Jan Conradi speaking at the Denver Art Museum, October 22, 2015.

On October 22nd Jan Conradi gave us an evening with the Vignellis at the Denver Art Museum. With charming, personal details, she talked about stories from her book Lella and Massimo Vignelli: Two Lives, One Vision (RIT Press) as a part of the 2015-2016 AIGA Colorado’s Speaker Series.

Not only does Jan have a plethora of knowledge of Lella and Massimo Vignelli on a professional level, but she brought insights and fabulous stories about their personal lives as well. The Vignellis were a dynamic duo: a passionate Italian couple, doing what they loved, graciously sharing their knowledge, and designing a better society through a modernist philosophy. I think we live in a more beautiful world because of them and because of Jan’s book.

Jan in a nutshell: a Professor of Graphic Design at Rowan University in New Jersey. She has lectured at numerous colleges and design conferences on the topics of design history and design education and her projects and course materials have been featured in several design books and publications. Basically she’s a smarty-pants.

Her previous book, Unimark International: The Design of Business and the Business of Design was published in 2010 by Lars Müller. I highly recommend this one as well. And along with writing and teaching, Jan is letterpress-er (or maybe letterpress priestess) and owns her own freelance design studio.

As Massimo Vignelli said, “Design is a marvelous mission. Go out and spread the word. It is your turn.”

By Jenny J Taylor – AIGA Speaker Series Chair