Lella and Massimo Vignelli:
A Language of Clarity
From 25 March to 6 September 2026, the Triennale Milano will present the exhibition “Lella and Massimo Vignelli: A Language of Clarity”. The retrospective highlights the work of Italian designers Lella (1934–2016) and Massimo Vignelli (1931–2014), which had a major international influence on graphic and product design and is often perceived in the USA as representative of Italian design. The exhibition is curated by architect Francesca Picchi in collaboration with curator Marco Sammicheli and Studio Mut (Martin Kerschbaumer and Thomas Kronbichler). The display design is by Jasper Morrison Office for Design in collaboration with David Saik.
Design Between Milan and New York
The chronologically organised exhibition traces the designers’ career spanning more than sixty years, combining this narrative with thematic explorations. The project was developed in collaboration with the Vignelli Center for Design Studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology (USA), whose archive contains over 750,000 documents and objects relating to the Vignellis’ various fields of work.
The retrospective highlights projects from a range of disciplines: From book design and publishing design for Feltrinelli, through visual communication for transport with works for the Italian State Railways (Ferrovie dello Stato), to projects for fashion companies such as Benetton and Fratelli Rossetti, for wine culture with Feudi di San Gregorio, and for television with the visual identity of the RAI news programme Tg2. On display are, among other things, objects, furniture, drawings, models, photographs, packaging, jewellery, brands, books and magazines.
A Language of Clarity
Lella and Massimo Vignelli belonged to that generation of architects and designers who had a decisive influence on the image of modernism in Italy. Their work is characterised by a clear, rational design language rooted in the tradition of Swiss Rationalism. Whether a book, corporate identity, underground map, chair or piece of jewellery, their designs always follow a logical creative process based on clarity and precision. Among the duo’s best-known projects are corporate identity studies for Ford and American Airlines (1967), the New York subway map (1972) and the signage system for the Italian State Railways (1999).
