Lella Vignelli

Early life

Lella Vignelli was born in Udine, Italy. She received a degree from the University of Venice's School of Architecture and a tuition fellowship as a special student at MIT's School of Architecture. Since 1956, Vignelli has concentrated on design. Indeed, she was involved in the formation of ADI (Associazione per il Disegno Industriale), the major Italian professional design organization, in the same year. In 1962, she became a registered architect in Milan.

Work

In 1959, Vignelli joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as a junior interior designer in Chicago. In 1960, in conjunction with her husband, she established the Massimo and Lella Vignelli Office of Design and Architecture in Milan where she specialized in interiors, furniture, exhibition, and product design. In 1965, she formed the corporate design consultancy Unimark International, Corporation for Design and Marketing, with her husband, Bob Noorda, and Ralph Eckerstrom. Shortly thereafter, Vignelli became the Unimark executive interior designer in its New York office. In 1971, the Vignellis established Vignelli Associates and opened offices in New York, Paris, and Milan. Some of Lella and Massimo Vignelli’s most well-known designs from this period involved aspects of identity for numerous major clients including Knoll International, for which the couple undertook a comprehensive review of all aspects of the company’s visual presence (commencing in 1966); American Airlines, for which they designed the airline’s iconic logo (1967); and the New York City Subway, for which they designed the sign systems and map (commencing in 1966). In later years, the couple’s noteworthy commissions included the corporate identities for Bloomingdale's department store (1972) and for automobile and motorcycle manufacturers Lancia (1978) and Ducati (1992), as well as the signage system for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997). Their significant furniture designs included the Handkerchief chair for Knoll International (1982), the Serenissimo table (1985) for Italian manufacturer Acerbis, and the Magic coffee table (1990) for Acerbis’s lower-priced Morphos label. Other Vignelli designs have also included retail layouts for Artemide, jewelry for Cleto Munari, and glassware for Venini and Steuben Glass Works.

Finally in 1978, Vignelli became the CEO of Vignelli Designs, being a talented designer in the fields of interiors and product design. She collaborated closely with the architect Denise Scott Brown. LelIa Vignelli was a frequent speaker and juror for national and international design organizations. She was a member of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), the International Furnishings and Designer Association (IFDA), and the Decorators Club of New York.

She and her husband were described as "iconic, impossibly exotic characters" in New York. In 1972, the Vignellis designed a map for the New York subway system based on "abstract simplicity". For example, all of the lines bend only at 45 or 90 degrees. Every line has a color. Every stop is designated with a black dot, the corresponding negative of the colored circular signs on the actual platform.

Their design firm has helped create branding for many companies including Knoll American Airlines, the Ford Motor Company, American Airlines and Bloomingdale's. Even though their accomplishments belong to both Lella and Massimo, Lella's critical eye guided the rational and geometric language one can find in their work.

Lella Vignelli, whose real name is Elena Valle, died in her home in Manhattan on December 22, 2016 at age 82 from dementia.

Awards

Lella and Massimo’s work has been recognized by the following:

Lella Vignelli's contributions while at Vignelli Associates

Vignelli Associates, founded by Lella and Massimo Vignelli in 1971, worked in corporate identity, transportation, architectural, books, magazines, and exhibition design.

Corporate Identity Programs

Packaging

Transportation Graphics

Philosophy of design

Vignelli believed that all design should stem from a core discipline that could be translated to any project. She also believed that design should be integrated into the production process instead of added superficially at the end.

Vignelli's design is centered on communication through simplicity and careful planning. She used subtractive design, rather than additive design, to restrain her own influence and allow the essence of the design to come through. Emphasis was placed on existing and ancient motifs and elements, as well as materials' natural characteristics. She viewed words as a way to communicate actual ideas rather than serving as visual decoration, and this is evidenced by her heavy use of black text on a white background. In general, color was used for its emotional and sensual power.

As Vignelli Associates, Lella and Massimo’s designs embraced corporate identity design alongside exhibition, furniture, product, and publication design.

Vignelli Center for Design Studies

Massimo and Lella Vignelli agreed to donate the entire archive of their design work in 2008 to the Rochester Institute of Technology, near Rochester, New York. The archive will be exhibited in a new building designed by Lella and Massimo Vignelli, to be known as The Vignelli Center For Design Studies. The building, which opened in September 2010, includes among its many offerings exhibition spaces, classrooms, and offices.

Quotations

If you can't find it, design it.

If you do it right, it will last forever. It's as simple as that.