Massimo Vignelli studied architecture in Milan and Venice. While in Venice as a student, he worked for Venini from 1953 to 1957, designing lighting fixtures, glass windows, drinking glasses, and pitchers. Most of the pieces he designed are today in museum collections, notably the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Montreal, Die Neue Sammlung in Munich, and others. A monographic exhibition of the Vignellis’ work toured Europe between 1989 and 1993.

Over the course of his career, Vignelli worked across the field of design, from graphic identity programs to publications, from products in glass, china, silver, and plastic to furniture and interiors. His work has been widely recognized by museums, publications and exhibitions throughout the world. Among Vignelli’s impressive awards are the Gran Premio Triennale di Milano, 1964; Compasso d’Oro, 1964 and 1998; the AIA 1973 Industrial Arts Medal; the Art Directors Club 1982 Hall of Fame; the 1983 AIGA Gold Medal; the first Presidential Design Award; the Interior Design Hall of Fame, 1988; the National Arts Club Gold Medal for Design, 1991; the Interior Product Designers Fellowship of Excellence, 1992; and the Brooklyn Museum Design Award for Lifetime Achievement, 1995. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Architecture from the University of Venice, Italy, and Honorary Doctorates in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, Rhode Island School of Design, and Corcoran School of Art. In 1996 he received the Honorary Royal Designer for Industry Award from the Royal Society of Arts, London.

Born in Finland, from 1933 to 1936 Tapio Wirkkala attended the Central School for the Industrial Arts in Helsinki, where later he became artistic director. In 1946, he became part of the design team of the Finnish workshop Karhula Ittala, for which he produced his most famous designs and with which he remained associated until his death. Well known in Italy as well, his crystal works were shaped and cut in forms inspired by Nordic nature. A fervent scholar of materials, Wirkkala created objects not only in glass, but also in metal, wood, ceramic, and silver. He came to Venini for the first time in 1966 and continued his collaboration through 1972, only to return again in 1985. Wirkkala mastered Venetian techniques such as incalmo, filigrana, and murrina with great sensitivity. The result was a series of collections of greatly refined glass pieces with extraordinary colors, which wed the purity of Nordic design to the transparency of Murano glass in an incomparable style.

Born in Trent, Zanini graduated with a degree in architecture from the Università di Firenze and later took several courses at the Architectural Association in London. From 1975 to 1977 he traveled through Mexico, Canada, and the United States, where he worked briefly. At the end of 1977, he returned to Italy and settled in Milan where he began working with Ettore Sottsass. He became a partner in the Studio Sottsass Associati in 1980, and in 1981 was a founding member of the Memphis Group, in which he participated actively through 1988. He showed in several exhibitions with Memphis, designing ceramics, lighting systems, furniture, and several series of glass objects crafted by the Vetreria Toso Vetri d’Arte. He collaborated with Studio Sottsass Associati on many projects such as office furniture for Knoll International, exhibition designs and interiors, urban furniture, and industrial design objects. Independently, he designs and makes jewelry, ceramics, furniture, and blown glass objects (Venini, 1989).

Painter, decorator, and designer Vittorio Zecchin was the son of a glassblower from Murano. Upon graduating from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, he joined the Secessionist movement of Cà Pesaro where he showed his paintings inspired by the Viennese movement on many occasions. In 1913, in Munich, together with Teodoro Wolf Ferrari, he exhibited glass panels and vessels a murrine made by the Artisti Barovier, which represented the attempt to bring the Secessionist style to Murano glass. From 1921 to 1925, he was artistic director of the Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Cappellin Venini & C., where he created lightweight glass pieces, classically inspired and delicately colored, which earned him immediate success in Italy and abroad. Inspired by the styles painted in the works of sixteenth-century painters in the Veneto, these vessels were the first modern works in Murano glass. After a short period as artistic director of the Maestri Vetrai Muranesi Cappellin & C., he collaborated with S.A.L.I.R. in the ’30s, providing drawings for glass engraving and personally decorating glass with enamels. He occasionally worked for Ferro Toso (1930), A.VE.M. (1932), and Seguso Vetri d’Arte (1933-34). At Fratelli Toso (1938), he created the elegant goblets Leggerissimi. During the ’20s and ’30s, Zecchin also designed tapestries, mosaics, embroidery, ceramics, furniture, silverware, all of which he exhibited at the Biennale di Venezia and the Biennale di Monza. During the last years of his life, he dedicated himself to teaching.

