Massimo Vignelli Hierarchy

Michelle Ortiz

Massimo Vignelli is a very important de-signer in terms of Hierarchy. His most famous and recognizable example of Hierarchy is the information posted throughout the New York City Subway system. He used the typeface Helvetica because it is easy to read. His work in designing the displays for the New York City Subway system uses hierarchy by making the most important information for riders as the biggest size. He made sure that the direction such as Down-town or Uptown and the Subway Sta-tion was the important information dis-

played. The next important line Vignel-li displayed was the Subway line and then made smaller was the information about the line. The choices he made for most important information was vi-tal because if he chose the wrong thing to make biggest, it would not function as it needs to, to direct where people want to go.

Another example of Massimo Vi-gnelli’s work with use of Hierarchy is the brochures for the furniture company Knoll. In the brochures, Vignelli made the company name the most important

Massimo Vignelli Hierarchy

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by Michelle Ortiz

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Massimo Vignelli Hierarchy

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New York City Subway System Signage

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Brochures for Furniture company Knoll designed by Massimo Vignelli

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information and then put the less impor-tant information in smaller sizes.

Another example of Massimo Vi-gnelli using Hierarchy in his work is in the example of Skyline Magazine. He uses the title of the magazine as the key point in the cover. The smaller stories contained within are then put in smaller point sizes since they are the less im-portant information that readers need to know. Although directly underneath the title, information such as the date of the issue and price are the second smallest bits of information because they do not hold as much weight as the magazine’s name and stories.

A fourth example of Hierarchy in

Massimo Vignelli’s work is the work he did for Fassati Wines. For the packag-ing of the bottles, it again made sure that it contained the most important in-formation as the largest point size. Hier-archy in this instance is needed to em-phasize the brand and attract the cus-tomer.

Massimo Vignelli also used Hierar-chy for the signage in International De-sign Center New York. An example of such is in a sign that alerts people to what floor they are on and what busi-nesses are on each floor. The most im-portant information displayed are the

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Skyline Magazine

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floor level and the area labeled “Center Two”. These are clearly made to be im-portant because in order for someone to find what floor they need to be on it needs to be the most visible. A sixth and final example of Massimo Vignelli’s use of Hierarchy is in Fodor’s Travel Guides. In these guides the hierarchy of infor-mation is clearly visible. The name of the guide is the most important as dis-played by the point size, followed by the

Knoll Furniture companyAn example of hierarchy in the packaging for Fassati Wines

country in which the guide is for, and underneath other information. This sys-tem of hierarchy is successful because it alerts the viewer of the brand and then afterwards let’s them know which guide they need for the area they want. Hav-ing information that is not as vital to the reader as the smallest size helps the person viewing the guide quickly de-cide which one they need.

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International Design Center New York

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Fodor’s Travel Guides

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