The Design of Massimo Vignelli

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“I like design to be semantically correct, syntactically consistent and pragmatically understandable. I like it to be visually powerful, intellectually elegant, and above all timeless�.

Massimo Vignelli

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Enter the Designer

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assimo Vignelli is a world renowned graphic designer who has shaped the course of design and branding. Born in Milan, Italy in 1931 Vignelli started his schooling in design through architecture rather than the field of graphic design. Together with his wife Lella Vignelli, he opened his first design studio in 1960, Vignelli Office of Design and Architecture in Milan. It wasn’t until he came to America in the mid-1960’s that he truly started design work. Vignelli often described himself as an “information architect” he was someone who structured information to make it more understandable. That is how his work then progressed during the remainder of his life until he died at the age of 83 on May 27, 2014. Vignelli had his own way of designing products and designs.

With this idea in mind, Vignelli designed logos, branding, packaging for companies that were simple and always used typography to make it timeless. One of his most well known designs is the the New York subway map and system.

When Vignelli first designed it, the public were unhappy with the map due to it being intricately designed and hard to read. It ignored the streets and locations of buildings above ground, so a rider who has never ridden the train before has no idea how to get from point A to point B. The revision of the map, printed in 1972, shows a simpler design that serve’s the public’s need. In 2011, the M.T.A had warmed to the idea of Vignelli’s original design and had asked him to create an interactive one for their website. Quotes from the architecture critic Paul Goldberger, writing that the revival of Vignelli’s map and original was in his view...

“..More than beautiful. It was,” he said, “a nearly canonical piece of abstract graphic design.”

New York Times

Top left: New York Subway Sign System designed by Massimo Vignelli in 1966

Bottom left: Washington Metro Transporta-

Quoted from Paul Goldberger, writing on The

New Yorker website in 2011 about the original design of the New York subway map.

tion Graphic Program designed by Massimo Vignelli in 1968.

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Timeless Design

“You can reach timelessness if you look for the essence of things and not the appearance. The appearance is transitory–the appearance is fashion, the appearance is trendiness–but the essence is timeless”.

Massimo Vignelli Top left and bottom left: Galleria

Corporate Identity, designed 1964.

Top right: Fassiti Wines Packaging

designed by Massimo Vignelli 1994.

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Vignelli and Typography “Out of thousands of typefaces, all we need are a few basic ones, and trash the rest.”

Massimo Vignelli

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s comical as this is, Vignelli has a point. In each of his designs there is an absence of expressionism with the typography; rather straight and to the point making the piece both timeless and striking. As Vignelli’s career started growing, he started to suggest making simplistic design a staple in graphic design. This was very unusual and even Vignelli had to admit that “trying to do timeless things is a dangerous game”.

Left: Piccolo Teatro di Milano

designed by Massimo Vignelli in 1964.

Right: Type Pollution Exhibit Poster

designed by Massimo Vignelli in 1991.

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“The life of a designer is a life of fight against the ugliness�

Massimo Vignelli

Top left: Fort Worth Art Museum

Graphic Program Poster designed 1976.

Top right: Knoll International Poster designed 1966.

Bottom: American Center Garth

Fagan Dance Spread designed 1994.

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Throughout his life Vignelli has created simplistic designs in corporate identity and branding that today still have not changed, aiding to his style of timelessness and views of design. He believed that through design, information could be beautiful and give more meaning than what is just typed on the page; while designing something timeless that the public will create as an icon and of in itself.

“If you can design one thing, you can design everything�

Massimo Vignelli

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Designed and wrtten by Katherine Wood

Composed in Helvectic Bold and Helvetica Light Oblique, typefaces designed by Max Miedinger with input from Eduard Hoffmann in 1957.

Copyright © 2018 Katherine Wood, Portland, Maine, Maine College of Art

Vignelli, Massimo. The Vignelli Canon. Zürich: Lars Müller, 2015.

Vignelli, Massimo, and Lella Vignelli.

Design–Vignelli. New York: Rizzoli, 1981.

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