It’s that time again to share the latest lecture of the 2023/2024 academic year of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies Design Conversation Lecture Series. This session features Jonathan Wajskol, a Milan native who came to New York City in 1979 as a protege, and ultimately, a lifelong friend of the legendary Massimo Vignelli. Throughout his career at his eponymous studio, designwajskol, he has designed just about everything, including products, clocks, car dashboards, corporate branding, and wayfinding systems, to name a few. In this lecture, Wajskol speaks on the tensions between simplicity and complexity in modern and contemporary design as he reviews the radically spare design of A.G. Fronzoni (1923-2002) to show how far minimalism can go while still having an effect on human emotions. The talk also discusses how designers think, visual perception, and content vs. paring down information for efficacy and memorable communication.
Watch Jonathan Wajskol’s full talk, entitled “Simplicity and complexity. Emotions in design” below!
To learn more about The Vignelli Center for Design Studies at RIT, they have launched digital access to the archives through Google Arts & Culture, joining over 2000 cultural institutions from around the world. The initial launch includes nearly 900 high resolution images of artifacts from the archives so that now anyone with access to the Internet and Google Arts & Culture can search the Vignelli archives or browse it by color or chronological order.
This lecture is presented with the support of RIT’s MAGIC Center.
This lecture series is made possible in part by the generosity of RIT Alumnus, Chris Bailey, and Bailey Brand Consulting.