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Object Timeline

1988

  • Work on this object began.

2009

  • We acquired this object.

2010

2024

  • You found it!

Poster, The Business of Design

This is a Poster. It was designed by Massimo Vignelli. It is dated 1988 and we acquired it in 2009. Its medium is offset lithograph on white wove paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

Graphic designers Michael Bierut and Massimo Vignelli collaborated on the design of this poster while working at Vignelli Associates. The International Center for Design New York (IDCNY) hired the studio to create material to promote its series of seminars on “the business of design,” which gives this poster its title. Vignelli viewed graphic design as a way of organizing information, so the hierarchy of type, with respect to size and weight of the letterforms, is clearly delimited. He was also known to use only a handful of clean and modern typefaces on any given project, upholding his idea that typefaces should be objective; for Vignelli, the role of typography was to effectively communicate the concept of a work. In The Business of Design, created in 1988, the layout is organized on a grid, as is customary with Vignelli’s printed matter, and the graphic dollar sign is a composition of lines, angles, and shading, making the image appear to recede into the page.

This object was donated by Massimo Vignelli and Lella Vignelli. It is credited Gift of Lella and Massimo Vignelli.

Our curators have highlighted 3 objects that are related to this one.

Its dimensions are

81.1 × 45.9 cm (31 15/16 × 18 1/16 in.)

It is inscribed

Printed in black ink, lower margin: Design: Michael Bierut/Vignelli Associates

Cite this object as

Poster, The Business of Design; Designed by Massimo Vignelli (Italian, active USA, 1931–2014); USA; offset lithograph on white wove paper; 81.1 × 45.9 cm (31 15/16 × 18 1/16 in.); Gift of Lella and Massimo Vignelli; 2009-42-14

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18734849/ |title=Poster, The Business of Design |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=20 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>