.:. design / clear style
Lella and Massimo Vignelli
March 25 through September 6, 2026
more pictures .:.
Theatrical performances in Milano, Italy, and the map of the New York subway. What do they have in common? A family of designers, namely Lella Vignelli (technically speaking Elena Valle, 1934-2016) and Massimo Vignelli (1931-2014), who developed the posters’ and subway's
visual communication. Nothing more than how those institutions still speak and make themselves available to the public today. Isn't it enough?
.:. Lella and Massimo fully deserve the broad retrospective exhibition at the Triennale, these months:
A Language of Clarity brings hundreds of other international customers to the US transport network and the Milanese theatre across four or five decades. They range from furniture companies to glass makers, magazines, fashion designers, car brands, distilleries, silversmiths, media broadcasters, and the Triennale itself.
.:. «If you do it right, it will last forever», Lella reportedly said. The couple's lettering was often based on
Helvetica, «a clean typeface that was unadorned, unsentimental, neutral, efficient, and, above all, legible and articulated in weights and sizes. And that is how Helvetica, appropriately named after the culture that generated it, became such an important typeface.» Crystal clear, right?