He got the idea of working with artists by following the example of Peggy Guggenheim who reportedly said, "Glass is too important a material to be left in the hands of glass masters".
Murano's Renaissance glass masters, who were so protective of their trade secrets, would be astounded.
But she also invites contemporary glass masters from around the world to run workshops.
Gordon Bunshaft, the glass master of Skidmore's International Style phase, might well have disapproved.
Jean Vendome names René Lalique, the Art Nouveau jewelry designer and glass master, as a primary source of inspiration.
Despite that, its enormous conical construction contains the world's only amphitheatre "hotshop", where up to 150 people at a time can watch glass masters at work.
The owner Filippo Gambardella doesn't knock out legions of cheap souvenirs; instead, he curates the work of mid-century Venetian glass masters, from Barovier to Seguso to Venini.
Mr. Vignelli was fearless, following the glass masters — Eric Meek, Lewis Olson, Matt Urban and Dan Spitzer — to the kilns and glory holes, and leaning in closely as they silently twirled, shaped, reheated and reshaped the glowing wads until they started resembling what the designer imagined they could.
The glass masters created a delicate casing a little more than one-eighth of an inch thick, which they allowed to cool overnight before inserting the book and then sealing up the end.
This "glass master" is coated with a thin layer of nickel to form a "metal master," and the metal master in turn is used to produce a number of "mothers". Each mother serves as the master for several metal "stampers," onto which molten polycarbonate is injected for molding into clear plastic discs.
