Massimo Vignelli

If you can design one thing, you can design everything, said Massimo Vignelli (1931-2014) who has worked in a number of areas ranging from package design to furniture design, to public signage, to showroom design through Vignelli Associates, which he co-founded with his wife, Lella. He studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano and later at the Università di Architettura, Venice. Vignelli went to New York in 1966 to start the New York branch of a new company, Unimark International, which quickly became one of the largest design firms in the world. They designed many recognizable corporate identities, including American Airlines and the New York City Subway. In 1971, Massimo resigned from Unimark, and soon after, he and Lella founded Vignelli Associates.