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Revisit The Vignelli Center’s Design Conversations Lecture Series

Back in September 2020, we partnered with The Vignelli Center for Design Studies to rebroadcast their Design Conversations Lecture Series. We’re gearing up to rebroadcast the next three lectures in the series, which will begin next week. In the meantime, we wanted to share these fantastic lectures from the Fall – in case you missed them:

02.18.21 | By
Revisit The Vignelli Center’s Design Conversations Lecture Series

Our first rebroadcast of The Vignelli Center for Design Studies’ Design Conversations Lecture Series was with Natalie Nixon, PhD. Her talk, entitled “Level Up Design: Creativity & Context at Every Turn” shares stories about the importance of including different perspectives in research and development and how that can push design to be even more innovative and she shares some action steps you can take to help analyze and push your creativity. Watch:


The next rebroadcast we shared was with legendary designer Noel Mayo. His talk, “Noel May – A Life of Firsts”, is full of incredible designs and his stories behind them. As Josh Owen, Director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies noted, when Noel walks into the room… everyone stops talking: he’s kind of a big deal. For example, he reimagined the light switch for Lutron, created the first in-line deposit/withdrawal for banks, as well as telephones, seating, desks, lighting fixture, offices, stores and restaurants. He has worked on the design of exhibits in Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, Lagos, Barcelona, Casablanca, and the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Watch:


The last talk we rebroadcast was with dean and professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture, Milton S.F. Curry, entitled “Paul R. Williams and the Legacy of Black Aesthetics”. Curry is not only an accomplished academic leader, he is also the author of influential essays and articles related to architecture, urbanism, race and cultural theory. A firm believer in public discourse on architecture and culture, he has been widely published and cited in Deem Journal, Architect’s Newspaper, Huffington Post, Architectural Record and more. Prior to establishing his own design practice, MiltonCurry ProjectStudio, Curry worked at the offices of KPF Architects.

Don’t miss the rest of the series – tune in next week!

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 series is made possible in part by the generosity of RIT Alumnus, Chris Bailey and Bailey Brand Consulting.

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.