AZ - PROJECT GRAPHIC DESIGN

A project by Dario Russo and Pasquale Volpe

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THE PROJECT

AZ Project proposes to describe the evolution and the fundamental approaches to international graphic design from its inception until today through a series of selected texts. In this respect, AZ Project constitutes a rational study tool, unique in its kind, very useful to students, but also to teachers and researchers, as well as professional people who wish or need to delve into past topics, expanding their horizons in the field of design experimentation. AZ Project speaks to the entire graphic design community (not only to insiders) who wish to be updated. AZ Project is an online project, a downloadable publication in PDF format, a container in progress... AZ Project constitutes an extraordinary source of design inspiration in order to obtain a graphic culture strengthened over the years, which is thus valorised and in continuous evolution. Dario Russo, Pasquale Volpe
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INDEX

Abedini Reza 7 Agha Mehemed Fehmy 9 Aicher Otl 11 Albers Josef 13 Apollinaire Guillaume 15 Ballmer Theo 17 Bass Saul 19 Baur Ruedi 21 Bayer Herbert 23 Beardsley Aubrey 25 Beck Henry C. 27 Behrens Peter 29 Bernhard Lucian 31 Bill Max 33 Boggeri Antonio 35 Brodovitch Alexey 37 Brody Neville 39 Cappiello Leonetto 41 Carboni Erberto 43 Carlu Jean 45 Carr Carlo 47 Carson David 49 Cassandre Adolphe Mouron 51 Cerri Pierluigi 53 Cheret Jules 55 Chwast Seymour 57
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Colin Paul 59 Confalonieri Giulio 61 Crouwel Wim 63 Depero Fortunato 65 Dudovich Marcello 67 Dumbar Gert 69 Eckmann Otto 71 Feininger Lyonel 73 Fella Edward 75 Fletcher Alan 77 Fronzoni AG 79 Frutiger Adrian 81 Fukuda Shigeo 83 Gill Eric 85 Glaser Milton 87 Greiman April 89 Grignani Franco 91 Gutemberg Johann 93 Heartfield John 95 Henrion Frederik Henri Kay 97 Hofmann Armin 99 Hohlwein Ludwig 101 Huber Max 103 Huszar Vilmos 105 Itten Johannes 107 Johnston Edward 109 Jones Terry 111 Kauffer McKnight Edward 113 Licko Zuzana 115 Lissitzky El 117 Loewy Raymond 119 Lubalin Herb 121 Lustig Alvin 123 Maeda John 125 Mallarm Stephane 127 Marinetti Filippo Tommaso 129 Matter Herbert 131 Moholy-Nagy Laszlo 133
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Morris William 135 Moscoso Victor 137 Moser Koloman 139 Mucha Alphonse 141 Muller-Brockmann Josef 143 Munari Bruno 145 Neurath Otto 147 Noorda Bob 149 Novarese Aldo 151 Pintori Giovanni 153 Rand Paul 155 Reid Jamie 157 Renner Paul 159 Rodcenko Alexander 161 Ruder Emil 163 Sagmeister Stefan 165 Savignac Raymond 167 Schawinsky Xanti 169 Scher Paula 171 Schmidt Joost 173 Schwitters Kurt 175 Steiner Albe 177 Tanaka Ikko 179 Testa Armando 181 Tomaszewski Henryk 183 Toulouse-Lautrec de Henri 185 Tschichold Jan 187 Van de Velde Henri 189 Van Doesburg Theo 191 VanderLans Rudy 193 Veronesi Luigi 195 Vignelli Massimo 197 Weingart Wolfgang 199 Wilson Wes 201 Wyman Lance 203 Zwart Piet 205

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REZA ABEDINI
Tehran, 1967

The birth of typography arises from the spirit of calligraphy. Reza Abedini

1. Abedini, R., Margin , Rozaneh, Teheran 2008. 2. Abedini, R., The Art of Print , Iran Educational Ministry, Teheran 2000. 3. Abedini, R., Wolbers, H., New Visual Culture of Modern Iran , Mark Batty BIS, New York Amsterdam 2006. 4. Bos, B., Bos, E. (edited by), Graphic Design dal 1950 a oggi, Electa, Milan 2008, p. 529. 5. Caban, G., World Graphic Design. Contemporary Graphics from America, The Far East, Latin America and The Middle East , Merrel, London New York 2004, pp. 15, 133, 136, 138, 139. 6. He, J., Vision of Design: Reza Abedini , Page One, Singapore 2006. 7. Le Quernec, A. (foreword by), Reza Abedini , Pyramyd, Paris 2004. 8. Rossi, F. M., Diario di un viaggio tipo-grafico. Rencontres internationales de Lure 2005 , Progetto grafico, 7, January 2006, pp. 136-159. 9. Russo, D., Free Graphics. La grafica fuori delle regole nellera digitale, Lupetti, Milan 2006, pp. 79-85, 157-159. 10. Russo, D., Grafica multimodale , in AA. VV., Gli spazi e le arti, Enciclopedia del XXI Secolo, vol. IV, Treccani Terzo Millennio, Turin 2010, pp. 579-587. 11. Russo, D., Nuova galassia tipografico-digitale , Op. cit., 130, September 2007, pp. 14-24. 12. Serov, S., Reza Abedini , in AA. VV., Area, Phaidon, London 2005, pp. 12-15.

