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>> LYDIA PALMER: Roger Remington is the longest serving faculty member on the RIT and is enjoying
his 50th year of teaching. He considers himself primarily a teacher who has critical
interest in design studies including graphic design history, theory and methods; research,
writing and graphic design practice. In addition to teaching and research, he has co-chaired
two major symposia on graphic design history and written four books on design history.
He is working on his fifth, collective writings of Will Burton. He is also the driving force
behind RIT's graphic design archive in the Kerry collection, a scholarly resource for
designers and historians. Roger has initiated and developed numerous graphic design history
courses at RIT over his career. Recently he taught a course on women pioneers
in graphic design and in cooperation with the Dryden Theater at the George Easton house
a new course on graphic design in film. In fall of 2008 he was a laureate for induction
into the Hall of Fame of the New York Art Directors Club and in 2009 he was honored
with the Gettner Family Award for Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Communication and he
is a guest professor at the Department of Design, Dessau University of Applied Sciences
in Germany and an additional of design in southern Germany.
In 2013, he was honored with admission to the prestigious -- and his teaching quality
has been acknowledged with receipt of the Eisenhart Annual Award for outstanding teaching,
RIT's highest recognition of teaching excellence. Jennifer Whitlock joined RIT last fall as
the first archivist for the Vignelli Center for Design Studies. She holds a Master of
Library Science with an archive certificate from Emporia State University and a BA in
photography. She is also a certified archivist through
the Academy of Certified Archivists and will complete the Digital Archive Specialist certificate
through the Society of American Archivists later this year.
Before coming to RIT Jennifer initiated an archive program for the Indianapolis Museum
of Art, served as a project archivist and interim acting curator at the architecture
and design collection at University of California Santa Barbara and also worked as an assistant
librarian at the Portland Art Museum. Now we will turn it over to Roger and Jennifer.
>> ROGER REMINGTON: Well, today we are talking about a new and unique resource here at RIT,
the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, which resource is Massimo and Lella Vignelli. The
Vignellis began their careers in Italy and both are trained architects. This picture
was taken of them in 1990 when they hosted a major exhibit of their work which traveled
around the world. Their motto is Design is One." And by that
they mean a number of things. First of all, that they work together, and it's a husband-and-wife
team, Lella focuses a little bit more on the three-dimensional work, furniture, showroom
work, displays. Massimo focuses more on the graphic design but it's really a wonderful
collaborative experience. "Design is one" also is a slogan that represents
an idea that there shouldn't be segments, segmentation of different design disciplines
but that a designer ideally had been able to design everything from a spoon to a city.
That is a quote from Massimo Vignelli. The center here at RIT opened in 2010. It's
a building designed by Massimo Vignelli and it's around 1500 square feet. The portion
on the right here you can see the black area with the lines is actually the more interpretive
side of the center where we have exhibit -- two exhibit halls and a classroom and offices.
The brick part on the left with the lettering is actually the archive part which necessarily
needs to be away from the light. We have now over the past few years brought
the center up to its capacity in terms of function and then with the addition of Jennifer
Whitlock, my colleague here today, we really have a going operation.
One of our first guests from England at the center in 2010 looked at the new building
and he said, "Well, you've got this wonderful facility and now you have to populate it."
So we feel like now in 2014 we are really populating the center with students and guests.
People are coming from around the world to do research in the archives and to make presentations
and it's a very lively and exciting place with faculty and students and projects and
speakers and exhibits and so forth. This is a historic one. This shows Massimo
himself in one of his first visits to the center when it was finished and here he is
standing here. And he told me later that what he was thinking about as he was looking at
this new center that carries his name was how proud his grandfather would have been
of him at this particular point. >> This is one of the exhibit galleries we
have which showcases much of the Vignelli furniture. The galleries are open to the public,
you can come Friday and Saturdays from 10:00 to 2:00 and you can take a look at the work
of the Vignellis. >> ROGER REMINGTON: This image was the very
first day the Vignellis saw the finished center and you can see they are delighted by what
they see. What you see is actually the archive area,
these sliding storage walls, which contain the boxes which then contain the different
artifacts of their career. The top-level archive floor is mostly graphic work and the second
story is actually 3-D work, furniture, chairs, and materials of that nature.
>> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: Here is an example of how the collection came to us through the
original boxes that the Vignellis packed their materials into. There are hundreds of these
boxes, I estimate that there's over 1,000 linear feet so if you put all the boxes and
containers and furniture and all items lined up it would take up 1,000 -- make a line 1,000
feet long! So because they have been very well labeled
we have the basic idea of what's in those boxes but part of my job is now to find out
what's really in those boxes and make a really detailed finding that will give the materials
context for researchers to do research. >> ROGER REMINGTON: Where we see a student
at work with an archival artifact, this is really what the bottom line of this whole
operation, RIT is the only design school that has resources like this. Our students can
learn about the history of design through working with real artifacts and not just slides
or pictures in books or some other kind of indirect reference. Here the students actually
can work in terms of research and analysis of the pieces and it's really a wonderful
and stimulating experience to see their enthusiasm for discovering really these resources.
>> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: Here is another example, this photo was taken about six months ago,
maybe less, an ID professor with his class, his first-year graduate students who are doing
a project that we put under the umbrella "activating the archives," like the name of our presentation,
and his students are using the archives as inspiration. They are doing a project related
to vessels in the Corning Museum. Another view of the tables. You can get a sense of
the kind of materials in the archives. Some are prototypes, we have some final products.
And also drawings and other materials that show the process.
>> ROGER REMINGTON: This is a very interesting project the Vignellis did for the Heller Company.
Production of these plastic cups and they come in as you can see in a rainbow of colors.
There is interesting history behind the development of these cups in terms of Massimo's original
kind of European design with the open thumb area and then the fact that it had to be closed
up in production because people were pouring the coffee up to the top of the cups and it
was going down the handle onto the table. It's been kind of a fun piece of history here.
This next slide is -- relates to the Heller cups.
>> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: Yes, this is actually a letter from 1972 where MoMA was accepting
the cups with the holes into their collection, as part of their design collection. And there
is actually a really great carbon copy where Massimo thanks them very graciously for putting
them in a collection and also encourages MoMA to do more promotion of design.
>> ROGER REMINGTON: This is a wonderful example of what we mean by archive and artifacts because
here is a letter that was part of the history of this particular project and we can -- just
gives us the detail of that one aspect of that particular project.
We'll look now at a kind of an array of divvying projects over the years, just to give you
a range of the work. Vignelli projects -- here we have posters,
the one on the left is actually one that was done for when the Vignellis were still in
Italy and then the posters range from different exhibits. There is one on the right from the
Ft. Worth Art Museum and so the poster is one which the Vignellis have been active in
terms of their creative output. Of course I think everyone recognizes this,
this is the brand for the American Airlines which actually has just been replaced or revised
but we at RIT look back on this original project as being seminal and really a timeless example
of Vignelli work. This is from 1967. Massimo used the typeface Helvetica and made, popularized
that, very simple logo with "American" in red and "Airlines" in blue, so he's taking
advantage of the patriotic color symbolism here.
Here are some additional graphic works, sometimes typographic, sometimes a mixture of type.
Again, Massimo is one that specializes more in the graphic output I guess over the years.
This is some graphic work for the international design center in New York and for the Knoll
furniture company. They have done considerable work for Knoll and they carry some of the
furniture, including the handkerchief chair which we'll see in a moment. This is a very
famous poster the Vignellis did for Knoll in 1966, transparent colors, but this represents
I think what was a unique and dynamic aspect of Vignelli design.
>> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: Here you can see a piece in the archives, actually a little bookwork,
I don't know if you can see down the side it shows a two-page layout for an exhibition
catalogue they did for Knoll, they had an exhibition at the Louvre in 1971 and they
also did exhibition design but this is Massimo's hand drawing each two-page layout. Then if
we go to the next slide you can see a more refined version showing the same thing. Distinctive
Knoll logo, even in a sketch he takes the time to show us that Helvetica.
