Born on January 10th, 1931, Vignelli grew up in Milan, Northern Italy, a surrounding with a wealth of talented architects and designers. At a young age, Massimo would sit and watch local furniture makers in their shops, as opposed to studying in school. “I was just watching, but it was the first time that I thought about furniture being made; it was when I discovered that things could be designed”. It was these experiences that gave Massimo an early interest in design.

By the time he was fifteen, it was clear that he was both uninterested and not doing so well in school. Instead, he enrolled in an arts college, where Massimo began to excel and adopted a passion for architecture. “I knew all the names of the major architects, and I was curious to learn more”. The college was broad in its scope, teaching a wide range of design disciplines. Moving forward to 1951, at the age of twenty, Vignelli was accepted onto the Architecture course at ‘Politecnico di Milano’. It was during this time that he offered a spare room to Swiss graphic designer Max Huber, who was in search for a place to stay. This was an important and often overlooked part of Massimo’s career, as Huber introduced him to the world of Swiss graphic design, using grids and proportions, for both layout and typography.

The following year in 1952, Massimo transferred to an Architecture course at the University of Venice. In between this period, he had met his future wife, Lella Valle. The years that followed were successful for the young couple, with their works being featured multiple times in the prestigious magazine ‘Domus’.

“If you can design one thing, you can design everything”. Setting up shop in Milan, Massimo worked on a range of projects, covering a wide variety of disciplines —from drafting architectural and exhibition plans with Pirelli and Olivetti, to creating advertisements and posters for ‘Piccolo Teatro’ and ‘Biblioteca Sansoni’.

It was during this four-year period, where Massimo’s personal style really started to develop with regards to graphic design. Following in the footsteps of Swiss modernist designers at the time. All work was grid-based, and had a clear typographic hierarchy, using predominantly one typeface—and perhaps two or three weights. Content would be minimal, with the notion that using imagery and decorative elements serves no purpose; instead, using whitespace and lines to divide areas of content is favoured. Above all else, the most important aspect of the modernist way of thinking was that the design had to be functional, and timeless.

These characteristics would define the work that Massimo Vignelli would produce for the rest of his career, and ultimately what we recognise today.

In January 1965, Vignelli, together with five partners—Ralph Eckerstrom, Bob Noorda, James Fogelman, and Wally Gutches—co-founded the design agency ‘Unimark International’. The company truly wanted to be international, initially launching with three offices in Chicago, New York, and Milan.

Driven with the notion of changing design in the western world and ‘making a mark’—hence ‘Unimark’—they aimed to partner with some of the largest corporations and brands in both Europe and America. It was also Massimo Vignelli’s intent to “spread the gospel of functional design” through Unimark, and the brands that they would work with.

His style and way of thinking, which had developed whilst working in Italy, heavily influenced the identity and fundamental standards of Unimark. The idea that the message being conveyed was the most important factor, and so using a clean sans-serif typeface is the first way of ensuring this.

Their aim was to create visual identities and systems that were uniform, structurally coherent, and neutral—rather than emotional and subjective. With this in mind, Unimark chose Helvetica as their primary typeface—with the desire to use it as much as possible—as it focused purely on communication, and had no emotion attached to it.

This seemingly fresh and modern approach to design had caught the attention of ‘Ford Motor Company’, subsequently becoming Unimark’s first major client. Whilst working with Ford to create their visual identity, Paul Rand had insisted that they [Ford] drop their current logo, in favour of a newer one which he had proposed. Massimo Vignelli was opposed to this idea, stating that they retain the logo. “Do not deny history. American culture is based on novelty, on difference” …” It is a continuing evolution, not a revolution”. This stance which Vignelli took—to respect a companies’ history—proved to be successful for Ford, a way of thinking that would be apparent with all future clients to come.

Following their success with Ford, Unimark really started to take off, working with many clients in a variety of areas in design. Identity design wasn’t the only focus of the agency; contracts for signage, maps, interior, exhibition and product design started to emerge. One of the most notable and well-known projects during this time was for American Airlines. Unimark was commissioned to reimagine their entire visual language and identity in 1967, with the development led by Vignelli. Their approach was to be decidedly ‘American’, using a colour palette of red, blue and white throughout. Vignelli had also designed a logotype in Helvetica; however, it caused a backlash from flight attendants, as he had opposed the inclusion of an eagle in the logo.

After some convincing, an eagle was added, and the final identity was extremely well-received. This work truly emphasizes the value and timelessness of Vignelli’s design. So much so that American Airlines used it up until 2013. Other noteworthy projects came around this time as well. In particular, the complete overhaul of the ‘New York Subway System’. Whereby an entirely new visual language and a standard was developed for the Transit Authority’s signage and wayfinding map, with Massimo at the helm of it all.

Unimark became a leader in the design world. With over two hundred employees, and offices internationally, their client base grew significantly; including the likes of Gillette, Volvo, Olivetti, Central National Bank, and Xerox. Unfortunately, a conflict of interest between Vignelli and his colleagues was forming, and so in 1971, Massimo resigned from Unimark.

Leaving Unimark in 1971, Massimo—together with Lella—established ‘Vignelli Associates’, a much less corporate-oriented design firm in New York, focusing on bespoke projects. “No middle managers, no focus groups!” … “Not so commercial!” Even with this view of producing work that was smaller in scale, clients and contacts from their time at Unimark had followed them. Further identity design was produced for American Airlines. Exhibition design for Knoll, which was held at the Louvre in Paris.

Writing about the branding work famously done for Bloomingdale’s, IBM, and the Great North-Eastern Railways, in the book ‘Vignelli: From A to Z’, Massimo mentions the use of chromotypes. In which a colour, or range of colours, would serve as a graphic device. Consistently using these colours throughout an entire piece of design, creates a brand association, much like a logo would.

Much like the success of Unimark, so too did Vignelli Associates start to flourish. During the late 1970’s, they had decided to create two separate offices, each focusing on different areas of design. ‘Vignelli Associates’ would specialise in graphics, visual identities, and publishing. Whilst ‘Vignelli Design’ dedicated their work towards product design and architecture, for example creating furniture and jewellery.

Sadly, after a lifelong and prosperous career, in 2014, Massimo Vignelli died. His work and mark on the world are not forgotten though, and I truly believe his way of thinking and approach to design will still hold important value in years to come.

Even Vignelli’s signature usage of Helvetica has become an important and ubiquitous part of society. As Erik Spiekermann says in the film aptly named ‘Helvetica’; “it [Helvetica] has become the default, it’s air… it’s just there”.

Throughout his life, Massimo advocated that the role of a designer is all about responsibility, that functional and lasting work is far greater than design which is ephemeral. Even much later in his life, he felt obligated to continue to educate and inspire. In 2010, Massimo and Lella opened the ‘Vignelli Centre for Design Studies’, on the campus of Rochester Institute of Technology. The building, which showcases their life’s work, as well as travelling exhibitions and galleries, will ensure his legacy and knowledge is shared with the next generation of designers.

In summary, I think Massimo Vignelli was perhaps one of the greatest influential modernist designers and thinkers of our time, whose work has helped to define the world we live in.