A leading figure of the Iranian school together with the graphic designer Morteza Momayez, Abedini focuses on the Iranian (Persian) cultural identity, which strongly characterises his works of art. After having graduated from the School of Fine Art in Tehran in 1985, he teaches visual communication at the Tehran Art University, where he obtains his B.A. in painting in 1992. In 1993 he sets up the Reza Abedini Studio and takes charge of the art direction of the Manzar magazine. From 1997 he is a member of the Iranian Graphic Designers Society, for whom he is also the supervisor of the cultural committee in 1999, and from 2001, a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale). Moreover, he is a member of jury at several biennials throughout the world, and also takes part in various editions winning numerous awards: in 2004 he receives first prize and gold medal at the 8th International Biennial of the Poster in Mexico, silver prize at the 2nd International Poster Biennale in Korea and first prize at the International Islamic World Poster Biennial in Iran; in 2005, bronze medal at the China International Poster Biennial; and in 2006, silver medal at the Warsaw International Poster Biennale. In the non-Iranian design scene, Abedini is one of the most interesting cases with a great amount of autochthonous references. What makes his work so appealing is how he displays some of the expressive codes of western modernity with a surprising amount of exoticism. Abedini proposes original and fascinating graphic solutions, giving up traditional linear writing and adding western innovations. In the 2000 Dance and Message poster, for example, he designs a strongly expressive composition, playing around with graphic signs, typography, calligraphy and images in an astonishing textual weave, by gathering, grouping and overlapping the elements. In this way he overturns the usual relationship between images and text: the latter is not found beside the image but inside it (dark typography on light images, light typography on dark images). This is why his designs serve as a unifying phenomenon: national colours and international styles of depiction, Iranian calligraphy and western typography, in a strong type-image combination, obtained with ease and spontaneity, which could not be more inextricable a true dancing message.

INDEX

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- Dance and Message, Poster, 2000 - Resaleh Delgasha, Cover, 1999 - Victim, Poster, 2005

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MEHEMED FEHMY AGHA

Mykolav, 1896 Pennsylvania, 1978

The temple of Constructivism is full of treasures, and for this reason it is recommended to designers in search of inspiration. Mehemed Fehmy Agha

Nicknamed Dr.Agha for his all-embracing culture, he tests the innovations of the European modernist design to renovate, as an art director, important American magazines. After having attended the Emperor Peter the Great Polytechnic Institute and the Academy of Fine Arts in Kiev, he leaves Russia to study languages at the INALCO (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales) in Paris. In the second half of the 1920s he lives in Berlin, he comes into contact with Cond Nast who, impressed by his work, offers him the post of art director for the magazine Vogue. He moves to New York in 1929, where his work is much appreciated and he is asked to oversee even Vanity Fair and House & Garden as art director. In 1935, he becomes the president of the Art Directors Club in New York, while in 1939 the entire August issue of the magazine PM is dedicated to him. In 1943, once his collaboration with Nast has come to an end, he works for various companies, department stores and publishers as a freelancer. From 1953 to 1955 he is the president of AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts). What makes Agha one of the most innovative art directors is his modern, original and elegant approach in the design of front pages and the general layout of the magazines. According to Agha, it is of fundamental importance during the editorial process to take care of both the article and its layout simultaneously, so that the text, which could be sharp and witty, should not be be transmitted by a monotonous and ordinary layout. The consequent use of photography and the collaboration with the most influential artists of the time make the magazine Vanity Fair famous, enriching it with new subjects, which space out from art to politics to social issues, and make it much more than just an ephemeral fashion magazine. A great example is the cover of the November issue of 1932 which displays a satirical, Cubism-like illustration drawn by the political cartoonist Paolo Garretto against the impending Nazi totalitarianism. In the picture the German leader takes on the shape of the symbol of National Socialism with an extra saucy touch: the four arms of the swastika coincide with Hitlers limbs ending with hands and feet; his left INDEX finger points to the right side of the page, inviting the observer to follow him or, in this case, to start reading the magazine.

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit , 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 68, 320, 321-324, 329. 2. Baroni, D., Il manuale del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 1999, pp. 229, 231. 3. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 153, 169, 170. 4. Grazioli, E., Arte e pubblicit, Mondadori, Milan 2001, p. 106. 5. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 98, 99. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 97-99, 101. 7. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Presen t, Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 9, 266-269, 275, 312. 8. Livingston, A., Livingston, I., Graphic Design and Designers, Thames & Hudson, London 1992, p. 12. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 302, 303, 346. 10. Raimes, J., Bhaskaran, L., Retro Graphics Cookbook. Recreate 100 Years of Graphic Design , Ilex, Lewes 2007, p. 86.

