This chunky, square book is an updated version of the 1990 edition, which seems to sell for excessive prices but is now redundant because the twelve essays from the first edition are included in this 2018 copy and it obviously includes work up to Vignelli's death in 2014.
Look through the 408 pages and it becomes clear that Lella and Massimo were a remarkable couple who could turn their creativity to any project and come up with a unique and practical solution that always seemed to work and what's more it was timeless, too. The chapter on their early work, from the fifties and sixties, has examples of print design that looks fresh today. A chapter called 'The Vignelli process' reveals layout roughs for glassware, furniture, interior design, cutlery, logos and various bits of print that are shown as finished examples later in the book. I thought the chapter on corporate design particularly good with manuals and logos from a variety of companies like Knoll, New York Botanical Gardens, New York Transit Authority or the South African Woolworths. 'Furniture' has a range of chairs, office desks tables and sofas (actually some of these didn't look quite so comfortable to sit in). 'Product design' features a range of homewares, jewellery and a 1992 range of unisex casual clothing that follows body shape rather than fashion.
The book has several hundred illustrations in nicely laid out pages. My only criticism is that all the text is set in Garamond Italic (one of Massimo's twelve only typefaces he used) which gets rather annoying to read especially the first forty-six pages which have all the essays. I've noticed that copies of this 2018 edition, like the one from 1990, seem to vary in price so it's worth looking around the net for a reasonably priced copy.
No comments:
Post a Comment