Bidding Farewell to Massimo Vignelli

The design world mourns the great loss of the visionary graphic designer Massimo Vignelli. Yesterday, the world-renowned Vignelli passed away after a long illness. At 83 years old, he had accomplished an exceptional amount; his work spanned the globe and amassed a high-profile clientele with a wide variety of products, from American Airlines to Gilette to IBM.

Massimo Vignelli, born in Milan in 1931, was strongly influenced by the city’s Northern Italian Renaissance architecture. From a young age, he had set his sights on architecture as a profession. After working his way through the University of Venice’s architecture school, he joined several other designers to open a New York branch of Unimark International. Vignelli and his wife, Lella, founded their own firm, Vignelli Associates, which eventually became Vignelli Designs, in 1971 and served as a home base for the two to work together. Since then, his reputation has only become more revered and respected. Vignelli sought to create a “timeless thing in a dangerous game” through graphic design.

Vignelli’s most famous designs include the NYC subway system map, the Washington D.C. metro, as well as the countless others that have been displayed in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  In 1985, he was awarded the first Presidential Design Award by Ronald Reagan for his work for the National Park Service Publications Program. 6 years ago, the Vignellis donated their entire archive of their design work to the Rochester Institute of Technology, creating a new building, The Vignelli Center for Design Studies.

Through his works, teachings and design center, Vignelli’s impact will continue to resonate.

-Marissa Bondi