Massimo Vignelli, considered by many as one of the world’s great designers, is very ill and will be spending his last days at home. His son Luca would like all those who were influenced or inspired by him to write him a letter.
Here is my letter to Massimo that I will be sure to mail to him as well:
I was lucky beyond words. You were the first real graphic designer I ever met. I was 6 years old and you were visiting my father, who was then the publisher of Print Magazine and getting ready to start Package Design Magazine, on which you were a consultant.
That visit was a touchstone in our family’s personal and professional lives — we recounted dozens — possible hundreds — of times the day that the legendary, the stylish, the brilliant, the opinionated Massimo Vignelli came out to our little subdivision home just across the Brooklyn line in Nassau County.
Over the years, I came to know you as a prodigious talent but also a gracious and graceful person who touched all who knew him. When I recently saw you at an Insource meeting, you still remembered our first meeting when I was about 3 feet tall and in pajamas, and you asked after my father with true concern.
Mostly I have watched your life and life’s work as editor of GDUSA from a distance, but that chance meeting so many years ago was one of those random childhood memories that stuck — and made a difference.
Please send your notes, letters and cards to:
Massimo Vignelli
130 East 67 Street
New York, New York 10021
USA
