Love running errands with my best buddy.
—Dorn
“Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.”
Kerouac in Tangier, 1957.
Happy Birthday to archive: Vignelli!
It’s been one year since we started this blog! Did you know we take requests? A Vignelli fan asked us to feature some of Massimo’s earliest work. We thought that would be a great way to celebrate our 1st birthday!
Unfortunately we know very little about this project. We hope to find more in the future as we keep unpacking the Vignelli papers! Stay tuned!
La Rinascente 101 idee brochure, circa 1962
4 3/4” x 8 1/4” [120 mm x 210 mm]
Box 546, Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers
Vignelli Center for Design Studies
Rochester, New York
"I’m trying to raise a thinking child in a world that is constantly telling him what to believe."
"How do you do that?"
"Travel and tell the truth."
If hope was a color.
—Dorn
Magnolia leaves and red berries
—Dorn
How to Let Go: A Work in Progress
Brainstorming for a new illustration for a zine submission.
"The problem with some designers is that they play with the appearance of things rather than getting at the essence." - Massimo Vignelli
The Kono table has a glass top resting on a slab of granite on one side, and the tip of a metal cone on the other. The cone comes in variety of finishes from rusted steel to gold leafed steel. This design exploits the relationship between abstract geometrical figures and materials finishes. design: Vignelli, p. 250.
Sketch of Casigliani Kono table, circa 1984
pencil on paper
8 1/4” x 11 3/4”
Box 270, Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers
Vignelli Center for Design Studies
Rochester, New York
Early flights II
—Dorn
Early flights
Glendale
—Dorn
Uppin the sock game @100_prf @timspeaker
Call for an appointment with Casper
…and I didn’t think I’d be able to smile today. I have the most amazing friends.
National Book Awareness Week!
"The design of books has taught us to consider problems in a whole, complete way, in a cover-to-cover sense, so to speak." - design: Vignelli (1981), #26 [p. 18]
What better way to end National Book Awareness week than with some of the Vignellis book designs from the archives! They designed numerous books over the years including a couple of books about their own work titled design: Vignelli. So we said to ourselves what if we showed the process of designing a book about your own book designs? Now that’s book awareness!
We love sharing the process materials for the design: Vignelli books (see here and here) and we have uncovered even more just recently. Now we can see Massimo’s original handwritten edits to the text and his initial sketches of the book layout. And these are just a couple examples of what we found! We’re so lucky to be able to follow the design process from start to finish!
design: Vignelli book (excerpts), 1981
10 1/8” x 10 1/8”
Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers
Vignelli Center for Design Studies
Rochester, New YorkMassimo Vignelli’s handwritten text for design: Vignelli book (circa 1981)
pen on paper
9” x 12”
Box 584, Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers
Vignelli Center for Design Studies
Rochester, New YorkSketches for design: Vignelli book (circa 1981)
pencil and crayon on paper
14” x 17”
Box 454, Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers
Vignelli Center for Design Studies
Rochester, New York
All of the YES. Because Vignelli.
“And the days are not full enough
And the nights are not full enough
And life slips by like a field mouse
Not shaking the grass”