#gallery guide

Happy birthday to mister Hockney himself!

In the 1960s and 1970s, designers at Unimark International created a number of packaging and product lines for Gillette and its subsidiaries like Colton. One of those projects was My Islands Cologne.

The stacking bottles were developed by Lella Vignelli. When stacked, they appear to be one bottle. They were packaged in hexagonal silver tube-like boxes with Bodoni typeface running along the sides. Scents included Barbados, Skye, Majorca, Corfu, and Morea.

An exhibition of Florine Stettheimer’s work is being shown at the Art Gallery of Ontario until January 28, 2018.  She is an American artist of Jewish descent who painted her family and friends, and held a notable salon at her New York City apartment.   She was friends with Marcel Duchamp, Georgia O’Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz and others.  She travelled widely in Europe looking and thinking about art.

In “Family Portrait II” (1933), Florine is shown on the left side in a smart black suit with easel in hand.  Pictured with her are her mother and two sisters. She was wild about flowers and they are incorporated in most of her paintings.  Florine considered this painting to be her masterpiece.  [MOMA]

Happy election day!

A big day here in the USA: presidential election day! 

We’re highlighting this poster of the Statue of Liberty for the National Park Service. This poster is part of our updated poster display in our galleries. For those of you who can’t make it in person, here’s a closer look!

Massimo Vignelli designed this poster for the National Park Service in 1986 for a special Statue of Liberty celebration on the 100th anniversary of its dedication.

The poster follows the same Unigrid format which was designed by Vignelli in 1977 for NPS publications and is still is use today. The photo was taken by Peter Turner, an alum of the Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Photographic Arts and Sciences. The Unigrid won the Presidential Design Award in 1985.

Text on poster: “A gift of the French people, this colossal statue at the portal to the New World embodies man’s ceaseless quest for freedom and dignity.

In its century of vigil, it has greeted millions of the oppressed and the venturous and is known around the world as the very symbol of America.”

Read more about this poster and zoom in the digital archives on Google Arts & Culture: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/liberty-libert%C3%A9-vignelli-massimo/rwG3OPRS7BVJDA

National Park Service Statute of Liberty poster, 1986 Massimo and Lella Vignelli papers Vignelli Center for Design Studies Rochester, New York

National Park Service Statute of Liberty mechanical mockup on board 13 7/16" x 10 3/8"(image) on 19 7/16″ x 16 1/2″ board Portfolio N1, Massimo and Lella Vignelli papers Vignelli Center for Design Studies Rochester, New York

National Park Service Unigrid brochure, 1985 Box 148, Massimo and Lella Vignelli papers Vignelli Center for Design Studies Rochester, New York

If you’ve been in the gallery recently, you might have noticed our updated Vignelli poster display! Please stop by and take a look!

For those of you who can’t make it in person, here’s a closer look at the posters on display! Next up: Designer’s Saturday posters

Designer’s Saturday events started in New York City around 1970 in which multiple furniture showrooms would open their doors to designers and architects, as a sort of one-day furniture fair. These two-sided posters served as both announcement and map.

Here is how it was described in a special feature in Interiors magazine in 1974:

”Designer’s Saturday is a show, a shopping tour, a treasure hunt, a feast, a joy, a convocation, an education, a New York tradition. ... It is a day free to look at new furniture, to touch and test and try, a unique opportunity, a party, and a get-together: Designer’s Saturday is – for designers – your Saturday.” Huge thank you to our fabulous colleagues at the University Gallery at RIT for installing the poster display!

