Please join us for our next Open Houses! March 20-21, 2024 10am-4pm.

The NYC subway map that never was. Or at least it was never implemented.

The NYC Subway graphics are some of the most requested artifacts from the Vignelli archives. We acquired this unique “verbal map” aka “The Directory” aka the “How to get there” map in 2022. Our archivist put it on display for the first time in 50 years at our Open Houses in September 2022!

 “The Verbal Map described how to reach a destination, which train to get, where to change, and when to get out.” – Massimo Vignelli [comment on Michael Bierut’s essay “Mr. Vignelli Map” for Design Observer]

Printed on very glossy paper in full color, this map is large like the station size maps. Printed in two parts [top and bottom] each half measuring 29.5” x 47.5”.

In the Graphic Standards Manual on Page 3 “Diagram of Basic Sign Distribution” it describes the various maps to be installed:

Maps: System maps (implemented, the famous one),

neighborhood map (not implemented),

‘How to get there’ map (not implemented but we have the prototype!)

From the Graphics Standards Manual on page 75, “The Directory”:

“The directory is designed to help a passenger find his “Destination” and “How to get there” quickly and easily. Each station will have its own directory listing all other station alphabetically and numerically. Each station will be followed by the color disc designating he trains that stop there. If there is no direct train, transfer information will follow the station name. This directory will be placed at all important points in the subways station both inside and outside the turnstiles.”

We also have the Dekalb Av Signage Study “analyzed and completed by Joan Charysyn and Virginia Macintosh” for Unimark International in 1971 which shows a mockup of the various maps and states “A directory and three maps will eventually be in use in all subway stations.”

Be sure to join us for our next Open Houses and see what other surprises you can discover! Learn more opn our events page: https://www.rit.edu/events/vignelli-center-spring-open-house

Image descriptions:

Happy International Women’s Day!

In 1988, Japanese magazine Idea published a special issue “Women Designers of America.”  43 women are featured including Vignelli Associates’ own Lella Vignelli and Rebecca Rose.

This 1985 Annual Report for Girls Clubs of America, designed by Rebecca Rose, warning girls not to dream about finding a wealthy husband to take care of them.

Text: “When I grow up a rich man will fall in love with me and marry me and take care of me.” At Girls Clubs, girls learn that fantasies don’t come true except in fairy tales.

Scroll through to see more of this Idea Special Issue including the table of contents which lists all 43 designers featured in the issue. 

“The intent is to collect and present phenomena involving how and what activities women designers are engaged in the upheaval of the American society of today. Therefore, designers presented here had to be artists having the caliber in one sense or another approved by the severe eyes of the present American society.”

– from the intro essay by Midori Imatake “A Torrent of Women Designers of America”

Please join us for our next Open Houses! March 20-21, 2024 10am-4pm.

Can a mug handle be transformed into a door handle? In 1992, Massimo Vignelli gave it a try! He took the iconic Heller mug handle and changed the scale, color, and material to do just that. Our archivist dug deep in the archives to put this project on display for November 2022 Open Houses.

Forms + Surfaces (a manufacturer of walls, ceilings, doors and site furniture) invited Vignelli along with architects Richard Meier and William Pederson to create new door pulls for NEOCON in June 1992.

It is not clear if this was ever produced (nor if Meier’s or Pederson’s versions were either for that matter). Prototypes, sketches, and a couple news articles survive in the archives. We only have a bit of documentation for the project, so we would love to hear from you if you know anything else about the project. Be sure to join us for our next Open Houses and see what other surprises she uncovers!

https://www.rit.edu/events/vignelli-center-spring-open-house

Rare find in the archives!

Poster design by Massimo Vignelli for the UNFCCC COP3 in Kyoto in 1997. For those that don’t recognize that acronym, that’s the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 3rd Conference of the Parties which was held in Kyoto, Japan.

Although we don’t have a copy of the actual poster, we do have this transparency in the archives which was simply filed under “Kyoto poster.” If you know about this poster, we want to hear from you!

“I love ambiguity because, for me, ambiguity means plurality of meanings.” – Massimo Vignelli

This deceivingly simple poster is an excellent example of ambiguity. What does “Sold Out” mean in this poster? Have we sold out of planet earth, as in there is no planet left? Or have we sold out the long term survival of our planet for sort term interests? What do you think?

Image description:

poster with photograph of the earth with a large yellow band across with the text “Sold Out” set on black background.

Happy 2024!

We're celebrating the new year with some deep cuts from the Vignelli archives: 1970s calendars

1979 Banca Cattolica del Veneto

We’ve saved the rarest of them all for our 1970s calendar finale! We haven’t seen this one published before! And we’re thrilled it even has some of the original design process preserved in the archives.

