Design: Vignelli exhibition, Rochester, NY. Corporate Identity Programs

View of the "Design: Vignelli" exhibition, Benetton Galleries, Vignelli Center for Design Studies, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, United States. The "Design: Vignelli" exhibition opened in 2010 at the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, which is also home to their entire professional archives. The exhibition mirrors the "Design: Vignelli" exhibition which toured nine countries between 1989-1993. As with the previous iteration, Lella Vignelli and Massimo Vignelli designed the displays, wrote the descriptive text, and curated the artifacts for the exhibition. It is the last exhibition designed by the Vignellis that is still open to the public. Pictured: Xerox Corporate Identity Program (1985-1989).

Text from design: Vignelli exhibition label:
Xerox
Corporate Identity Program 1985-1989
Owing to the company’s enormous size, this project took a tremendous mount of time—domestic and international trips, presentations, changes, reviews, training seminar, top-level crisis meetings, low-level crisis meetings, and anything else you can add to it. It had a precarious life of good and bad implementations. The basic project was designed with a collaboration of the firms of Jay Doblin Associates and Jack Hough Associates. The project would have died a thousand times had it not been for the remarkable efforts of John Rutkus of Xerox, whose commitment kept it alive and progressing. On this page there are three temporary guideline manuals for advertising, promotional literature, and packaging, surrounded by a variety of pieces designed by several agencies and in-house staff following those guidelines. The basic elements recurrent throughout the printed matter are the corporate stripe at the top (in any appropriate color), the typefaces, and the typographical structure. As simple as these elements are, it is incredible how difficult it is to manage the correct implementation for so large and complex a company.