ICYMI, read the other posts about the updated poster display: https://vignellicenter.tumblr.com/post/187693814087/vignelli-poster-display-fewbasictypefaces

https://vignellicenter.tumblr.com/post/187800177087/vignelli-poster-display-fortworth 

https://vignellicenter.tumblr.com/post/188131716557/vignelli-posterdisplay-fellini

https://vignellicenter.tumblr.com/post/188370547262/vignelli-poster-display-europeaniceberg

Designer’s Saturday poster [front and back], 1973 Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers Vignelli Center for Design Studies Rochester, New York

Designer’s Saturday poster [front and back], 1974 Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers Vignelli Center for Design Studies Rochester, New York

Designer’s Saturday postcards, envelopes, invitations, etc. Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers Vignelli Center for Design Studies Rochester, New York

Designer’s Saturday sketch by Massimo Vignelli. c. 1974 Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers Vignelli Center for Design Studies Rochester, New York

If you’ve been in the gallery recently, you might have noticed our updated Vignelli poster display! Please stop by and take a look!

For those of you who can’t make it in person, here’s a closer look at the posters on display! Next up: The Newspaper Advertising Bureau’s Creative Newspaper 15/ATHENA competition Call for Entries

ATHENA = Award To Honor Excellence in Newspaper Advertising

The poster features an image of a newspaper blowing in the wind on a black background. We found the actual newspaper “prop” in the archives! Only the front page is printed with text and the rest of the paper is blank. Cardboard and tape shaped the “newspaper” into the right form for the poster’s photograph. 

Poster text excerpts:

“That means it’s time to gather your best newspaper ads––your most creative, compelling, most humorous work of the past year.”

“The rules are easy. No fancy mounts. No entry fees. Just fill out the entry blank or a photocopy, and tape it (no paper clips please!) to the back of each proof, velox, or tearsheet. Then mail to us”

Huge thank you to our fabulous colleagues at the University Gallery at RIT for installing the poster display!

ICYMI, read the other posts about the updated poster display:

https://vignellicenter.tumblr.com/post/187693814087/vignelli-poster-display-fewbasictypefaces

https://vignellicenter.tumblr.com/post/187800177087/vignelli-poster-display-fortworth

https://vignellicenter.tumblr.com/post/188131716557/vignelli-posterdisplay-fellini

https://vignellicenter.tumblr.com/post/188370547262/vignelli-poster-display-europeaniceberg

https://vignellicenter.tumblr.com/post/189214402752/vignelli-posterdisplay-designerssaturday

Creative Newspaper 15/ATHENA competition Call for Entries Call for Entries poster, 1990 Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers Vignelli Center for Design Studies Rochester, New York

If you’ve been in the gallery recently, you might have noticed our updated Vignelli poster display! Please stop by and take a look!

For those of you who can’t make it in person, here’s a closer look at the posters on display! Next up: The Architectural League of New York

This two-sided poster was created in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “The Architecture of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts,” October 29, 1975- January 4, 1976. 

“In order to illustrate the influence of the Ecole on American architects, the League took the occasion of the Museum’s show to produce a poster/map with walking tours of some of the key Beaux-Arts style buildings, monuments and public spaces in New York City, many of which were designed by early founders of the League such as Cass Gilbert, Thomas Hastings and Alexander B. Trowbridge” - The Architectural League of New York Newsletter Winter 1976.

The black and white photograph is by Cervin Robinson and features Architect Cass Glbert’s US Customs House, part the Architectural League’s walking tour.

Beyond this poster, the Vignellis had a long relationship with the Architectural League. The graphics for the Architectural League (including the logotype in Garamond) were designed by Vignelli Associates in the early 1970s. Massimo Vignelli served as Vice President of the League. In 2011, Massimo and Lella Vignelli were awarded their highest honor the President’s Medal, which recognizes “extraordinary contributions to architecture and design.”

ICYMI, we have shared some other artifacts for the Architectural League of New York: https://vignellicenter.tumblr.com/search/architectural+league

The Architectural League of New York “Beaux Arts Tour” poster [front, back and details], 1976 Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers Vignelli Center for Design Studies Rochester, New York

The Architectural League of New York Newsletter Winter 1976 Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers Vignelli Center for Design Studies Rochester, New York