The year 1979 was proclaimed as the International Year of the Child by the United Nations and Massimo Vignelli designed this calendar titled “L’Anno del Bambino” for Banca Cattolica del Veneto featuring photography of children by an international roster of photographers.

Featured photographers:

Fulvio Roiter (Italy)

Gerger Tourdjman (France)

Paul Fusco (United States)

Charles Harbutt (United States)

Constantine Manos (United States)

Philip Masnick (United States)

Daniel Czap (France)

Daniel Arnault (France)

George Rodger (UK)

Burt Glinn (United States)

Sam Zarember (United States)

Happy 2024!

We're celebrating the new year with some deep cuts from the Vignelli archives: 1970s calendars

1977 Ciba Geigy

This is a rare one! A calendar for Swiss pharmaceutical company Ciba-Geigy.

The cover reads [in six languages]:

With our best wishes for the New Year

Avec nos meilleurs voeux pour l’An nouveau

Herzlichen Glückwusch zum neuen Jahr

Con nuestros mejores votos para el Año Nuevo

Con I migliori auguri per un felice Anno Nuovo

Com os nossos melhores votos para o Ano novo

Features beautiful scenic photos of Switzerland which are accompanied by an essay about environmental conservation by Dr. Bruno Moeckli, also in six languages.  

Excerpt from “Swiss Landscapes” essay in calendar [sorry, only posting in English due to space]:

“Wild scenery in Switzerland is now confined to nature conservation areas and some alpine peaks, In the process, too little thought was given to the preservation of the physical essentials of life, namely water, air and soil. Now, what formerly gave concern only to artists and idealists becomes of vital importance to us all.

With the growing realization of the extent to which the despoilation of air, water, and other natural resources has progressed, it has also been realized that the various aspects of nature conservation and environmental protection share the same ultimate objective: to permit the harmonious co-existence of all forms of life, whether human, animal or plant, all of which require an environment in which they can continue to flourish in the future. Despite his mastery of science and technology, man is no exception to this rule. Furthermore, man as a creature of aesthetic sensibilities is capable of appreciating and benefiting from natural beauty, both physically and spiritually.”

Click through all the images to also see Vignelli-designed pharmaceutical packaging for Ciba-Geigy from 1976.

Happy 2024!

We're celebrating the new year with some deep cuts from the Vignelli archives: 1970s calendars

Fort Worth Art Museum 1976

Although meant to be a programming calendar for the Museum and not really a traditional consumer calendar, it would look great on the wall as your primary calendar! The calendars feature a poster on the reverse side and were folded and set to museum supporters.

From design: Vignelli (1990):

“This graphic program, consisting of mainly posters for the museum’s events, was structured to be done quickly, inexpensively, and through long-distance telephone calls. We set up a simple format that we liked, a black band at the top for the museum identification, an information band for the events, and a band for the illustration. For the calendars, too we used a series of alternating bands for the days and events. The change became the pattern. We liked this series of calendars and posters because they have strength, aren’t trendy, and provide information effectively.”

Each month featured the same banded template but used a different second color to distinguish each month. The black bands with white text appear in every month, except for one month. April’s calendar has blue bands with black text for the calendar.

You can find Vignelli-designed Fort Worth Art Museum posters in a number of art museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt, and the Denver Art Museum.

Image captions:

1. January 1976 calendar

2. Gif slideshow from digitized vintage 35mm slides of each month of calendars for 1976 from January to September.

3.- 4. February 1976 calendar and poster on reverse [front and back]

5. – 6. Ink sketches by Massimo Vignelli for calendars on an invitation from the Istituto Italiano Di Cultura.

7. March 1976 calendar

8. April 1976 calendar

9. October 1976 calendar

Happy 2024!

We're celebrating the new year with some deep cuts from the Vignelli archives: 1970s calendars

Our first pick is the 1975 the Wild Places calendar

Design: Massimo Vignelli.

Text from the calendar:

The photographs in this calendar appeared in the book The Wild Places: A Photographic Celebration of Unspoiled America. [note: the book was also designed by Vignelli]

This matchless collection of photographs, drawn from a superb book, The Wild Places, is inspiring evidence that the remaining wildlands and wildlife of America are as breathtaking as ever.

Covering the continent from ice-strewn Alaskan tundra to the Southwestern desert and from a bird on a Maine island to a great Florida swamp, they reveal the wonder and mystery of untouched wilderness.

