Massimo Vignelli dies at the age of 83
27/05/2014.
[NY] USA
metalocus, ÁNGEL BLANCO
metalocus, ÁNGEL BLANCO
Massimo Vignelli – the avant garde designer who created, with her wife Lella Vignelli, New York's subway signage and the American Airlines identity – has died this morning at the age of 83, in New York.
Massimo Vignelli 12 June 2010. Designer Massimo Vignelli at the Rochester Institute of Technology Cary Graphic Arts Collection.
On the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies — the organization founded by Peter Eisenman-, from 1973 through the Institute's closing in 1985, Vignelli was responsible for the graphic design not only of its journal Oppositions but also of its other publications and various printed matter, including posters, stationery and catalogues.
The New York City Subway diagram. Corrections to the previous version, designed by Massimo & Lella Vignelli,1972.
Detail of New York City Subway diagram by designed by Massimo & Lella Vignelli..
American Airlines corporate identity, designed by Massimo & Lella Vignelli, 1967.
American Airlines corporate identity, designed by Massimo & Lella Vignelli, 1967.
Handkerchief Chair, designed by Massimo & Lella Vignelli, 1985.
Along with Graphics Massimo also designed some timeless glass and silverware which can still be purchased today. A Company CIGA produces these items with Massimo's designs.
Kitchen and glassware by the Vignellis.
Kitchen and glassware by the Vignellis.
Massimo & Lella Vignelli.
Pentagram partner and former Vignelli employee Michael Beirut paid tribute to the designer in Design Observer:
"He was able to bring enthusiasm, joy and intensity to the smallest design challenge. Even after fifty years, he could delight in designing something like a business card as if he had never done one before."
"It was Massimo who taught me one of the simplest things in the world: that if you do good work, you get more good work to do, and conversely bad work brings more bad work. It sounds simple, but it's remarkable, in a lifetime of pragmatics and compromises, how easy it is to forget: the only way to do good work is simply to do good work. Massimo did good work."
Vignelli's family announced he was gravely ill earlier this month, when his son Luca issued a public invitation to anyone who had been inspired by Vignelli and his work to write him a letter.
Vignelli died at his home in Manhattan on Tuesday morning and is survived by his wife, his son and daughter, and three grandchildren.
