design odyssey beyond 2010

[by Katerina Kyselica] What is a better way to start the new year than with a modernist, multidisciplinary designer Massimo Vignelli? “Everyone can design expensive products but only a good designer can design affordable products. Price is one of the key elements in [the] design process”, Vignelli reminded us as soon as he took the stage in the Heller showroom in New York City.

Italian New Yorker Massimo Vignelli is living proof that a hard-core modernist can live and flourish in a postmodern society. It was amusing to watch the reaction of the young crowd, mainly designers and architects, when Vignelli urged them: “Stop asking people what they desire and give them what they need!”  Easy to say for someone a) born in Europe and b) born prior to the time when marketing became a primary tool of industry which feeds on consumers’ endless desires.

Massimo Vignelli / photo:Holly Haffner_Designer Pages

Vignelli passionately continued to speak about his preference for ‘stackability’ in the design of objects and demonstrated his design principles on dinnerware sets from 70s.  He also warned us that, based on his own experience, designing multifunctional products might result in objects that have no purpose whatsoever. Vignelli seems to be particularly attached to the notion of the ‘timelessness’ of his designs and calls obsolescence a crime. He sees the work of some contemporary designers such as Zaha Hadid as ‘haute-couture’ in design – a term used to define a custom-fitted, exclusive, trend-setting fashion. Claiming such an approach has no place in design, Vignelli added that design should not be subject to trends. As an example he mentioned the short-lived Italian movement in product design in the early 80s called ‘Memphis.’  In essence, Memphis was a design collaboration of several international designers that rebelled against than mainstream post-Bauhaus movements deprived of color and sensuality. Although Ettore Sottsass, one of the founders, liked to compare the group’s impact to that of early Cubism, the group designed and exhibited mainly furniture and decorative objects with unconventional shapes, brightly colored and patterned surfaces and an apparent disregard for function. Although they managed to shock the international design scene between 1981-1988, the products became obsolete with the emergence of new fashions. “Where is Sottsass now? And here I am”, concludes Vignelli, smiling.

In a contemporary culture cramped with the fashion of limited edition design, Vignelli’s half-century old belief in affordable design for a customer’s needs regains validity.

Massimo and Lella Vignelli / photo: Holly Haffner

Mr. Vignelli was accompanied by his wife and life-long partner, designer Lella Vignelli. When you see them together, you immediately think of other iconic couples of mid-century modernism, such as Joseph and Anni Albers, Charles and Ray Eames, and Hans and Florence Knoll. The Vignellis surely fit right in. At the event, they both wore soberly black outfits, but you wouldn’t expect anything different. They were classy and approachable. Mr. Vignelli seemed to feel at home discussing design with the gathered crowd and personally approaching everyone who asked a question, full of energy and passion. The resumé of Vignelli Associates, a firm that Massimo and Lella founded in New York City in 1971, is an endless list of awards and museum collection holdings of their creations. If you have recently visited the Design USA exhibition in the Cooper-Hewitt museum in New York, you had a chance to learn about Massimo and Lella Vignelli’s work in the Lifetime Achievement part of the exhibition. They received the 2003 National Design Award.

Not by a chance this buzzing meet up took place in the showroom of Heller – an international furniture company with offices in Milan and New York. The company started coincidently also in 1971, and Vignelli designed Heller’s first product – a simple, stackable dinnerware made of melamine.  Right away, the dinnerware won a place in American kitchen. Vignelli is at the core of Heller’s designer fleet, consisting of prominent Italian designers and one other major player – Frank Gehry. For the meetup, Alan Heller and Barbara Blue, founders of Heller, seated us on comfortable, strong Bellini chairs. We were also able to test their new addition – a funky stool called ErgoErgo that should replace the plastic exercise ball at your desk if you’re currently using one.

diagrams by Zachary Feltoon / David Zachary studio

There is always a space for industrial designers to showcase their work at the IDNY meet up.  In addition to the Vignelli presentation, Zachary Feltoon – a founder of David Zachary studio, introduced some interesting insight into (his) daily rituals and proposed ways to reclaim energy from routine activities (see the diagrams). As a result of this diagrammatic exercise, the Tiz Bed was born. The Tiz Bed is a simple bed frame with energy generating springs that feed a lamp you can plug in to the bed frame.  The more you move on this bed, the more energy you can create. We did not get chance to test this product that night, but I bet you really have to move to keep that lamp on!

Tiz Bed / David Zachary studio

The ‘IDNY’ meet up, as Designer Pages named their monthly social event, has thus far been a great place to network, get inspired, or just relax with a drink and listen to some great speakers. One last thing: at the end of the meet up, Designer Pages holds a drawing for one of the host manufacturer’s products, surely that is incentive enough to attend.

We will leave with Massimo Vignelli’s last saying before the music got too loud: “Train your vision and sharpen your determination, you will live a successful life”.

P.s.: Massimo Vignelli made his new booklet “Vignelli Canon” available to everyone – downloadable for free from Vignelli Associates website. It summarizes his design principles and demonstrates basics of graphic design, often forgotten.

Filed under: Design, New York City Tagged: | Culture, Design, Graphics Design, modernism, New York City