>> ROGER REMINGTON: One of the real benefits of an archive is we can see the student or
researcher, anyone who is delevoping vel ing into this process can get a real feel for
the process, the way the designer thinks through a project and basically from the beginning
to end. We would have pieces of artifacts we call
them for each stage in this process. It's especially valuable with Vignelli because
his hand is so great in terms of drawing. It's really just a lesson for students in
looking at his sketches and his drawings. Again, another medium in which the Vignellis
have worked is calendars and this shows several of their calendar designs. The one in the
background with the white background is actually famous (?) calendar, from the late 1960s.
The one in the front with the 23 is actually a modular calendar that is still on the market,
one can still purchase these, I know that they are available at design shops in major
cities and major galleries. The calendar is really huge, it's really quite
big and commands a wall, it is really almost like a piece of art in that these relationship
of these letters in terms of the positive and negative shapes really is almost like
dealing with sculpture. >> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: Here is another example
of something you might find in the archives, this is an Italian catalogue with designers'
work, a company Nava, I don't know if that stands for something, showing both ascending
and the items of the calendar that back in the back, numerous designers.
>> ROGER REMINGTON: The Vignellis were part of a large design organization called Unimark
International which for many years in the 70s was the largest design company in the
world and that situation went on for a long time with great projects coming out and then
eventually it morphed back into the Vignelli Associates, which is their own company.
This is actually one of their more famous projects. This was done for the National Park
Service. These are all examples of brochures that exist at national parks which a visitor
can get information and maps and so forth. But the key thing about this project is that
the Vignellis designed it as an information system. These different brochures and so there's
a sense of unity, sense of predictability that exists as you go from Yosemite to Yellowstone
to Joshua Tree National Monument in California. You will see the same general kind of layout
and this reflects the fact that the Vignellis designed a rational objective system for design
and handed it over to the National Park Service. This is probably one of their most famous
designs. This is the original subway map for the New York City Metro. This was accomplished
first in 1970 or around then and was really quite controversial. It was based on the idea
of the London underground which is an abstraction, this is really, he called it a map and I think
many people thought it was a normal map when really it was a diagram of the subway lines
and because of its abstraction and because of its other features like the fact that the
river is brown and not blue, this map became very controversial. This was pulled from use
after awhile and a more traditional map was used so it's really become a collector's icon
but it's interesting to note that he in 1983, excuse me, 2003, he came out with a new version
of this map which has been updated and now he calls it a diagram.
This was a standards manual that Vignelli Associates put together for the graphics of
the New York City Subway Transit Authority. This is a way of establishing graphic standards
for this, for the making of signs and other pieces of information for the subway. This
is all still in use and still very functional. >> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: Here is another example
of some materials we have that relate to the graphics designs he did for the subway. This
is just simply the signs without any content on them but you can recognize that across
the top as being part of the New York subway system. This is on a presentation board that
would have been used to probably show them examples of how they can do their design work.
>> LYDIA PALMER: We have two comments, one from Bruce H. who says the arrow mark, that
same exact cup design at Xerox for reuseable mugs to cut down on waste stream. He says
he still has the mugs. So thanks, Bruce. From Paul Martin: "Event is awesome, I hope
you plan to do this regularly." We will try to do that for you, Paul. Thanks
so much for your thoughts. >> ROGER REMINGTON: Moving right along.
One of the interesting projects that the Vignellis accomplished was in 1972, a branding project
for Bloomingdales department store in New York. Central idea was array of system of
bright-colored packages and bags and so forth and then a very unique logo in which the two
"O"s in Bloomingdales were overlapped. Then again this shows the range of their work.
You can see here this is some graphics for Cinzano and their packaging.
