Massimo Vignelli Essay

In this modern day of computers and information technology, creating and plan an amazing object or place will be much easier due to the graphic throw programs that are available to help modern day artist and designers. Nevertheless, it still involves the knowledge, skills, and experience of the designer. The talent of the designer to resurrect a detailed yet beautiful design for a particular object is the one that are being paid for. One of the respected and happy designers in New York is Massimo Vignelli.He dedicated his life in designing and almost involved in various areas that requires his skills in creating and organizing beauty out of nothing. This known designer was born in Milan, Italy. He took up his bachelors degree in architecture at the Milan Polytechnic from 1950 to 1953 before completing it at the Universita di Architettura in Venice where he met his wife, Leila Vignelli. Massimo Vignellis root professional work was at Venini where he used to be a glassware design er. He taught at the Chicago Institute of figure from 1958 up to 1960 while his wife, Leila, worked as an architect for Skidmore, Owing and Merrill in New York.With their intention to still be connected to their homeland, they returned to Milan and open a practice design for design which was named Leila and Massimo Vignelli Office for Design and architecture. In 1965, Vignelli came to Chicago where he arranged a meeting with Ralph Eckerstrom, once a design director at Container mint of America (CCA) and a good friend. In this meeting came the idea of establishing a new design firm. Then, Unimark International was born with its co-founders Vignelli and Eckerstrom.With their similar viewpoints and principles in design, Vignelli and Eckerstrom took the ch completelyenge in the corporate design world. The firms vision combining American marketing techniques with European modernist design within the same organization, creating an international firm that would blend in its strength t hrough the best designs in the world, refinement of communications and educating the American design market. The beginning of Unimark International would not be successful without the mess who believed in the concept of the two founders.Among those people who join the team of Vignelli and Eckerstrom were Bob Noorda, Larry Klein, James Fogelman, Robert Moldafsky, and at that time the respected design specialist Herbert Bayer. In 1971, Massimo Vignelli together with his wife, Leila Vignelli, founded the Vignelli Associates in New York. At the early years of the design firm, they have attained many corporate projects from Knoll, American Airlines, Bloomingdales, Xerox, Lancia, Cinzano, United Colors of Benetton, International Design circle around New York and Ford Motors. Additional contracts from Venini, Steuben, and Sasaki for glassware design were also taken by the firm.Vignelli Associates was also responsible for the design of the showrooms of Artemide and Hauserman. Soon, Vignel li put his attention in designing furniture for Sunar, Posenthal, Morphos and Knoll. Among the well-known works of Vignelli are the Handkerchief Chair and Paper Clip table of Knoll. With the reputation of the Vignelli as a designer of versatility with illustrious design characteristic of clean work and the reputation of using bold lines and pure color in their design, they took the responsibility in designing the New York Subway signage. The Vignelli Associates first design the subway in 1968.Vignelli together with Bob Noorda planned to make a signage based on simple principle of delivering the necessary information to the people through the use of the Helvetica Medium which was then an exotic medium from Switzerland. The New York Standard Medium was used in the design due to the unavailability of the first proposed medium. After four years, Vignelli proposed a new design of the New York subway that replaced his previous work. This time, no more obscured angle of train routes inste ad all angles are set to 45 and 90 degree angle. Each stop was represent by a dot and each train line was represented by a color.The final work was a beauty of design art yet it still taken geographical correctness. Internationally, Massimo Vignellis works were make to various museums and art galleries. Among the notable museums and galleries that houses Vignellis work are the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York. His works can also be seen at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Montreal and at Die Neue Sammlung in Munich. He also became a lecturer in design at post-mortem examination universities in the United States. Vignelli assumed many positions in various organizations in the US.These include the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and the Alliance Graphique Internationale as chairwoman in both organizations. He was also the past vice president of the Architectural League in the US and a member of the Industrial Desig ners fraternity of America (IDSA). Vignellis work was also been aired worldwide through the two feature-length television programs. A Europe tour of his work between 1989 and 1993 award some places to discover and see his magnificent art works. Vignelli received many awards and appreciation for his art works.Among Vignellis many awards are as follows Gran Premio Triennale di Milano (1964), Compasso dOro (1964, 1998) from the Italian Association for Industrial Design, Industrial Arts Medal of the American Institute of Architects (1973), Visionary Award from the Museum of Art and Design (2004), and the most recent is the Architecture Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2005. His latest work was the e-book entitled The Vignelli Canon which was released in January 2009. The copy of this modern version of Vignellis work can be downloaded for free from his website.ReferencesArt Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work. Retrieved April 5, 2009 http//www.a dcglobal.org/archive/hof/1982/?id=255Massimo Vignelli of vignelli associates. Designboom (2000). Retrieved April 6, 2009 http//www.designboom.com/eng/interview/vignelli.htmlUnimark International. Retrieved April 6, 2009 http//www.unimark-international.com/beginnings1.htmlbeginnings1