INDEX

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Vanity Fair, Cover, November 1932 Vanity Fair, Cover, June 1934 Vanity Fair, Cover, March 1935 Vanity Fair, Cover, December 1934 Vanity Fair, Cover, September 1934 Vanity Fair, Cover, July 1933 Vanity Fair, Cover, January 1935

INDEX

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OTL AICHER
Ulm, 1922 Rotis ber Leutkirch, 1991

Aicher is an interesting example of how a designer can creatively develop his work using a limited vocabulary. Peter Dormer

1. Aicher, O., Krampen, M., Zeichensysteme der visuelle Kommunikation , Koch, Stuttgart 1977. 2. Aicher, O., The World as Design , V C H, Berlin 1994. 3. Aicher, O., Typographie , Ernst & Son, Berlin 1988. 4. Carpi, S., La grafica delle Olimpiadi di Munich , Linea grafica, 5, September-October 1972, pp. 218-221. 5. Dormer, P., Design since 1945 , Thames & Hudson, London 1993, pp. 95, 104, 106. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 168, 205, 206. 7. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 9, 13, 360, 361. 8. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 323, 375, 376, 384, 385. 9. Pasca, V., Russo, D., Corporate Image. Un secolo dimmagine coordinata dallAEG alla Nike , Lupetti, Milan 2005, pp. 43-50, 94-98. 10. Rajlich, J., Le comunicazioni visive di grandi avvenimenti sportivi, Linea grafica, 2, March-April 1979, pp. 65-68. 11. Rathgeb, M., Otl Aicher, Phaidon, London 2006. 12. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. Segni, simboli e segnali, Electa, Milan 2005, pp. 116, 117, 146, 149.

Meticulous and impeccable, Aichers approach to graphic design is interdisciplinary. Opposed to Nazi authoritarianism, he is arrested in 1937; he is then drafted into the German army, and in 1945 he prefers to desert rather than to take part in World War II. He studies sculpture at the Akademie der Bildenden Knste in Munich in 1946. A year later he opens his own studio, Bro Aicher, in Ulm. In 1953, together with his wife Inge Scholl, he founds the Hochschule fr Gestaltung in Ulm, one of the most important schools of design in the world, where he teaches visual communication from 1954 to 1966 and becomes the director from 1962 to 1964. He starts working for Braun (1954) Westdeutsche Landesbank, Blohm & Voss and Lufthansa (1962-1964). In 1972 he takes care of the Munich Olympics Games corporate identity designing a series of internationally comprehensible pictograms. In the same year he works for Bayrische Rckversicherung, in 1974 for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen and from 1976 for Erco. In 1982 he moves to Rotis and in 1984 he founds the Institut fr Analoge Studien. In addition, he designs numerous typefaces, like the Rotis font family (1989), which includes sansserif, semi-sans, serif and semi-serif versions. According to Aicher, only by using a precise series of standards is it possible to generate a consistent and unambiguous brand identity. An example is the Lufthansa project, a brand that obtains high visibility thanks to the use of few simple and systematically repeated elements, all gathered in a manual which describes each of their applications. This manual is based upon three essential elements: the pictographic logo that portrays a stylised crane in flight, with a sharp and essential silhouette, contained in a circle which stresses the incisiveness of the bird; the use of the typeface, Helvetica, sans-serif and minimal; the chromatic system, based on yellow (for the circle) and blue (for the crane and the circumference). Moreover, the logo and lettering are always present, essential and integral components of an approach that pursues uniformity for an unerring identification. With all the possible combinations of the basic elements, the manual defines the graphic landscape of Lufthansa: from the interior (and exterior) design of the planes to the photographic style of their ads, from the uniforms for the personnel to the packaging, right up to the smallest details like the sugar, salt and pepper sachets.

INDEX

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Lufthansa, Logo, 1962 Lufthansa, Logo application on airplanes ERCO Free time and sport, Pictographs, 1972 ERCO Public offices and school, Pictographs, 1972 Mascot Waldi Munich Olympic Games, 1972 Munich Olympic Games, Poster, 1972

INDEX

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JOSEF ALBERS
Bottrop, 1888 New Haven, 1976

In visual perception, a colour is almost never seen as it physically is. This fact makes colour the most relative medium in art. Josef Albers

1. Albers, J., Interaction of Color. Revised and Expanded Edition , Yale University, New Haven London 2006 (1963). 2. Albers, J., Search Versus Re-Search , Trinity College Press, Hartford 1969. 3. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 92, 93, 118, 140, 141, 154, 166, 177, 192, 222, 225. 4. Borchardt-Hume, A. (edited by), Albers and Moholy-Nagy. From the Bauhaus to the New World , Tate Publishing, London 2006. 5. Droste, M., BAUHAUS ARCHIV, Bauhaus , Taschen, Cologne 2006 (1990). 6. Fiedler, J., Feierabend, P., (edited by), Bauhaus , Knemann, Cologne 2006 (1999). 7. Horowitz, F. A., Danilowitz B., Josef Albers. To Open Eyes. The Bauhaus, Black Montain College, and Yale , Phaidon, London 2006. 8. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 9, 197, 205, 213, 246, 265, 269, 314, 317, 360. 9. Schell, M., Anni und Josef Albers, Villa Stuck, Munich 1989. 10. Weber, N. F., Boissel, J., Josef Albers and Wassily Kandinsky. Friends in Edile. A Decade of correspondence , Hudson Hills Press Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Manchester (VT) 2010. 11. Wingler, H. M., The Bauhaus. Weimar, Dessau, Berlin, Chicago (1962), MIT Press, Chicago 1969. 12. Wissmann, J., Josef Albers , Bongers, Recklinghausen 1971.