Eight of America’s leading photographers are represented her by their outstanding works, ranging from Eliot Porter’s winter wren, David Muench’s Painted Desert scenes and Charles Steinhacker’s bison in a storm to James Bones’ view of a Texas plateau. This is a calendar for anyone who cherishes the miracle that is nature and believes Thoreau that “wilderness is the preservation of the world.”

Published by Universe Books, New York. Prepared and Produced by Chanticleer Press, Inc., New York. Printed by Amilcare Pizzi, S.p.A. Milan, Italy.

“If you can design one thing, you can design everything.” 

The Vignellis were the rare type of designers who worked across all design disciplines and often for the same client. Our next round of Open Houses will focus on the theme “Design is One.” We’ll be focusing on the clients which the Vignellis did it all. Graphic identity and publications. Products and furniture. Interiors and exhibitions. See how “Design is One” comes to life through the archives. 

Want to see original artifacts from the archives but don’t know where to start? Join us at our Open Houses to have a look! No appointment required. Stay for a few minutes or stay for hours. 

As always, our galleries are open to the public and feature the greatest hits of the design work of Massimo and Lella Vignelli. But for the Open Houses, our archivist will be digging deep into the archives to show you one-of-a-kind original sketches and other artifacts of the Vignelli design process. You can see the designs that you know and love but expect many surprises even if you are a Vignelli “superfan!” 

Save the dates:  

9/20/2023-9/21/2023  

3/20/2024-3/21/2024

10am-4pm each day 

more details on our events page: https://www.rit.edu/vignellicenter/events

Vignelli Associates designed this huge neon “G” and the cantilevered stainless-steel benches for this for this 1974 branch of Greenwich Savings Bank lobby at Grand Central Station in New York City.

Architects Kahn and Jacobs / HOK designed the interiors of this two-story branch with a narrow entrance lobby and a 2nd floor where the all the banking happened. A huge two-story mirrored wall made the space feel larger but also created a reflection which doubled everything in the space. It made the cantilevered seating look twice as long and made the “G” turn into a circle.

This branch made the cover of Lighting Design & Application in October 1975 and Interiors in January 1976.

In the Interiors article author BR suggests this contemporary bank has a youthful energy which is full of the glitter and ambiguity of a discotheque. “The cantilevered red and green logo, its neon tubes heat-fused into glass, becomes a full circle through reflection, appearing to hang in space and having an almost revolving effect when viewed from the escalator.”

The rest of the spaces have tons of Italian granite, more stainless steel, custom lighting, and to balance all those hard and reflective surfaces, the “G” shows up on wall tapestries.

Cantilevered lobby seating: Concept by Vignelli Associates; fabricated by Scope Furniture Inc.; upholstery: Knoll Inc.

Neon “G” logo: Concept by Vignelli Associates; fabricated by Country Neon (Plainview, N.Y.)

We recently found this drawing and small pasteups for the big neon “G” in the archives. As always, if you know more about this project, we would love to hear from you!

Open Houses are back this week! Theme: Photography

Wed 3/22/2023-Thu 3/23/2023 10am-4pm each day. Free and open to all!

Want to see original artifacts from the archives but don’t know where to start? Now you can have a look! No appointment required.

Theme: Photography

The Vignellis’ archives is full of examples of photography. They partnered with photographers again and again in their designs for the artwork in posters, catalogs, and numerous monographs on nature, culture, and even photography itself. Vignelli Associates created graphic identities for photographers and photography exhibitions. We’ll display marketing photographs alongside their actual design artifacts and see for yourself how their thoughtful use of images showcased their designs. The archives contain numerous examples of photo formats from vintage Polaroids to digital images. In some cases, photography is all that survives as record of a design. Join us in highlighting the importance of photography and the Vignellis.

We will have a vintage slide projector straight from the Vignelli Associates office up and running! Stop by and see original slideshows assembled by the Vignellis’ themselves!

As always, our galleries are open to the public and feature the greatest hits of the design work of Massimo and Lella Vignelli. But for the Open Houses, our archivist will be digging deep into the archives to show you one-of-a-kind original sketches and other artifacts of the Vignelli design process. You can see the designs that you know and love, but expect many surprises even if you are a Vignelli “superfan!” Please drop in and stay for a few minutes or stay for hours.