Designer Mary Ann “Toots” Zynsky was born in Boston and attended the Rhode Island School of Design, the Pilchuck Glass School, and the Craft School at Haystack, taking part in various experiences and experiments. From 1981 to 1983, she collaborated with Venini, where, with the help of maestro Checco Ongaro, she created a remarkable series of pieces. Among these are the vessels called Folto, whose openings have wide turned-over lips, and decorations with glass rods produced out of hair-thin threads made with a technique she invented herself. Her works are present not only in the major international museums, but also in the White House amidst the works of the best American artists.

Born in Venice, Laura Diaz de Santillana attended the School of Visual Arts in New York. After working as a graphic designer at the design firm of Vignelli Associates in 1976, she returned to Italy and began an active collaboration with Vetreria Venini & C., founded by her grandfather, Paolo Venini. At the workshop, managed with a spirit of great openness by her father, Ludovico Diaz de Santillana, her work brought her in close contact with the many Italian and foreign artists who came to the furnace in those years. During that period, she used the techniques of Murano to create refined works with unusual colors, among which the plates in vetro mosaico deserve particular mention. From 1985 to 1993, she was the designer and artistic director of Eos and later worked as designer for Rosenthal and for Ivan Baj. Further developing her own artistic identity through the creation of original works, lately she has focused her attention on the sculptural qualities of the material, which is often finished in singular textures. De Santillana’s meditated study of color has produced original solutions. She has participated in numerous exhibitions in Europe, the United States, and Japan, winning widespread consensus. Several of her works have been acquired by public and private collections such as the Corning Museum of Glass, the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, and the Museo Vetrario di Murano.

Born in Venice, Laura Diaz de Santillana attended the School of Visual Arts in New York. After working as a graphic designer at the design firm of Vignelli Associates in 1976, she returned to Italy and began an active collaboration with Vetreria Venini & C., founded by her grandfather, Paolo Venini. At the workshop, managed with a spirit of great openness by her father, Ludovico Diaz de Santillana, her work brought her in close contact with the many Italian and foreign artists who came to the furnace in those years. During that period, she used the techniques of Murano to create refined works with unusual colors, among which the plates in vetro mosaico deserve particular mention. From 1985 to 1993, she was the designer and artistic director of Eos and later worked as designer for Rosenthal and for Ivan Baj. Further developing her own artistic identity through the creation of original works, lately she has focused her attention on the sculptural qualities of the material, which is often finished in singular textures. De Santillana’s meditated study of color has produced original solutions. She has participated in numerous exhibitions in Europe, the United States, and Japan, winning widespread consensus. Several of her works have been acquired by public and private collections such as the Corning Museum of Glass, the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, and the Museo Vetrario di Murano.

Born in Paris of Venetian origin, Alessandro Diaz de Santillana graduated in Art History at the Università di Venezia in 1981. At Venini & C., founded by his grandfather, Paolo Venini, and managed by his father, Ludovico Diaz de Santillana, he had the opportunity to meet many artists from the American Studio Glass movement who worked at the furnace thanks to the openness and generosity of the artistic director. He collaborated with Venini & C. through 1985, and later with Rosenthal and Eos. He has been exhibiting since 1985, after choosing to progressively dedicate himself to his own personal artistic development and to the creation of original works.

Born in Washington, DC, James Carpenter graduated in 1972 from the Rhode Island School of Design with a B.F.A. in Sculpture. After his first collaboration at Venini, from October 1971 to May 1972, Carpenter returned several times to participate in the design of various glassworks. During this time, he worked along with Ludovico Diaz de Santillana, experimenting in new techniques for the creation of large multicolored glass windows. His designs were included in the exhibition of historical and contemporary Venini glass held in New York in 1984. Among the works he designed for Venini is the Calabash, executed with the use of multicolored glass rods. For more than twenty-five years, Carpenter’s work has focused on the exploration of light as a means to bring form to structure and reveal the environment. As an artist considered to be a foremost innovator in materials technologies, Carpenter has worked collaboratively with major architects in the United States and abroad on significant building projects and has received many major architectural and public art commissions. Carpenter currently works in New York.