Advice from design icon Massimo Vignelli: “Don’t ask people what they want – give them what they need.” With over 40 years of experience under his belt, and work published and exhibited throughout the world and entered in the permanent collections of several museums including The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in NY, the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Montreal and the Die Neue Sammlung in Munich, his advice is quite possibly as good as it gets.

Massimo Vignelli at the IDNY meetup. January 14, 2010 at the Heller Showroom.

Massimo Vignelli’s portfolio includes everything from graphic and corporate identity programs, publication design and architectural graphics to interior design, furniture design, and comsumer product designs for leading American and European companies and institutions. “If you can design one thing, you can design everything,” Vignelli has said. He serves as a testament to that statement. His clients at Vignelli Associates have included high-profile companies such as IBM and American Airlines. And in the smaller design world, you’re likely familiar the magazine A+U (Architecture and Urbanism), whose graphic format is the work of Vignelli – or his furniture design for brands including Casigliani, Knoll, Poltrona Frau and of course Heller. The signage and auditorium seating for Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao, perhaps one of the most iconic buildings in the world, is the work of Vignelli.

Some people still refuse to believe that design affects everyone. But NYC residents and commuters interact with Massimo Vignelli’s work on a daily basis – and NYC tourists rely on it. In 1972, Massimo Vignelli redesigned George Salomon’s New York Subway map. This new design persisted until 1979 when it was superseded by Michael Hertz’s. In 2008, Massimo Vignelli introduced his redesigned subway diagram: more accurate and more efficient.

A year ago, Vignelli released an e-book titled “The Vignelli Canon”, available for free download on his website. “I thought that it might be useful to pass some of my professional knowledge around, with the hope of improving [young designers’] design skills. Creativity needs the support of knowledge to be able to perform at its best.” So whether you’re a young designer looking for early inspiration or a more established designer looking to hone your skills – Vignelli is (and will remain) a highly reputable design mastermind worthy of study.

Take a look at a clip of Massimo Vignelli‘s talk at IDNY @ Heller this past Thursday.

Photography by Holly Haffner.