Max Dinnerware

Designed by Lella Massimo Vignelli,1964.

Stackable, colorful, and fun – when you look at this sleek stacking dinnerware you can’t help but smile. Loved worldwide, the Max Collection was designed by Lella and Massimo Vignelli, who The New York Times described as “a two-person design army with a shared aesthetic that was sleek and intelligent.”

When founder Alan Heller saw the Vignelli’s compact stacking dishware in a museum in the late 1960s and learned that the original manufacturer had closed its business, he sought out Lella and Massimo to bring it back into production. Commonly referred to as Hellerware, this dinnerware was the first product in the Heller assortment, and it began a long and very special partnership between Heller and the Vignellis.

Upon its debut in 1964, the Vignelli’s tableware won the Compasso d’Oro – the most prestigious award for industrial design in the world. Designed to be stacked in a tall, straight column that maximizes storage space and creates a neat cabinet interior, each piece fits securely into the other because of a small lip on the bottom. This lip also lifts the piece off the tabletop, giving it the appearance of hovering.