18 Facts About Massimo Vignelli

Massimo Vignelli worked within the modernist tradition, emphasizing simplicity by using basic geometric shapes.

Massimo Vignelli studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano and later at the Universita Iuav di Venezia.

Between 1957 and 1960, Vignelli first came to America on a fellowship.

Massimo Vignelli returned to New York in 1966 to co-found a branch of Unimark International.

Massimo Vignelli was brought on board to help create the visual identity for the Washington Metro.

Massimo Vignelli created the signage and wayfinding system and suggested it be named "Metro" like many other capital city subways instead of its original name, which was a mishmash of various states and transportation groups.

In 1971, Massimo Vignelli resigned from Unimark, in part because he felt the design vision which he supported became diluted as the company diversified and increasingly focused on marketing.

Massimo Vignelli worked with filmmaker Gary Hustwit on the documentary Helvetica, about the typeface of the same name.

Massimo Vignelli died on May 27,2014, at the age of 83 in New York City.

Massimo Vignelli worked in a wide variety of areas, including interior design, environmental design, package design, graphic design, furniture design, and product design.

Massimo Vignelli participated in the Stock Exchange of Visions project in 2007, and published Massimo Vignelli: From A to Z, a book of essays describing the principles and concepts behind what he called "all good design".

Massimo Vignelli's designs were famous for following a minimal aesthetic and a narrow range of typefaces that Massimo Vignelli considered to be perfect in their genre, including Akzidenz-Grotesk, Bodoni, Helvetica, Garamond No 3, Futura, Times New Roman and Century Expanded.

In January 2009, Massimo Vignelli released The Massimo Vignelli Canon for free as an e-book.

Massimo Vignelli regarded the map as one of his finest creations.

Massimo Vignelli teamed up with Robert Noorda, another Unimark co-founder, to create a system of signage that the TA adopted and endures in every New York subway station today.

The TA's new map, released in 1967, used Raleigh D'Adamo's principle of color-coding for the first time, but it suffered from what Massimo Vignelli called "fragmentation" and was not well received.

Massimo Vignelli approached Ronan with a mock-up showing his concept of a map for lower Manhattan.

The last map in which Massimo Vignelli was involved was a special transit map, designed by Yoshiki Waterhouse at Massimo Vignelli Associates, for Super Bowl XLVIII.