“i’m the engine, lella is the breaks”

Yoko Ono and John Lennon. Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. Much has been said, throughout history, about the close linkage between love and collaboration when the arts are in play. Marriage may be, in fact, the epitome of human collaboration.

Massimo and Lella Vignelli, Italian designers based in New York City, are a contemporary example of how private and professional collaboration can yield artistic gold. Together they founded the legendary firm Vignelli Designs, and in addition to their professional success have been married for 53 years. It’s the dialogical collaborative model that allows them to balance their intimate relationship with creative demands.

Massimo Vignelli was born in Milan, Italy, January of 1931. He first studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano and later at the Universita di Archittetura in Venice. Lella was born in Udine to a family of well-known architects. Massimo mentions in an interview that they met at an academic conference: “I (Massimo) was a student helper at the conference. Then I started courting her (Lella) and eventually convinced her to study architecture in Venice, where I was also a student.”

Years later, their relationship in full swing, Massimo received a fellowship from Towle Silversmiths in Massachusetts, and Lella one from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They moved to the States in what would be one of the most consequential decisions of their lives. Massimo would later describe the United States as full of  “energy, and possibility (...) and the need for design.” Once married, they decided to stay for good

In 1971 they founded Vignelli Associates in New York as a transdisciplinary design agency. Vignelli Associates marked the beginning of a long-lasting relationship between the Vignellis and the American public. Together they created logos for American Airlines, Bloomingdale’s, and the New York Subway System. The studio consulted on a wide range of projects as well: corporate branding, package design, transportation graphics, poster design, interior design, architectural graphics, book and magazine design, and furniture design. They were known in the field as “total designers.”

The first indication of the Vignellis’ approach to design as a collaborative process is evidenced by the repeated use of the pronoun “we” in the introduction to their 2004 book Design is One.

Though Massimo is often seen as the face of the company, their design principles are delivered to the general public as originating in the plural. This implicates not only Lella in the execution of ideas, but everyone who works for the Vignellis. All staff are bound by the “we,” responsible for upholding the core philosophies. To this point, Massimo states: "We are against specialization. We think that it brings entropy and entropy brings creative death. However, in a world that is becoming increasingly more complex, a certain degree of specialization is needed and can be useful...But a total view is necessary."

The Vignellis work on every project together, but very little literature exists in the design world about Lella. In fact, I was unable to find her maiden name in the available sources. Massimo is widely considered the creative genius, and Lella the dutiful bookkeeper. But, how much say did she have in the design process? In their biography, Massimo offers some insights: “She (Lella) has a very good critical sense. So she would come and say: ‘It’s good. It’s bad.’ Even when she is not there, there is a symbiosis that happens after a while, so now I perceive her in a symbiotic way.”

We’re accustomed to the myth of the single, gifted human, but Scott Berkun argues in his essay How to Give and Receive Criticism that pursuing feedback is as important to the creative process as having the idea in the first place.

It could be said that Massimo’s creative genius alone could not have achieved the same level of polished, well-respected Vignelli-ism without Lella’s critical eye.

In addition to providing feedback and criticism, Lella is the one that makes things happen at Vignelli Associates. She’s the realism to Massimo’s idealism. She manages production, communications, all facets of turning his dream into reality. When asked specifically about what he learned from both the Vignellis, an employee stated: “I learned an enormous amount from Massimo about how to be a good designer. But I learned how to be a successful designer from Lella.” This was Lella; making tangible what seemed unfeasible. 

In conclusion, Massimo and Lella Vignelli have been successful designers because they discovered their roles, not just in their creative partnership, but in their marriage as well. They’ve been together long enough to achieve simbiosis, working off each other’s feedback even when there’s an ocean between them.