Marcello Minale

Marcello Minale (December 15, 1938 – December 30, 2000) was a world-renowned Italian designer, writer and a former international oarsman.

Marcello Minale was born into an Italian naval family in Tripoli in 1938, the son of a colonial administrator and former naval captain who became a local city mayor in Aziziya, Libya.

After studying art and architecture at the Technical Institute of Naples, Minale won his first assignments for an architectural magazine in Milan and for a Scandinavian company in charge of interior design and graphic design in Rome.

Minale worked briefly for the Young & Rubicam advertising agency in Rome before moving to Finland in 1961 to be part of the golden age of Scandinavian design working firstly as a designer for Taucker and then as Art director for Mackkinointi Uiherjuuri – both Finnish advertising agencies.

It was at the Industrial Design School in Helsinki where Minale was introduced to Scandinavian Modernism – amongst his seminal influences were the Finnish designers Tapio Wirkkala and Alvar Aalto whose style was a world away from the Baroque Italian household in which he had grown up.

In 1962, Minale came to Britain to work as a designer in London, again for Young & Rubicam and met his future partner Brian Tattersfield.

Two years later, the duo formed Minale Tattersfield during a period that coincided with a new generation of young London design firms including Wolff Olins and Fletcher/Forbes/Gill.

These fledgling firms were jettisoning the old commercial-artist tradition in favour of a more simple and pared-down style of visual communication much influenced by Bill Bernbach in New York.

Minale made sure his fledgling design firm got noticed.

The firm even introduced its own corporate logo – the "Scribble", a loose, free-form, pencil-drawn counterblast to the formal graphic conventions of the time.

With Tattersfield the quieter foil to Minale's exuberant frontman, the partnership swiftly prospered.

Its client list grew to include: Thames TV, Kodak, London Transport, British Airports Authority, Nestle, Harrods, NatWest, Armani, Premier League, Eurostar, Imperial War Museum, International Cricket Council, Sydney Olympics and many more.

Minale contributed widely to the British design community, helping to launch and fund Blueprint, and over the years became a mentor to many young designers.

A favorite phrase of his was “keep moving”, and his energy, thoughtfulness and generosity of spirit inspired many who worked with him.

Minale was President of D&AD between 1981–2 and a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers.

Minale also contributed to the design establishment as an author and was published a variety of books on visual identity, branding and the business of design including the only design-led book looking at the modern service station.

He also devoted time and energy to writing and to illustrating four children's books.

In his obituary Marcello Minale was described by Jeremy Myerson in The Independent as 'one of British commercial design's most colourful and original practitioners' and 'a man of wide interests whose flair and expertise put him at the forefront of British design for three decades.'

Minale Tattersfield has received more than 300 international awards for design creativity and design effectiveness.

They include: 13 Silver awards from the D&AD – the prestigious President's Award for outstanding contribution to British Design, and 3 Gold awards from Art Directors Club of New York.

In 2012 Minale was named eighth most awarded designer of the last five decades by the D&AD with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement: Designer Award.

Away from design, Minale's two great passions were his family and his rowing: