Biography

Massimo Vignelli was born on January 10, 1931 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was married to Lella Vignelli. He died on May 27, 2014 in New York City, New York, USA.

At age 16, he became an architectural draftsman. He studied art and architecture in Milan and Venice, and worked as a designer for Venini Glass, a renowned manufacturer on the island of Murano.

He was a graphic designer whose creations include book covers, shopping bags, kitchen-wares, furniture, corporate logos, and a map of the New York City subway system. His clients included American Airlines, Ford, IBM, Xerox, Gillette, the National Park Service, Bloomingdale's, and Saks Fifth Avenue.

His works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, as well as museums in Philadelphia, Montreal, Jerusalem, Munich and Hamburg.

He and his wife Lella founded their own design firm in 1971. Mrs. Vignelli worked hand in hand with her husband, managing the business and helping with design.

[remarking that he would have liked the job of developing a corporate identity for the Vatican] I would go to the pope and say, "Your holiness, the logo [the cross] is O.K. but everything else has to go."