Lella Vignelli

Lella Vignelli
Lella (left) and Massimo Vignelli in front of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies at Rochester Institute of Technology in 2010.
Born	August 13, 1934 Udine, Italy
Died	December 22, 2016(2016-12-22) (aged 82) Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Nationality	Italian
Education	University of Venice, Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Architecture
Occupation	Designer, Businesswoman
Organization	Vignelli Associates
Known for	Founder of Vignelli Designs
Spouse(s)	Massimo Vignelli

Lella Vignelli (August 13, 1934 – December 22, 2016) was an Italian designer who was the founder of Vignelli Associates. She had "a lifelong collaborative working relationship" with her late husband, Massimo Vignelli. She was known to be the business arm of Vignelli Associates, and played a key role in the success of the design firm.

Lella Vignelli was born in Udine, Italy. She received a degree from the University of Venice's School of Architecture and a tuition fellowship as a special student at MIT's School of Architecture. Since 1956, Vignelli has concentrated on design. Indeed, she was involved in the formation of ADI (Associazione per il Disegno Industriale), the major Italian professional design organization, in the same year. In 1962, she became a registered architect in Milan.

In 1959, Vignelli joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as a junior interior designer in Chicago. In 1960, in conjunction with her husband, she established the Massimo and Lella Vignelli Office of Design and Architecture in Milan where she specialized in interiors, furniture, exhibition, and product design. In 1965, she formed the corporate design consultancy Unimark International, Corporation for Design and Marketing, with her husband, Bob Noorda, and Ralph Eckerstrom. Shortly thereafter, Vignelli became the Unimark executive interior designer in its New York office. In 1971, the Vignellis established Vignelli Associates and opened offices in New York, Paris, and Milan. Some of Lella and Massimo Vignelli’s most well-known designs from this period involved aspects of identity for numerous major clients including Knoll International, for which the couple undertook a comprehensive review of all aspects of the company’s visual presence (commencing in 1966); American Airlines, for which they designed the airline’s iconic logo (1967); and the New York City Subway, for which they designed the sign systems and map (commencing in 1966). In later years, the couple’s noteworthy commissions included the corporate identities for Bloomingdale's department store (1972) and for automobile and motorcycle manufacturers Lancia (1978) and Ducati (1992), as well as the signage system for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997). Their significant furniture designs included the Handkerchief chair for Knoll International (1982), the Serenissimo table (1985) for Italian manufacturer Acerbis, and the Magic coffee table (1990) for Acerbis’s lower-priced Morphos label. Other Vignelli designs have also included retail layouts for Artemide, jewelry for Cleto Munari, and glassware for Venini and Steuben Glass Works.