Design Is One seems to be about se eral things at once

The idea was simple, they looked elegant and they helped the host "Now, that is what design is all about It's not putting lowers on a plate. Designers must also ocus always on making things actually work well and be unctional. There was, or example, a set o dinner plates he made 30 years ago that had unusually high rims and stacked on top o each other so that the le to ers rom each course o a meal could be hidden e en while the plates stayed on the table. "You don't ha e to ollow ashion to be elegant," ignelli says. "I remember thinking, my God, you can really do anything and that is the discipline o Design Is One."Second - more contro ersially - to achie e timelessness or their creations, designers must always eschew trends o the moment In other words, they should ignore ashion.

"We belie e that an architect should be able to design e erything rom a spoon to a city; that is something I learned when I was ery young," he says. irst, just about e erything around, sa e the lora and auna, are products o design, ignelli says. But ignelli is harsh on designers who ollow di erent paths. ictims he mentions in the course o our inter iew include almost the entire design community in America as well as, much more narrowly, whoe er was responsible or the latest re amping o The Guardian newspaper.Design Is One seems to be about se eral things at once.

These days, howe er, he is almost as interested in e angelising his own design dogma, which he calls Design Is One. That is the title o a new book o his work rom the past 50 years as well o a lecture he will be deli ering on 4 May in London.It is a philosophy o Spartan and unctional design that some younger designers and critics may no longer warm to. There is also the act that in America, at least - which has been his home or 40 years - ignelli designs and logos are e erywhere. "You could ly into New York on American Airlines, ind your way on the New York City subway, shop at Bloomingdales, dine at Palio, and e en worship at St Peter's Church and ne er be out o touch with a ignelli-designed logo, signage system, shopping bag, table setting or pipe organ," noted the graphic designer Michael Bierut - and ignelli prot? - in a recent article.At 75 years old, ignelli is still working at ull tilt, running his Manhattan-based irm, ignelli Associates, with his wi e Lella. "Not to eel compressed." As an Italian-born architect and designer whose determinedly modernist world iew has won him many awards as well as exhibits in museums such as the MoMA in New York as well as the Metropolitan Museum o Art, ignelli can a ord to show some good-humoured sel -aggrandisement. It is a gargantuan li ing space, e en i he stands o er six eet tall himsel "It's about the right size or my ego," he says.