Artist and eclectic designer, Albers studies in different German schools, academies and institutes. From 1913 to 1915 he attends the Kunstakademie in Berlin, from 1916 the Kunstgewerbeschule in Essen and from 1919 to 1920 the Akademie der Bildenden Knste in Munich under Franz von Stuck. From 1920 to 1923 he enrols at the Bauhaus, particularly attracted by the preliminary course taught by Johannes Itten and by the glass painting workshop. In 1923 he becomes a teacher at the school, following the technical preparation of the students and teaching knowledge of materials until 1933; more precisely, from 1928 he becomes director of the preliminary course, for two years he heads the carpentry workshop and from1930 he teaches design for advanced courses. Here he experiments a lot with glass, creating various collages and paintings, and he designs posters for furniture and objects of everyday use produced in the school. In 1933 he moves to the United States and teaches at the Black Mountain College in Chicago until 1949, while from 1950 to 1959 he is appointed chairman of the Department of Design at Yale. At the same time, he is invited by numerous American and European universities to teach courses and attend conferences. A tireless experimenter, he dedicates his teachings and his art to colour and its optical effects. By doing this, he has a strong impact on the American avant-garde movements of the Sixties and Seventies. His most substantial (painting) work is definitely the Homage to the Square series (from 1950): numerous versions of the same subject, that is, a precise analytic system of three or four squares of differing colours and sizes, set inside each other following precise proportions, which never appear static because, when combined, they produce vibrations that trick the mind into thinking they are moving forwards and backwards with a surprising and always different optical dynamism. It is interesting to observe that the title, other details and specific observations are noted on most of the works of art (Albers does not dedicate himself to anything else until he has finished his work). In addition to the renowned Homage to the Square series, it is worth mentioning the modular typeface designed in 1926 (at the Bauhaus school): a stencil typeface obtained by using a limited number of geometrical figures which combined generate both lowercase and uppercase alphabets.

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- Homage to the square, Painting, 1949 - Modular font, Font, 1928

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GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE
Rome, 1880 Paris, 1918

One cant carry ones fathers corpse about everywhere. Guillaume Apollinaire

1. Apollinaire, G., The Cubist Painters. Aesthetic Meditations (1913), Willenborn, New York 1948. 2. Bartram, A., Futurist Typography and the Liberated Text, The British Library, London 2005, pp. 8, 12-15, 49, 117, 132. 3. Belloli, C., La componente visuale-tipografica nella poesia davanguardia, Pagina, 3, October 1963, pp. 5-47. 4. Grazioli, E., Arte e pubblicit , Mondadori, Milan 2001, pp. 25, 26, 30, 45, 52, 65, 95. 5. Greet, A. H., Apollinaire et le livre de peintre , Minard, Paris 1977. 6. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 40, 41. 7. Hicker, A., Apollinaire, Cubism and Orphism , Ashgate, Burlington (VT) 2002. 8. Little, R., Gaullaume Apollinaire , Athone, London 1976. 9. Meggs, P.. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 236, 237, 243. 10. Peignot, J., Du calligramme , Chne, Paris 1978. 11. Spencer, H., Pioneers of Modern Typography , Lund Humphries, London 1982 (1969), pp. 8, 9, 16, 18, 19. 12. Steegmuller, F., Apollinaire, Poet among the Painters (1936), Books for Libraries, Freeport 1971.

Balanced between poetry and dramaturgy, Apollinaire initially shows an inconsistent involvement in studies and prefers dedicating his time to adventurous journeys. In Paris he makes friends with important artists (poets and painters) such as Giuseppe Ungaretti, Max Jacob and Pablo Picasso. In 1910 he makes his debut in the literary world with The Heresiarch & Co., a fantastical collection of stories characterised by humour and playfulness. In 1911, because of his eccentric personality, he is accused of the theft of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum and is arrested. Once his innocence has been proven he is released, and in the same year he publishes a collection of poems entitled The bestiary, or the procession of Orpheus. Another renowned publication is Alcools (1913), which gathers poems composed between 1898 and 1912, many of which are influenced by the Symbolists. He also writes an essay on Cubist painters, Les Peintres cubistes: Mditations esthtiques (19131916), and supports the Futurist movement founded by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and the Metaphysical art of Giorgio De Chirico. Moreover, he is the first to use the term Orphism to indicate the traditional models of representation of artists like Robert Delaunay. However, what he is best known for is his collection of Calligrammes (1918), destined to change French (and other) literature in a definite way. Calligrammes (calligraphy + ideograms) are certainly a focal point in the history of avant-garde art movements. Like Futurist poets, Apollinaire is drawn towards the visual composition of the lettering, and he displays the text graphically so as to obtain a figurative result. He makes collages with the verses, alternating calligraphic letters and printing typefaces. The white space on the sheet therefore becomes an area in which to experiment. In fact, all restrictions are removed, even for the reader; reading is not confined to the traditional left to right and up to down approach, but can be enjoyed from different points of view, encouraging a multi-faceted reading and revolutionising the conventional graphic layout of a poem. Calligrams are composed of verses set in compositions which can be appreciated not only from a literary point of view but also visually and graphically. Its raining womens voices [] raining like little drops, writes the visual poet at the beginning of Il pleut (Its raining), a poem where the arrangement of the letters is such that the verses visually evoke the melancholic rhythm of heavy rainfall.