More details about Open Houses can be found on the events page on our website: https://www.rit.edu/events/vignelli-center-open-house-1

 Image descriptions:

Irvin Blitz graphic identity (invitation on transparent plexiglass), c. 1986, Vignelli Associates (designer: Michael Bierut executed by: Tamar Cohen)

 Ndebele: Photographs by Margaret Courtney-Clarke book cover, 1986, book design by Massimo Vignelli

Portrait of Lella and Massimo Vignelli (35mm transparency), c. 1980s, Photographer: Luca Vignelli

NYC Subway Map Debate (b&w 35mm negative), 1978, Photographer: Stan Ries

Kroin graphic identity examples (35mm transparency), c. 1980s, Photographer: unknown

Hauserman Los Angeles showroom (35mm transparency), 1982, Photographer: Toshi Yoshimi

Knoll shopping bags being carried during Designer’s Saturday (35mm transparency), 1973, Photographer: Alessandro De Gregori

Knoll Bertoia poster, 1979, Photographer: Don Kennedy

Sasaki Colorstone dishware (4” x 5” color transparency), 1985, Photographer: Luca Vignelli

Compact stacking dishware (35mm transparency), 1964, Photographer: Norman McGrath

Found in the Archives! 

Vintage slides for a proposed Booklein identity circa 1970s. 

Booklein (pronounced book-line), named after the Klein News Co. president George Klein (an Ohio wholesale distributor of magazines, newspapers, and paperback books). 

In the 1970s, Klein opened Booklein, a retail newsstand, which specialized in selling, you guessed it, magazines, newspapers and paperback books. They also sold tobacco, candy, maps, calendars and lottery tickets. On mallwalkers.net, the Internet Museum of Shopping and Retail History, PS Gitano wrote about Booklein and shared this slogan: “For all the magazines you’ve ever wanted to read…and then some.” https://mallwalkers.net/booklein

Fantastic line drawings with “Vignelli red” accents illustrate a proposed store made of grids on the ceiling, walls, and floor layout. The signage in Vignelli red with white Helvetica lettering. A band of red wraps around the walls labeling each subject section such as “Science,” “Psychology,” “Dance,” “Art,” and “Music.” Suspended light cubes on the celling light up counter top cubes below with signs which say “stationery,” “accessories,” “lamps,” and “wrapping.” 

As with any graphic identity system, the proposal also included company van graphics, shopping bags, and stationery. Shopping bags featured the logotype enlarged to wrap around each side of the bag cropping it into fragments of text. One image shows a store front with the logotype stretching across the entire front of the building.   

Do you know anything about this project or remember Booklein? We would love to hear from you! For now, we can enjoy these images and ponder many puzzles: who designed their logotype? Was this Vignelli proposal implemented? Where are the originals that appear in these slides? Who is the artist for these illustrations?

Open Houses are back this week! 

Theme: TypographyWed 2/22/2023-Thu 2/23/2023 10am-4pm each day. Free and open to all!

On February 22, 1991, “A Few Basic Typefaces” exhibition opened at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in NYC. Massimo Vignelli was awarded their annual Master Series award which included an exhibition. He chose to highlight work in only a few typefaces: Bodoni, Century, Garamond and Helvetica. This week marks the 32nd anniversary of this exhibition.

SVA’s Masters Series began in 1988 as “an annual award exhibition to honor great visual communicators—designers, illustrators, art directors and photographers—of our time.”  Massimo Vignelli was the 3rd person to receive this honor. 

“It was a polemical exhibition to protest the inflation of meaningless typefaces polluting our world.“ Vignelli: From A to Z, p. 187 

For our Open Houses this week, we will be revisiting this exhibition and invite you to think about designing type and designing with type. You will be able to view many of the artifacts from this 1991 exhibition plus some designs done after 1991 that includes these 5 typefaces.

From the exhibition records, we found that the exhibition plan originally included designs using Times New Roman as well. You will be able to see these works too. Along with images of the original exhibition, the original exhibition checklist, and other documentation. Plus numerous OTHER typefaces, many custom, that appear in the Vignellis’ work. Futura. Optima. Didi. Bloomingtype. Our Bodoni. Our Futura. 

Plus numerous custom alphabets for architectural graphics, logotypes, etc. And we’ll have examples of designs using type that might seem very “un-Vignelli.”

 More details about Open Houses can be found on our website: https://www.rit.edu/vignellicenter/events

Open Houses are back!

Please join us for our next series of Open Houses which will focus on three aspects of the Vignellis’ design practice highlighted in the archives: architecture, typography, and photography.

Jan. 25-26, 2023 Architecture

Lella Vignelli came from a family of architects and both her and her husband Massimo Vignelli studied as architects in Italy. Although they were never licensed to practice in the USA, architecture and architects play a key role in their work. To celebrate the Vignellis connection to architecture we’ll display: books and magazines on architecture; graphics for architecture organizations, architects and real estate developers; architectural graphics on buildings, and interior designs.

