Massimo Vignelli was one of the most important designers of the 20th century. Working in the modernist tradition, he is famous for designing the New York’s subway signage and for many enduring identity designs, among them the identities of American Airlines, Ford, Knoll International and Bloomingdales.
Vignelli was also famous for advocating a limited palette of typefaces, saying that “In the new computer age, the proliferation of typefaces and type manipulations represents a new level of visual pollution threatening our culture. Out of thousands of typefaces, all we need are a few basic ones and trash the rest.”
Watch a documentary about Massimo Vignelli and his wife and design partner Lella Vignelli: Design is One: Designers Lella & Massimo Vignelli. (This movie streams on Kanopy, which you can access free with your CUNYfirst login.)
Read The Vignelli Canon, a manual for young designers written by Massimo Vignelli.