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Il pleut, Calligrams, 1918 Le colombe poignarde et jet d'eau, Calligrams, 1918 La cravate, Calligrams, 1918 Paysage, Calligrams, 1918 Cheval, Calligrams, 1918 Reconnais-toi, Calligrams, 1915

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THEO BALLMER
Basel, 1902 1965

Ballmers poster designs achieve a high degree of visual harmony thanks to the use of the typographic grid. Philip B. Meggs

1. Blackwell, L., 20-Century Types , Laurence King, London 2000 (1998). 2. Fiedler, J., Feierabend, P. (edited by), Bauhaus , Knemann, Cologne 2006 (1999). 3. Friedl, F., Ott, N., Stein, B., When Who How , Knemann, Cologne 1998, p. 101. 4. Hollis, R., Swiss Graphic Design. The Origins and Growth of an International Style , Laurence King, London 2006, pp. 10, 21-23, 34, 48, 50, 60, 64, 70, 72, 75, 76, 78, 95, 215, 124, 255. 5. Hollis, R., Swiss Radical, Eye, 64, Summer 2007. 6. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 196, 277, 278, 280-282, 321, 323, 328. 7. Livingston, A., Livingston, I., Graphic Design and Designers, Thames & Hudson, London 1992, p. 20. 8. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 320, 321.

A pioneer of the International Typographic Style, Ballmer starts an apprenticeship as a lithographer in Basel, while attending the Kunstgewerbeschule under Ernst Keller. Subsequently he is influenced by artistic and political avant-garde movements: he finds inspiration in the works of George Grosz, Piet Mondrian and Wassily Kandinskij and, having strong left-wing leanings, he uses words or even sentences of the Marxist doctrine to test some striking typographic solutions. In 1926 he is hired as a graphic designer at HoffmannLa Roche, one of the most important pharmaceutical companies in Basel. In 1928 he starts studying photography at the Bauhaus, until 1930, when Hannes Meyer, the school director and Ballmers close friend, leaves the academy. In 1932 he becomes a photography teacher at the Gewerbeschule Allgemeine in Basel, where he carries out some pioneering innovations. In particular, he experiments the photomontage technique, a complex and very expensive procedure at the time, especially for political posters. He develops one of his most important works for the Swiss building exhibition Wohnbau Ausstellung developing an effective corporate identity programme. By strictly using only modular grids and creatively applying neoplastic principles in his projects, Ballmer sets the guidelines for Switzerlands postwar generation of graphic designers. His posters of 1928, for instance, are designed with an excellent formal balance. An example is Bro, conceived for an exhibition in Basel, where the title, in black, is placed above its reflection, in red. The two words are juxtaposed and obtained through a modular grid, which is not visible but can easily be imagined, while the geometric lettering in the rest of the text is clearly influenced by Theo van Doesburg's experimental typography (and his font Elementar, of 1919, in particular). In the Norm poster instead, designed for a touring exhibition on Swiss industry and trade, the grid is visible in order to effectively pass on the meaning of the word Norm, i.e. standard. In other occasions the images become signs clear, forceful and extremely powerful like the impressive needle on a poster for a debate on abortion and birth control in 1932 and the anti-fascist helmets in the posters designed from 1934 to 1936.

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- Bro, Poster, 1928 - Was ist euer Stolz Eidgenossen?, Poster, 1933 - Neues Bauen, Poster, 1928

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SAUL BASS
New York, 1920 Los Angeles, 1996

When we talk about the relationship between graphic design and movies and we want to mention a symbolic name, the first that comes to mind is always Saul Bass. Attilio Giovannini
1. Aa. Vv., 6 Chapters in Design. Saul Bass, Ivan Chermayeff, Milton Glaser, Paul Rand, Ikko Tanaka, Henryk Tomaszewsky , Chronicle Books, San Francisco 1997. 2. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 96, 104, 105, 196. 3. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 173, 175, 176, 202, 284, 297. 4. Bass, J., Kirkham, P., Saul Bass. A Life in Film & Design , Laurence King, London 2011. 5. Bass, S., Film Advertising , Graphis, 48, 1953, pp. 276-289. 6. Bos, B., Bos, E. (edited by), Graphic Design. Since 1950 , Thames & Hudson, London 2007. 7. Giovannini, A., Grafica per schermo gigante , Linea grafica, 4, July-August 1967, p. 293. 8. Giovannini, A., Una rivoluzione estetica nei titoli dei film , Linea grafica, 6, November-December 1973, pp. 237240. 9. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 34, 35, 64, 65, 116, 117, 126, 227. 10. Heller, S., Ilic , M., The Anathomy of Design. Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design , Rockport, Gloucester (MA) 2007, pp. 8, 18, 22. 11. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 121, 122, 180, 206, 209. 12. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 314-316, 395. 13. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 341-343, 368, 369, 374, 375. 14. Raimes, J., Bhaskaran, L., Retro Graphics Cookbook , Ilex, Lewes 2007, pp. 120, 128, 129.

