Design Is One: Lella & Massimo Vignelli

Last year I had the guilty pleasure of interviewing my friends Kathy Brew and Roberto Guerra about their latest documentary, Design Is One: Lella & Massimo Vignelli. The film, which played to critical acclaim at Manhattan's IFC Film Center, explores the Italian-born couple's partnership that has distinguished them among the world's most influential designers.

On January 10, 2014, Guerra lost his six-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Brew had noted during our interview that the famed husband and wife team's creative collaboration was similar to her and Roberto's "in that they have complementary talents and skills." She quoted the Vignellis' maxim that "two heads are better than one" with a clear nod of recognition. 

Design Is One flowed from an earlier project that Guerra had made with his former wife, Eila Hershon. It was one of six episodes in a series entitled By Design that also profiled Karl Lagerfeld and Milton Glaser, among others. Guerra and Hershon's 25-year union produced numerous prizewinning documentary portraits about leading lights in art, design and fashion including Frieda Kahlo, Oskar Kokoschka and Coco Chanel.   

Together with Brew, Guerra continued making nonfiction works that he also shot and edited. To name but two, there's Paradise Now: Picturing the Genetic Revolution -- which aired on WNET/Thirteen's Metro Arts and screened at Montreal's International Festival of Films on Art -- and segments for WNET's City Arts and Egg, which landed the duo of 17 years two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Fine Arts Programming. 

Guerra will be dearly missed by all who knew his artistic soul and piquant wit, but his memory lives on in his work and his words. Here's a sampling, from the interview mentioned above: http://www.thalo.com/articles/view/805/design_is_one_interview_with_kathy_brew_and