Speaking of range, here we're looking at some watches designed by the Vignellis. They started
with watch design project in 1994 and these are some of their more contemporary watches,
produced by Pierre Juneau in Switzerland. This is actually one of the more famous watch
designs in which one obtains with the watch, one obtains a series of different-colored
rings that you can change it or become interchangeable and I think the -- the watch design itself
is very symbolic I think of the Vignellis' work in general. That is very functional and
basic and simple and not cluttered up with decoration. Decoration would really be the
antithesis of Vignelli design. >> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: Here is a drawing example
from 1993 of watch ideas. You get a little bit of a side view to show how thin the face
of the watch is and then some different colored choices but this is sort of an example like
sometimes you see, I'm not sure if this watch ever was in production or this could be an
early idea for the watch, you know, those are things we're still discovering as far
as looking through archives, same with this watch. I don't know if this design exists.
I don't know if you know, Roger, but this is a little later in 1996 project project
I don't think they you willly produced this one.
Again, moving through a completely different genre, a very special project beginning in
the early 1990s in which the Vignellis were kind of frustrated with their having to buy
neckties of different widths and sports jackets of different styles and so forth, so they
decided, well, another one of their slogans which is if we can't find something we design
it. They designed their own line of clothes. Here we see Massimo in one of his outfits.
They had at one point a full-time tailor working at their design office on 10th Avenue.
>> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: In addition to having a huge rack full of patterns for the clothing,
we don't have a picture of that, we have some early thoughts of it and notice they call
it clothing systems. They are not calling it fashion design because they are trying
to step away from "Fashion" and make something that is timeless.
>> ROGER REMINGTON: Massimo likes to make a very strong distinction between style or
between his work and style. He doesn't really believe that modernist design he practices
really has anything to do with style. Their work represents what we would call a modernist,
rational, objective approach to design. It's not the only way to design but it is certainly
very distinctive part of their work. >> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: Here you see a draft
to where they are saying there is a need for this kind of clothing and going through this
timeless, sort of the things Roger was saying, not every whim of fashion, and you can see
this draft where they have crossed out some of the ideas. We do have a later version where
it is type written so you can see the thought process going into these concepts.
Then here is one of the sketches where you can see where they do a vo geometric drawing
but again it's a system and this is just the basic combination and then there are other
items that go into this. But this is a really early idea from the 1970s when they didn't
actually realize any of the clothes until the 1990s.
>> ROGER REMINGTON: Again moving to a completely different form we have some tableware and
this in fact Massimo when he first came to the U.S. and they worked for several years
in Newbury Port, Massachusetts, working for a company designing silverware. This particular
design I think was produced for a hotel, as was this. This is the famous Chiga glassware
and there were a set of glasses, different-sized glasses and other forms of glass that were used for this
hotel. This is based on the story behind this is kind of curved glass, Massimo was sitting
on the Grand Canal in Venice talking to the client looking across the canal and the client
was asking him what he saw as the shape of the glassware to come and Massimo says well
it's going to follow the curve on that wonderful church across the way. That is exactly what
we see here in this particular flask. And this is the Sasaki tableware collection.
>> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: Again, you can see there's a process here, you can see sketches with
the different shapes. Some ideas about color, you can see things that were considered and
crossed out. You get, again, into the design process of the final, what you end up with.
>> ROGER REMINGTON: We again move here to the furniture, this is called their handkerchief
chair which is still being sold by Knoll and it obviously comes in different colors, quite
comfortable. We have very fortunate at the Vignelli Center, we have a conference room
with only these chairs. And we live with them every day.
>> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: This is boxes. We found the box. We opened it and found a pencil still
in the box of when he was sketching and obviously some really early quick shape lines drawings
of the chair but you can already see how much the shape is similar to what he ends up with.
Here the little white model is the chair, the handkerchief chair but it's here with
some side chairs that these were going to be child-size versions according to the archives
that were never produced by Knoll but they considered making child-sized versions of
these chair, which is interesting. >> ROGER REMINGTON: We call these 3-dimensional,
we call them Maquettes. >> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: Here is another, a more
advanced copy as opposed to hand made one that was considered for a museum which makes
small-scale models of famous design chairs and so they were considering doing the handkerchief
chair. I don't know the whole story but here we have a version. As far as I know it was
never made but maybe that will change. >> ROGER REMINGTON: This is the March chair.
>> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: And it's March! >> ROGER REMINGTON: Good timing.
>> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: You can see there are some Polaroids of them, some of the different,
with arms, without arms, we have a number of different versions of the actual chair.
Different prototypes and final versions of the chair in the archives and then the next
slide shows you a little sketches of them backed up.
>> ROGER REMINGTON: The Vignellis moved in the 1970s to a wonderful office on 10th Avenue
in New York and I kind of humorously referred to this as the Palace of Design because it
was really a spectacular setting for design to happen. We're looking here into the entry
foyer and these are lead-lined walls and so it was a wonderful environment for them to
work and for clients to come and this lasted for many years, until the owner of the property
decided to increase their rent substantially and at that point they decided to downsize
the company somewhat and go in a different direction in terms of their facilities.
>> LYDIA PALMER: We have a question from Paul Martin. "Were the Vignellis conscious about
creating their archives through their careers? It sounds like many projects and drawings
were boxed up for the purpose of being discovered later. Do you know anything about how they
-- were they not big thrower-outers? How did they do that?"
(Laughter) >> ROGER REMINGTON: I think they had a sense
of the importance, sense of history. He's always been, Massimo has always been very
interested in the history of design and one of the reasons that the Vignelli collection
came to RIT was because we had been for 30 years at RIT collecting other designer archives.
Most of these are in the Wallace Library but we have more designer archives at RIT than
any other place. Massimo knew this, he was very interested in being part of this.
The difficulty or challenge was that the collection was so large that it required its own building
and so that is wonderful that we at RIT we were able to support design in this great
way and in terms of making this facility happen they are very organized people, so it would
be logical to keep records of their projects and their career in a very organized way and
it makes our job a lot easier, makes Jennifer's job a lot easier to have this it in kind of
pre-organized form. >> LYDIA PALMER: Another question from Bruce
Hartley referring to the, I'm sorry, Palace of Design, is that correct -- "why were the
walls lead-lined? Is that to prevent electronic spying or was there some other aesthetic reason
for it?" >> ROGER REMINGTON: My understanding was it
was only for aesthetic reasons. You can see the richness in the surface as we look at
this slide here in the foreground, these gray square slabs. Of course they would have to
be squared because the Vignellis are very interested in geometric form and rational
kind of objective design. >> LYDIA PALMER: One more question from Paul.
"Where were all the materials stored before RIT got the building?"
>> ROGER REMINGTON: That's a very interesting question. The Vignellis put their -- when
they down-sized their company they put a good deal of graphic work in storage in a place
in outer New York. A lot of furniture was part of a massive Vignelli exhibit which toured
the world and was in Russia, in France, in Italy. It was in London. And so there was
a mass of work that was accomplished. When the exhibit was finished much of the
work was stored in Italy, then slipped to Florida because early on they had been in
conversation with a museum in Florida about having their center there. The negotiations
for that fell through and so the work was left in storage in Florida for a number of
years and then it came to -- when the Vignelli Center project gained momentum, the work came
to Rochester and it was in storage here until the building was finished and then it came
to RIT and was put in storage until it was finally installed in the Vignelli Center so
it's had a -- an interesting journey but it survived transitions and we are very happy
it's reached its ultimate home. This is the -- another one of the Vignelli
chair designs, you want to speak to this one, Jennifer?
>> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: This is the interview chair from (?), I think this was done in 1988.
There is a story that goes with the whole interview part of it. Some TV stations, unfortunately
I am forgetting now -- >> ROGER REMINGTON: This was in Italy and
they have done a considerable amount of -- a Italian furniture company was a major client
of there is for many years. This again shows you the range of their work. This is a showroom
design for a company in California named Hoyserman and the unique thing about this was the company
produces office systems and wall systems and so they use a very bright color in trying
to present these different wall designs. This is actually one of my favorite projects. Small,
I don't know if you'd call it a coffee table, comes in several sizes but it's called metaphor.
>> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: Metafora number 1. >> ROGER REMINGTON: Massimo had a friend in
Italy who owned a marble quarry and he said to Massimo, can you make something with some
of my marble? So out of that came a number of tables and so forth and again here you
can see the basic geometric forms of the -- these would be the basic forms that would be of
interest to modernist designers like the Vignellis. >> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: Here you can see this
piece that would be hard to track down anywhere but they held on to this catalogue just about
the Metafora number 1 table, it has nice tables and it's interesting to me as an archivist
because I'm used to dealing more with papers and now we have large marble objects we have
to think about storing and displaying and luckily they are very stable material.
>> ROGER REMINGTON: It's interesting, when these metaphor tables were installed at the
Center, Massimo was there, and he was down on his hands and knees arranging the objects
underneath the glass so they were in perfect placement for him. That's the kind of concern
he would have for detail. This is another one of tables from that period
with large piece of marble as part of the support system. They have done a considerable
amount of branding design and this is a BK design they have produced. The idea here is
that one develops a strong graphic mark and a typographic style and their standards were
developed so there could be a great deal of consistency in the way the images, company,
and brand appears from business cards to brochures to the front of the building itself.
This is one of their more recent projects. This is branding for the Woolworth Company.
This was a company in South Africa that runs a series of large food stores and it's basically
about as simple as one can get. Just a square with a "W" in the center and it's just the
whole branding program, the whole system, is just fabulous in terms of how the simple,
graphic approach can permeate every product they produce.
Here you can see some of the products that they have. So typographic and then this is a more recent project, this
is the application of the new subway map but this is for the Metropolitan Transit Authority
in New York, an online program, it's called The Weekender, and subway user can go online
and check into this electronic version of the Vignelli map and see what lines are running
on a given day of the weekend, which lines are not running et cetera.
So with this, this was well into the digital age.
>> LYDIA PALMER: Let me interject for another question or two. We have one from very Vladimir
Warlow. He says "there was quite a progressive movement of modernism and design in all disciplines
in the 60s and 70s. Seemed to end around the Reagan era and in my opinion had even gone
backwards. Last visit to I was sad to see only a few remnants, in particular tracings
of the logo that you," I believe that's you, Roger, "designed in one of the doors." The
question is for you, Roger. Do you feel this era of progressive modernism will ever come
back? >> ROGER REMINGTON: Well, I remember you,
Vladimir, I think it was Walter at the time, and I am so glad to reconnect with you this
way. This would take a whole Webinar to deal with
this question (Laughter)
But I think you really put your finger on a very important point because Massimo Vignelli
and Lella and I and others really believed that with the whole world of modernism has
not gone away but it's very much alive and it has survived the critical view of the post-modern
period of deconstructonism and the values of modernism but the design values that the
Vignellis stand for are really still very much alive and I like to think the Vignelli
Center for Design Studies is existing partly to keep this kind of approach and keep these
values present in the education of young designers. I asked Massimo to sign one of his books for
me in my own collection and he signed the book and he wrote, "To Roger Remington: The
high priest of modernism, from the lowly apostle." (Laughter)
So we, he and I both share this strong opinion about this and it's a very debatable opinion
in terms of the roll of modernism but it has evolved into a neomodernism, a new phase that
has come out as we have wet third the storms of post-modernism.
>> LYDIA PALMER: We thank you for the suggestion for the next Webinar. We have two questions
we will combine because they are very similar from Paulina Reid and Paul Martin. Both ask
if you are aware of items that are missing from the collection, either because they were
deeply personal and appreciated and and loved by Massimo or Lella or if some other reason
there's something significant from the collection that we do not have.
>> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: That's a great question and I don't know because I haven't processed
the whole collection yet! I don't know. As far as I know there are not any stories about
anything they didn't give to us. >> ROGER REMINGTON: I think it was their sincere
attempt to give us everything they have done and to realize the significance of having
it complete or as complete as possible and as Jennifer said we don't really have anything
yet. They are both still alive and Massimo has been producing work right up to the present
so there will be more work coming into the center. I know this probably scares Jennifer!
(Laughter) She realizes she has more to deal with but
a good deal of contemporary work, new work which has been done in digital format will
be added to the collection. This is an interesting image, this shows Massimo's
work, he worked closely with Yoshi Waterhouse and Beatrice (?). It's a small scene but very
powerful, Beatrice has worked with Massimo so long she can just about do things automatically
the way he would like them. You can see them working here in the office now, surrounded
by very small part of his extensive library. So they have a very small, intimate group
and they're still producing I think we are toward the end of our journey here.
>> JENNIFER WHITLOCK: Here are e-mails if you want to ask questions. You can also check
our website, find out about upcoming speakers and events, any other information about the
center. We have a Tumblr blog page where you can see examples. If you want to see more
what's coming out of the collection, check out the Tumbler page and of course go to the
next -- we're on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram. Instagram gives you some behind-the-scenes,
day-to-day things that are happening and of course we give you updates from all those
other platforms, website about speakers and about the collection.
>> ROGER REMINGTON: It would be a good idea to refer to these websites and so forth because
we do have a very extensive and wonderful series of lectures that we sponsor every year
which we call design conversations, they are open to the public and for all you alums in
the area we would certainly love to have you come back to Vignelli Center and back to RIT
to participate in this. Two weeks ago we had Michael (?) as a speaker
from New York and we had over 200 people in the University gallery. It's a big event and
I think we have two or three more coming this year before the end of the spring semester.
So please come and participate. >> LYDIA PALMER: Just a couple minutes for
more comments and questions. Bruce Hartley referred back to Vladimir's comment saying
that he would argue modern, well designed computer interfaces take from Massimo's views
on design in minimal liesing -- sorry -- yet being fully functional. Thank you for that
comment. I will give a little heads-up in that later
this summer Roger is going to be doing a presentation, a meRIT Webinar in advance of an exhibit you
are doing in the fall. Can you tell people just a little bit about
that? >> ROGER REMINGTON: Yes. We will have and
put up in late August through the fall a really marvelous, large exhibit of posters by the
great German designer Pierre Mendel and his posters will be in the University gallery
and in the (?) gallery concurrently and also a speaker -- unfortunately, Mr. Mendel is
no longer alive, but one of his associates, Annette Kroger, will be coming to RIT and
will be giving out a formal talk about his work.
So this is, again, all open to the public and I hope you will come participate in this.
>> LYDIA PALMER: We will also be hosting in two weeks on the 25th another meRIT Webinar
with Doug Eymer, alumnus from the class of '84, "Forgetting to Drain the Swamp and other
Lessons of Running Your Own Creative Business," so we invite you to please register and attend
that. It is design month here at RIT apparently
so -- >> ROGER REMINGTON: Could be nothing better!
(Laughter) >> LYDIA PALMER: And last comment from Paulina
who says, "Thank you for the wonderful work you have done, Roger, on getting this collection
that has enriched RIT's design school in a profound way."
I think we all agree. If any of you are in the are Rochester area,
be it for an official event or visiting the area, we encourage you to come in and see
what is in the Vignelli Center for Design Studies and in the archives. It is truly a
unique and globally significant collection and it's here right at your alma mater. Please
consider making a stop in to see what's going on there.
Also please visit their website and some of their contact areas as Jennifer gave them
to you because there are quite a number of activities and events going on in the Vignelli
Center and we encourage people to please participate and be part of what's going on in that area.
That is all the time that we have today. If there are additional questions, they can be
mailed to RITalum@RIT.edu or tweeted to @RIT_alumni with the hashtag #meRIT Webinars and we will
direct your questions to Roger and Jennifer. They also provided, as you said, their contact
information so you can also contact them directly.