Particularly eclectic, Bass is remembered for having enhanced the value of the opening credits of movies, making them an art of their own, besides having designed logotypes and brand identities for countless companies. In 1938, after having been influenced by Howard Tafton, he enrols at the Art College of Manhattan. In the same year he becomes an assistant in the New York office of Warner Bros. In 1944 he works in the advertising agency Blaine Thompson and continues his studies at the Brooklyn college, a crucial choice which will affect his formation; in fact, one of his teachers is the world famous Hungarian graphic designer Gyrgy Kepes. In 1946 he becomes an art director at Buchanan & Co., and in 1952 he sets up his own studio, Saul Bass & Associates. His first movie-related job comes in 1954, when the director Otto Preminger asks him to take care of the poster and the opening credits of his motion picture Carmen Jones. Bass eventually specializes in this field and continues working for Preminger as well as other important directors such as Billy Wilder, Robert Aldrich, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Bass uses simple geometric shapes exploiting mainly their symbolic meaning. Both these shapes and the typography are created specifically with the intent of creating unexpected and refined features. The result is a single image capable of being both strong and provocative. Thanks to his second collaboration with Preminger for the movie The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), Bass becomes world famous. The film poster shakes the rules of traditional movie advertising, moving away from the prevailing laws of realistic and narrative depiction. To be more precise, instead of choosing the main characters or an important scene of the plot, Bass prefers to highlight a significant symbol connected to the plot. As a result, the artwork shows just a part of a stiff and contracted arm, within a broken black, purple and blue frame: a hint to the main character's drug addiction and its atrocious effects. The sophisticated lettering of the credits are also Basss work.

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- The Man with the Golden Arm, Poster, 1959 - Vertigo, Poster, 1958 - Anatomy of a murder, Poster, 1959

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RUEDI BAUR
Parigi, 1956

The design of unique, one of a kind and therefore contextualised locations could be the great challenge for cities. Architecture and graphic design must sustain each other. Ruedi Baur
1. 2. 3. 4. Baur, R., 0, me and 1 , ditions de lObservatoire, Marseille 1995. Baur, R., Braustein, C., R. Baur, Intgral and partners , Lars Mller, Baden 2001. Baur, R., Constructions , Lars Mller, Baden 1998. Baur, R., et alii, Area 2. 100 Graphics Designers , Phaidon, London 2008. 5. Baur, R., Intgral R. Baur et Associs , Pyramid, Paris 2004. 6. Baur, R., La loi et ses consquences visuelles , Lars Mller, Baden 2005. 7. Baur, R., La nouvelle typographie, Actualit des Arts Plastiques, Paris 1993. 8. Baur, R., R. Baur Intgral and Partners. Lars Mller, Baden 2001. 9. Baur, R., The Worlds Fairest City Yours and Mine , Lars Mller, Baden 2010. 10. Hger, H., Integral R. Baur et Associates. Design and designers 012, Pyramyd, Paris 2003. 11. Uebele, A., Schmidt-Friderichs, K., Signage Systems + Information Graphics , Thames & Hudson, London 2009, pp. 138-149. 12. Wlassikoff, M., Histoire du Graphisme en France , Les Arts Decoratifs, Paris 2008, p. 280.

After being an apprentice in Michael Bavieras studio in France, Baur continues his education at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, where he obtains a degree in Graphic Design in 1979, while working for the Theo Ballmer & Partner studio as an art director. He then decides to set up Plus Design studio in 1980. In 1981 he creates the BBV Studios of Lyon, Zurich and Milan. In 1988 he works for various institutional and cultural projects. In 1987 he starts to dedicate himself to teaching. The following year he founds the Intgral Ruedi Baur et Associs studio in Paris and in 2002 the Intgral Ruedi Baur Zurich, where attention is dedicated to experimentation in communication and product design. From 1989 to 1994 he directs the Design department at the Acadmie des Beaux-Arts in Lyon and from 1993 to 1996 also the graduate programme Espace civiques et Design in Leipzig. From 1992 he is a member of the AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale). In 1995 he becomes a professor of Corporate Design at the Hochschule fr Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, and is appointed rector from 1997 to 2000. He sets up the Interdisciplinary Design Institute (2id) in 1999. From 2004 to 2011 Baur directs the research institute Design2context at the Zrcher Hochschule der Knste and Civic City, an institute for critical research in design. The visual idiom methodology used by Baur focuses mainly on the needs of the user in the area of the project. The corporate identity system designed for the Cologne/Bonn Airport in 2002, for example, displays a playful aspect not common in this kind of services: the passengers transit is accompanied by a series of signs with a friendly and engaging design. Baurs intent is to transform a spot which is usually hectic and confusing, such as an airport, into a place that is reassuring and easily accessible to the often disoriented crowds. Moreover, the typeface Simple, composed by modular geometric elements, offers signs which are easy to read placed next to a series of pictograms that convey messages clearly and effectively. These simple and colourful pictograms are applied everywhere: from the sign boards in the airport itself which indicate the gates, the food courts, the duty free stores, the banks to the agencies and to other services, including the shuttle bus, advertising and information packs, promotional videos and the website. The size of the text and of the pictograms are once again arranged in such a way that they acquire the same weight within the visual text.

