Stendig Calendar

The legendary Stendig Calendar is back for 2022, and remains one of the best examples of 1960s modernist design, featuring two of the movement’s most iconic creations – Swiss typeface Helvetica and the Grid. The Stendig was originally designed by Massimo Vignelli in 1697 for Charles Stendig, a celebrated importer of mid-century European furniture to the US in the 1960s. Immediately after it was created, it was added by MoMA to its permanent collection, where it remains to this day. It’s been manufactured in Nashville, Tennessee for over 50 years.

A true modernist, Vignelli is widely credited for bringing European Modernism to the United States. He was an advocate of functionality in design, favouring a minimalist aesthetic and basing his creations on real user needs. Throughout his career, Vignelli refused to adhere to any one design discipline. His work spanned different fields from branding to package design, furniture design, public signage and more.

The Stendig calendar is a supreme example of Vignelli’s emphasis on simplicity and simple geometric shapes. The entire craft of the design comes in the layout of simple helvetica lettering. Particularly noteworthy is the kerning on each combination of numerals, exactly judged and tailored to each pair so that the two numerals just kiss. Vignelli had a fairly strong view on fonts — he believed in only using a few basic typefaces, one of which was Helvetica. The Stendig is perhaps the most pointed example of his use of the font. It is also a classic example of the old design aphorism that in a design, white space matters as much as the objects it surrounds.

Vignelli’s design is simple yet bold, litho-printed on large 122x92cm sheets bound together by three hand-punched eyelets. The pages alternate in colour, with odd months laid out as black text on white, and even as white text on black. Sheets are detachable, designed to be removed at the end of each month. The calendar is entirely recyclable, including the packaging, with customers encouraged to use used sheets as wrapping paper.

The Stendig’s clean, minimalist aesthetic makes it suitable for any room in the house – whether the home office, the living room, the kitchen, the bedroom, or even the hall.

Purchase the 2022 Stendig Calendar here.

www.stendigcalendars.com
@stendigcalendars

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