Roger Remington Tribute

It has been my major goal to help students achieve the highest possible level of visual aesthetics in their work.

Roger Remington

photo of Roger Remington with images from Cary Collection in the background

R. Roger Remington BFA '58, dedicated nearly six decades of his life, and virtually his entire career, to teaching design and demonstrating its power. The Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design, alumni, and longest-serving faculty member at RIT retired in May after 57 years at the university. In addition to building a nationally recognized graphic design program in RIT’s College of Art and Design, Remington transformed the university into an international archival resource for design, earning many of the industry’s most distinguished accolades along the way.

RIT and Roger’s colleagues, former students, and witnesses to the impact of his career are celebrating his decades of good design education and practice. We ask you to join us to share your best wishes and support the continued work of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies.

Honoring Roger’s Legacy

You can celebrate Roger Remington’s legacy of unparalleled design education excellence and his impact on the global design community. We ask you to join the hundreds of alumni, design colleagues, and friends from all over the world who want to see Roger’s commitment to Good Design continue through the Vignelli Center.

A gift to support the education and scholarship of the Vignelli Center will ensure that one of Roger’s greatest achievements – the founding of the beacon for excellent design – can continue its outstanding work. Whether you share Roger’s commitment to excellent design, were impacted by his educational approach, want to see Rochester and RIT continue its trajectory as a hub for design excellence, or were touched by Roger’s career or life in another way, your support of the Vignelli Center will honor this extraordinary designer and person.

Make your gift to the Vignelli Center

Share your Tribute to Roger

Please share your thoughts about Roger as a designer, educator, mentor, and respected colleague. Your tribute will appear on this site, and will be shared directly with Roger. You may upload your tribute in written form in the form below. You may also upload a photo.

We suggest transferring files via WeTransfer, a free web-based application. Please include the phrase Roger Remington Tribute in the message section.

If you would like to send multiple photos or a video, please forward to:

A Great Career in Good Design

Roger Remington’s remarkable 57 year career at RIT has shaped generations of designers, educators, scholars and historians as well as the field of design itself by presenting a beacon and a template for the power of design to create continued impact.

Roger’s career spanned the end of the Beaux Arts period to modern design to today’s multi-media, technology-driven design environment. As an internationally-recognized leader in design and design education, Roger’s accomplishments and accolades are awe-inspiring. We invite you to enjoy a look back at his successes in the articles and videos below:

Videos on Roger's Career:

 

Stories about Roger:

Accolades and Awards:

  • ADC Hall of Fame named Laureate for 2007 Art Directors Club Hall of Fame (Education); New York Art Directors Club
  • Membership in Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI)
  • Recipient of the Ladislav Sutnar Prize in 2015.
  • “Champion of the Arts “Award; Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, NY
  • Led two national symposia and authored seven scholarly books on design history
  • Participated as the international partner in on-line archive of graphic design visual materials; University of Bozen/Bolzano, Italy
  • Recipient of numerous grants and awards for scholarship in graphic design research and education
  • Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching 1978
  • Distinguished Alumni Award 1981, College of Fine & Applied Arts
  • Recipient of 2009 Gitner Family Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Communications; College of Imaging Arts & Sciences
  • Vice Presidents Award for Research 2012
  • RIT Trustees Lifetime Achievement Award for Scholarship in Graphic Design 2014
  • Outstanding Professor of the Year 2015
  • Zeta Chapter, Gamma Epsilon Tau, RIT
text: "design: Vignelli" next to a black and white photos of the Vignalli's

Roger Remington founded the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, which houses the archive of internationally renowned designers, Massimo and Lella Vignelli. Remington is almost entirely responsible for the formation, implementation and amplification of the platform of the Vignelli Center as a dais to attract and disseminate design excellence with its goals of education, preservation, advocacy, collaboration and globalism.

 

Ten Years of Design Excellence

graphic text that reads "V10 Vignelli Center for Design Studies 2010-2020 Ten Year Anniversary Rochester Institute of Technology"

2020 marks the tenth year of the Vignelli Center’s outstanding contributions to design study, and a fitting transition for Roger’s retirement as the center director and his role as the Massimo and Lella Vignelli Distinguished Professor.

Learn more about the Center’s decade of excellence >>

 

Josh Owen Named Director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies

Roger was one of the reasons I accepted the offer to join RIT in the first place a decade ago. I am deeply honored and grateful that Roger, my colleagues and RIT’s leadership felt that I was the right fit for stewardship of the Vignelli Center.

Josh Owen

Josh owen and roger remington sitting together

Josh Owen, internationally renowned designer, author and faculty-researcher, has been named the new director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, succeeding R. Roger Remington, the founding director. Owen also becomes the Massimo and Lella Distinguished Professor of Design—made possible by a donation from the Helen Hamlyn Trust of Great Britain. Owen has led RIT’s industrial design program to national prominence since coming to the university a decade ago, notably creating the acclaimed MetaProject program for senior industrial design students.

Read about Josh