Feb. 22-23, 2023 Typography

Massimo Vignelli was never shy about expressing opinions about type. But he also would say “today I say it, tomorrow I deny it.” The sheer number and variety of typefaces found in the Vignelli archives might come as a surprise. On February 22, 1991 the exhibition “A Few Basic Typefaces…” opened in NYC and featured Vignelli designs using only four typefaces: Bodoni, Century, Garamond, and Helvetica. We’ll revisit this exhibition showing many of the original designs on its 32nd anniversary. We’ll also be showing just how much variety there is in typography in the Vignellis’ work including creative uses of type and custom typeface designs.

March 22-23, 2023 Photography

The Vignellis’ archives is full of examples of photography. They partnered with photographers again and again in their designs for the artwork in posters, catalogs, and numerous monographs on nature, culture, and even photography itself. Vignelli Associates created graphic identities for photographers and photography exhibitions. We’ll display marketing photographs alongside their actual design artifacts and see for yourself how their thoughtful use of images showcased their designs. The archives contain numerous examples of photo formats from vintage Polaroids to digital images. In some cases, photography is all that survives as record of a design. Join us in highlighting the importance of photography and the Vignellis.

As always, our galleries are open to the public and feature the greatest hits of the design work of Massimo and Lella Vignelli. But for the Open Houses, our archivist will be digging deep into the archives to show you one-of-a-kind original sketches and other artifacts of the Vignelli design process. You can see the designs that you know and love, but expect many surprises even if you are a Vignelli “superfan!” Please drop in and stay for a few minutes or stay for hours.

Be sure to check our events page on our website for more details https://www.rit.edu/vignellicenter/events and stay tuned for more teasers and details. We can’t wait to see you!

The Stendig calendar has remained a classic for decades! It is not for the faint of heart at 48 inches wide by 36 inches high with bold black and white alternating pages (it even had a brief stint with color page in the 1980s). Designed in 1966 by Massimo Vignelli and has been produced every year since!

“We had always wanted to design a large calendar (3’ x 4’) with big numbers, visible from across a studio floor. Stendig provided us with such an opportunity. We designed the first one toward the end of 1966 and it was distributed in time for Christmas. By the end of December, it was already in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Thereafter, Stendig produced it for many years. It has inspired a number of more or less successful imitations.”

Photo descriptions:

Happy birthday, Massimo Vignelli!

The Max 365 by NAVA makes the perfect calendar to mark any important occasion. But especially Massimo Vignelli’s birthday. And rumor has it he adored how the number 23 looked on it. So it is also perfect to mark his birthday in 2023!

The design of this calendar was based on the Heller calendar for NAVA which featured the same typography for the numerals but also showed the day of the week, the month and the year. By stripping all of that away, the calendar becomes perpetual and timeless.

The Max 365 has been in production since 1976!

Open Houses are back this week!

Want to see original artifacts from the archives but don’t know where to start? Archives can seem like mysterious places hidden behind locked doors. Now you can have a look! No appointment required.

Drop in and stay for a few minutes or stay for hours. We can’t wait to see you for the next one this Wednesday 11/09 and Thursday 11/10 10am-4pm.

This month we’re focusing on 3D design. Furniture. Products. Interiors. Lighting. Geometry. Form. Function. Materials. Modernism. Inspiration. History.

From the Vignelli archives we are digging deep into the unknown. 1970s lamp prototypes that were never produced? Check. 1970s chairs straight from the vault for the first time? Check. 1990s Door handles? Check. Interiors for the Minneapolis Institute of Art? Check. Sunglasses, dolls, and jewelry? Check. Documentation for a mobile medical truck, a Formica table, and pens? Check. Original sketches, vintage photography, contracts, vintage magazines articles, and awards? Check. 100s of artifacts that can only be seen here? Check.

We’ll also have Special Collections highlights (aka non-Vignelli designs from the archives.) From the Product Timecapsule: Uniform Wares watches and process work. Examples of vintage Braun Products. Unimark International product catalogs and more!

Enjoy these abstracted teaser images and then come see the artifacts in real life! We’ll also be sharing highlights during the Open House if you can’t make it.

Enter through the University Gallery and stop by our design: Vignelli exhibition on the 2nd and 3rd floors then make your way up to the 4th floor to see 100s of artifacts from the archives.

No registration necessary. If you need a visitor parking pass, stop by the RIT Visitor’s Center to get a pass. Nearest parking lots are E of F. see https://maps.rit.edu/ for maps of the RIT campus.

Be sure to see our events page on our website for all upcoming Open Houses dates. https://www.rit.edu/vignellicenter/events Each month will feature different content from our archives, from the Vignellis and beyond! We will also have hands-on activities, special guests, related events, and, of course, tons of unique artifacts for you to peruse. Stay tuned for more details! We can’t wait to see you!