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Kln-Bonn Airport, Pictographs and Logo, 2002 Kln-Bonn Airport, Pictographs, 2002 Baggage reclaim area Kln-Bonn Airport, Pictographs, 2002 Kln-Bonn Airport, Corporate identity, 2002 Kln-Bonn Airport, Pictographs, 2002 Ruedi Baur and Susanna Fritscher, berschattung, Exhibition, 2011

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HERBERT BAYER
Haag am Hausruck, 1900 Santa Barbara, 1985

Why should we write and print with two alphabets? We dont speak with a an upper case A and a lower case a. Herbert Bayer

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit, 1890-1990 , (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 68, 104, 241, 257, 293297, 300, 302, 303, 313, 316-319. 2. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 10, 41, 56, 60-62, 64, 66, 67, 84, 122, 140, 196. 3. Bayer, H., Gropius, I., Gropius, W. (edited by), Bauhaus 1919-1928 (catalogue), MoMA, New York 1975 (1938). 4. Bayer, H., Painting, Architecture and Graphics , Roswell, New Mexico 1952. 5. Bayer, H., Towards a Universal Tyoe (1936), in Sergio Polano e Paolo Tassinari, Sussidiario. Grafica e caratteri moderni, Electa, Milan 2010, pp. 69-74. 6. Bayer, H., World Geo-Graphic Atlas. A Composite of Mans Environment , Container Corporation of America Press, Chicago 1953. 7. Chanzit, G. F., From Bauhaus to Aspen. Herbert Bayer and Modernist Design in America , Johnson Book, Boulder 2005. 8. Cohen, A. A., Herbert Bayer. The Complete Work , MIT Press, Cambridge (MA) 1984. 9. Douglas, W., Herbert Bayer. The Bauhuas Legacy , Kent Gallery 2003. 10. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 19, 54, 55, 62-65, 101, 110, 127-129, 156, 159, 206. 11. Spencer, H., Pioneers of Modern Typography , Lund Humphries, London 1982 (1969), pp. 41, 66, 67, 144-149. 12. Wingler, H. M., The Bauhaus. Weimar, Dessau, Berlin, Chicago (1962), MIT Press, Chicago 1969.

A versatile artist and the renovator of the typographic language of the 20th century, Bayer trains as an apprentice in the studio of the designer Georg Schmidthammer in Liz, from 1919 to 1920. Here he starts to acquire familiarity with the world of typography. In 1921 he carries on his training at the studio of the architect Emanuel Margold in Darmstadt, where he attends the Darmstdter Knstlerkolonie. He studies at the Bauhaus from 1921 to 1925, specializing in wall decoration thanks to the teachings of Oskar Schlemmer e Vassilij Kandinskij. From 1925 to 1928 he teaches at the Bauhaus and is in charge of a workshop in typography and advertising art. Here he also follows the design of numerous posters and carries out remarkable typographical experiments. In 1928 he becomes the director of the Dorland Studio. In 1930, he designs the German section of the Exposition de la Societ des Artistes Dcorateurs in Paris. In 1938 he moves to the United States, and in the same year he organises the exhibition Bauhaus 1919-1928 and the exhibition catalogue for the MoMA in New York. He pursues his profession as a graphic designer in New York until 1975, when he moves to California. In the Bauhaus typography and advertising workshop, the profession of the graphic designer develops, becoming a figure that must focus on both the graphic layout and its production. In particular, Bayer considers advertising to be a science and promotes its development actively, trying to answer all the queries regarding it. By the end of 1925, the use of capital letters is brought into question and therefore replaced by the Bauhaus typographic style: more synthetic, effective and economical. Moreover, only a series of standard formats are to be used, in compliance with the sizes stated by the Deutsche Industrie Norm. The following words can be read on the school letterhead: we are writing everything in lower case in order to save time and besides, why two alphabets, where one will do? why use capital letters if we dont use them when we speak?. According to these guidelines, Bayer designs the Universal typeface in 1925, as a reaction against forms of the past: a sans serif mono-alphabet font, only in lower case. Based on a square-shaped unit, standardized and very simple, Universal is conceived as an extremely versatile and economic font.

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Universal, Font, 1924-5 Bauhaus 50 years, Poster, 1968 Section Allemande Exhibition, Poster, 1930 Bauhaus Catalogue, Cover, 1923 American Line, Kiosk, Drawing, 1924

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AUBREY BEARDSLEY
Brighton, 1872 Mentone, 1898

In the field of typographic art, Aubrey Beardsley, had created a masterpiece of Decadentism with his illustrations for Oscar Wildes Salom. Sophie Lisitskij-Kppers
1. Aa. Vv., The Later Work of Aubrey Beardsley , Dover, New York 1967. 2. Brophy, B., Beardsley and his World , Thames & Hudson, London 1976. 3. Colloway, S., Aubrey Beardsley , V&A Publications, London 1998. 4. Lane, J., The Best of Beardsley , The Bodley Head, London 1948. 5. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 186, 187-189, 211. 6. Nret, G., Aubrey Beardsley , Taschen, Cologne Lisboa London 1998. 7. Raby, P., Aubrey Beardsley and the Nineties , Collins & Brown, London 1998. 8. Reade, B., Aubrey Beardsley , Antique Collectorss Club, Woodbridge 1987. 9. Sturgis, M., Aubrey Beardsley. A Biography, HapersCollins, London 1998. 10. Walker, E. A., Aubrey Beardsley , Graphis, 31, 1950, pp. 250-257. 11. Wilson, S., Beardsley Decadent or Modern? , Wilson, London 1986. 12. Zatlin, L. G., Beardsley, Japonisme and the Perversion of he Victorian Ideal, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1997.

