Born in Milan, Vignelli studied at the Politecnico di Milano and later at the Università di Architettura in Venice. He first lived in New York City while on a fellowship, but returned for good in 1966 to work as a graphic designer. In the early 1970s Vignelli and his wife Lella founded Vignelli Associates. He ended up working with his wife for over 50 years—pretty impressive!

“I like design to be visually powerful, intellectually elegant and above all, timeless.”

Vignelli is most famous for designing the NYC Subway System but has also worked with IBM, Knoll, Bloomingdale’s and American Airlines. There’s no doubt you’ll recognise a lot of his work.

I appreciate Vignelli’s practicality. I get satisfaction seeing everything in its place. I also love that you can walk the streets of New York City and see his imprint everywhere.

Michael Beirut, a Vignelli menthe and employee at Vignelli Associates, once said: “The whole city of New York was a permanent Vignelli exhibition. To get to the office, I rode in a subway with Vignelli-designed signage, shared the sidewalk with people holding Vignelli-designed Bloomingdale’s shopping bags, walked by St. Peter’s Church with its Vignelli-designed pipe organ visible through the window. At Vignelli Associates, at 23 years old, I felt I was at the centre of the universe.”

It’s important to note how much Vignelli loved the typeface Helvetica. He loved it so much—he even created a documentary about it! Definitely worth a watch if you appreciate the beauty of typography.

Vignelli stressed the idea that “if someone can design one thing, they can design everything.” He was a firm believer in intellect and intelligence in design, and his philosophy pushes me to create my best work every day.

One of my favourite Vignelli quotes is: “I like design to be semantically correct, syntactically consistent and pragmatically understandable.” A great rule of thumb for any designer.

Can you imagine having a mentor like Vignelli? Well, you sort of can! Towards the end of his career Vignelli released a free e-book, wanting to pass on some of his knowledge to people. Read it!

Who’s up next week for Throwback Thursday? A design legend known for his involvement in the Dada art movement.