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Case Study: Vignelli Center for Design Studies at RIT
Rochester Institute of Technology, one of the world's leading educational design institutions, created a New Global Design Initiative whose goal is to escalate the world's awareness of the importance of design in people's lives. The key component of this initiative is the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, a new, 24,000 square foot, five-level facility dedicated solely to design and design education. The Center will be located on the RIT campus, and is named in honor of Massimo and Lella Vignelli. Through the scope and integrity of their work and their philosophy of integrated design, the Vignellis have influenced the world of design for more than four decades. Their collaborative achievements in industrial and product design, graphic and publication design, corporate identity, architectural graphics, exhibition, interior and furniture design have earned a host of national and international awards and worldwide recognition. They have spearheaded the Center – which Massimo designed - and are donating their professional archive, which will join the twenty existing collections to be housed in the new Center. This facility will be a global learning resource for students, designers and scholars bringing emphasis to design studies as it compliments the educational curricula at RIT.
B+C was retained for a variety of assignments, including the development of a comprehensive strategy to raise funds for the Center and an endowed professorship. To do this, B+C worked closely with RIT's development office to identify potential sources of support and targeted donors (and methods of effectively reaching them), created a variety of naming opportunities, and prepared proposals to donors (including research and background information).Working closely with the Vignellis and RIT staff, the firm planned events to introduce the project to the cultural community, and created a variety of collateral materials used to secure support.