What brings us joy in the archives? These vintage color images of the Heller rainbow stacking dinnerware! Those colors! Those concentric circles! Bon appetit!
We have many photographs of Vignelli-designed products in the archives. Often we find the original shots for catalogs, publications, and other marketing purposes. But we haven’t seen these images used in any of the promotional materials!
This stacking melamine dinnerware was originally designed in Italy in 1964 and won the Compasso D’oro award. But the manufacturer went out of business and the molds lay dormant for a few years. But Heller brought them to the United States and they eventually created them in rainbow colors.
“The size of the plates, their edge wall concept, their stackability, and the brilliant rainbow colors quickly captured the consumers’ attention and the product became a symbol of contemporary houseware.” design: Vignelli (1981).
We can’t resist joining the fun of the #joyofGLAM. On instagram @rarebkcat and @rutgers_scua [Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives] are challenging Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAMs) and fans of GLAMS to share something that brings them joy every Wednesday in July! [our apologies for being a day late this week.]
Color transparencies of Heller stacking dinnerware
Massimo and Lella Vignelli papers
Vignelli Center for Design Studies
Rochester, NY
