Vignelli Center Fall Open Houses

Three students look at Vignelli Center artifacts.

“The 1980s put a nice state of confusion in the mind as well.” - Massimo Vignelli, from 80s Style Symposium at RIT in 1987

Join us for the next round of Vignelli Center for Design Studies Open Houses and travel back to the 1980s. The Vignellis’ career as designers spanned six decades and the 1980s were one of their most prolific decades. In fact, their archives preserves so much work from the 1980s that both the Fall and Spring Open Houses will be dedicated to the same decade without any duplication!

They designed it all. Graphic identity and publications. Products and furniture. Interiors and exhibitions. The Vignellis were featured in 100s of publications and won numerous awards including many Hall of Fame and Lifetime Achievement awards in the 1980s. Some of their most iconic works came out of this tumultuous postmodernist decade.

The 1980s started with a retrospective exhibition of their work at Parsons and ended with a major retrospective of their work began touring Europe. The first marked with a modest catalogue with b/w illustrations and the later with a large full color coffee table book.

Our Archivist will be digging into her own archives to bring in a variety of cultural artifacts as well as curating movies, music and other clips and sounds for all the 1980s vibes.

Join us at our Open Houses to have a look! No appointment required. Stay for a few minutes or stay for hours.

As always, our galleries are open to the public and feature the greatest hits of the design work of Massimo and Lella Vignelli. But for the Open Houses, our archivist will be digging deep into the archives to show you one-of-a-kind original sketches and other artifacts of the Vignelli design process. You can see the designs that you know and love but expect many surprises even if you are a Vignelli “superfan!”

Open House schedule (two days in both the fall and spring)