Graphic Color: Massimo Vignelli

This month we pay tribute to the incomparable designer Massimo Vignelli (1931-2014), whose influential modern aesthetic hinged on primary colors and graphic forms.  Born and trained in Milan, Vignelli came to New York in 1965 and set up a multidisciplinary design firm with his wife Leila, an architect.  Throughout his career, Vignelli used color to create a graphic language that spoke louder than mere words could.  

Vignelli was celebrated for his bold use of color and his insistence on simple, functional design.  The designer's Heller dinnerware is a staple of many modernist kitchens; his Ford Motors logo has held fast for 50 years. 

Heller dinnerware organized by color family

The designer also employed bright primary colors;  his Heller dinnerware and nearly ubiquitous Knoll Handkerchief Chair were issued in a rainbow of shades. He once famously declared, “Any color works if you push it to the extreme.”  

Vignelli's vision for Knoll's handkerchief chairs manifests here in a striking orange.

Vignelli's American Airlines logo

His 1972 design for the New York City subway map was both celebrated and controversial. The map omitted many familiar features like streets and parks, and confused riders at first.

New York City subway map

Gray, not green was used to denote Central Park; beige, not blue indicated waterways.  "You want to go from Point A to Point B, period," he explained. "The only thing you are interested in is the spaghetti.” Vignelli's revised design was heralded by New York Times’ architecture critic Paul Goldberger as “more than beautiful…a nearly canonical piece of abstract design.”

Massimo Vignelli in black

He favored what has been called a "severe" palette of red, black and white.  Vignelli always dressed in black, a color he considered all-powerful.  

Stendig calendar in black

He noted in an interview with the Design Observer, "Black has class. It’s the best color. There is no other color that is better than black. There are many others that are appropriate and happy, but those colors belong on flowers. Black is a color that is man-made. It is really a projection of the brain. It is a mind color. It is intangible. It is practical. It works 24 hours a day. In the morning or afternoon, you can dress in tweed, but in the evening, you look like a professor who escaped from college. Everything else has connotations that are different, but black is good for everything." 

Knoll Cube

Red was another Vignelli signature color, as is evident in his work for Knoll, Heller, JC Penny, and his own corporate identity.  He coined the term "Vignelli Red" which is "somewhere on the border of red and orange." 

At Colour Studio we believe judicious use of strong color is infinitely powerful in communicating a message - be it through graphics, architecture, product design, or art. Massimo Vignelli seamlessly employed timeless colors to communicate ideas and emphasize functionality, and for that we celebrate his work.




Collected Color: The Harvard Pigment Library

As color experts, we're always excited to share new developments in the field with our readers. This month we're delighted to report that the Forbes Pigment Collection at the Harvard Art Museums is is now open to the public. 

The precious pigments are newly assembled in floor-to-ceiling white cabinets based on the color wheel. Some are stored in their original delicate glass containers. Library visitors can even watch art conservators at work.

Photos courtesy of Zak Jensen & Andrea Shea/WBUR 

Photo by Andrea Shea/WBUR

The collection was conceived as a "laboratory for fine arts" in the 1920s by Edward Forbes, who later founded the Fogg Art Museum.  It contains more than 2,500 pigments, including Egyptian blue glass from 1,000 BC and rare nuggets from Pompeii, as well as modern synthetic pigments.

Photo by Peter Vanderwarker

Some pigments have colorful backstories, as the Harvard Gazette recently reported. Lapis lazuli stone, mined from quarries in Afghanistan, was used in medieval paintings and considered more precious than gold. A deep blue-red extracted from predatory sea snails was so costly Byzantine emperors banned its use outside the imperial court.  The color later became known as “royal purple.”

Photo by Stephanie Mitchell

As for the history of the collection, Edward Forbes became interested in pigments shortly after he purchased the 14th-century Tuscan painting Madonna and Child with Saint in 1899. When the piece began to deteriorate, Forbes sought out pigments to help restore it. By the 1920s he was traveling the world in search of rare pigments. 

Portrait of Edward Waldo Forbes (1873-1969) by Charles Hopkinson, 1940

As the Harvard Gazette writes, Forbes’ fascination with a painting’s colors fueled his desire to use science to understand and study great works of art. He is often referred to as the father of art conservation in the United States.

Photo by Andrea Shea/WBUR

Narayan Khandekar, Director of the Straus Center for Conservation and Research, which houses the Forbes Pigment Library/Photo by Stephanie Mitchell

In 1927 Forbes established the Department of Research and Restoration at Harvard’s Fogg Museum.  By the 1940s the department was being used to both authenticate and restore important works of art. Since then, samples of the precious pigments have been loaned to many museums and research facilities around the world.  In a widely reported case in 2007, the research facility was used to invalidate two paintings attributed to Jackson Pollock. 

We at Colour Studio look forward to a first-hand visit to the collection, so stay tuned for field notes. In the meantime you can find information on visiting the library or attending a workshop at Harvard Arts Museums.