In his pre-school years, Beardsley is taught how to play the piano by his mother, but in 1881 he is forced to interrupt his studies due to tuberculosis. He is very precocious, to the point that he is commissioned his first job when he is barely eleven, earning thirty pounds by drawing a series of illustrations for the invitation to a luxurious wedding. He attends Brighton Grammar School in 1884 demonstrating a natural aptitude for literary subjects. His science teacher, A. W. King, notices his talent and spurs him to study theatre. In 1888 he supervises a few theatrical events, also designing the costumes, as in the case of the musical The pay of the Pied Piper. In the same year he works as a post office clerk. Between 1889 and 1893 he works for Guardian Fire and Life Insurance, a job that he does not find stimulating. On the contrary, he draws inspiration from artists such as Andrea Mantegna, Sandro Botticelli and the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, whom he meets in 1891, together with Oscar Wilde. Subsequently he draws the illustrations for some famous publications, including Le Morte dArthur (1892) by Thomas Malory, Salom (1893) by Oscar Wilde, various short stories by Edgar Allan Poe and The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope. Moreover, he also collaborates with numerous magazines and newspapers like The Studio (1893) and Yellow Book (1894), both known for experimenting with graphic language. At the beginning of his career, not having acquired a style of his own yet, he dabbles at different techniques, conceiving very refined drawings of a grotesque, satiric and dreamlike nature. He is immediately appreciated and collectors of his time start to vie for his works. Subsequently he takes on the black blot technique, which consists in letting some drops of ink slide on paper and widening them with a paint brush over the parts to be coloured. Here his strokes are so well defined and his figures so stylized to be often mistaken for engravings. Moreover, there is plenty of symbolism and oriental motifs. What raises controversy, however, is the perversion with which he expresses erotic and mythological topics. For Oscar Wildes play, Salom, for example he produces some rather disturbing illustrations. The Jewish princess is portrayed as a cold, proud woman, well aware of her beauty and her power and not at all inclined to curbing her sexuality. As a result of these erotic details, this work gives him a bad reputation, but at the same time boosts his fame in France and then in England.

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Salom: the Climax, Illustration, 1893 Salom: the Dancers Reward, Illustration, 1893 Salom: Dancing, Illustration, 1893 Ex - Libris by John Lumsden Propert, Illustration, 1894 Ali Baba, Illustration, 1897 The Yellow Book: self-portrait, Illustration, 1894-1897

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HENRY CHARLES BECK

London, 1902 1984

If you travel underground, why should you be concerned about geography? It is not so important. It is the connections that are fundamental. Henry Beck
1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 130, 131. 2. Barber, P., Harper, T., Magnificent Maps, Power, Propaganda and Art, British Library, London 2010. 3. Barber, P., The Map Book , Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2005. 4. Barker, F., Jackon, P., The History of London in Maps , Berrie & Jenkins, London 1990. 5. Bownes, D., Green, O. (edited by), London Transport Posters. A Century of Art and Design , Lund Humphries, London 2011. 6. Foxell, S., Mapping London. Making Sense of the City , Black Dog, London 2007. 7. Garland, K., Mr Becks Underground Map , Capital Transport, London 1994. 8. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 148, 149. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 292, 293. 10. Pasca, V., Russo, D., Corporate Image. Un secolo dimmagine coordinata dallAEG alla Nike , Lupetti, Milan 2005, pp. 17-20, 71. 11. Rose, D., The London Underground. A Diagrammatic History, Capital Transport, Harrow 2007. 12. Whitfield, P., London. A life in Maps , British Library, London 2006.

Henry Charles Beck, known as Harry, will go down in history as the designer of the London Tube map. He works for the London Underground Signals Office in 1925. In 1931, while drawing an electrical circuit, he comes up with a diagram, a new map capable of facilitating the use of the underground. He shows his project to the Publicity Department but it is rejected and ridiculed. Beck is eventually fired but does not give up; as a matter of fact he sells his idea to the London Underground as a freelancer, making sure he has total control over future modifications. In 1933 he is employed once again and the Publicity Department decides to test his map by printing 1,000 copies, which are immediately sold in the main stations. So the Publicity Department decides to print another 750,000 copies. In 1959, Harold F. Hutchinson, head of the department, designs a map: not from scratch but rather updating the one previously drawn by Beck. However, Beck gets excluded from the project. The London Underground does not grant him any rights over the map nor any connection with the original one. The London tube map is an extraordinarily communicative piece of art, which makes a great contribution to the corporate identity of the English firm. Still used today, Becks map falls into the list of the greatest masterpieces of modern graphic design and is one of the most typical elements of the English capital. The power of the map is in the way the complex topographic depictions have been replaced by clearer and more effective diagrammatic solutions. The winding routes are simplified into straight lines, which run horizontally, vertically or on forty-five degree diagonals. The colours and the pictograms are immediately recognisable and used to distinguish the eight lines that were existent at the time, and their respective stations. The only geographical reference is the light blue course, which conveys the image of a simplified River Thames (as a general reference point). A starting point for all information design, in spite of its initial rejection, Becks project has become a model for all public transportation maps and is a source of inspiration for the design of any diagram or network worldwide.

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- London underground, Map, 1933 - First version of the London underground, Map, 1931 - London underground lines, Drawing, 1931

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PETER BEHRENS
Hamburg, 1868 Berlin, 1940

We need a character with a serious style for serious books: only then will we be able to transfer this lofty style into everyday life. Peter Behrens

1. Anderson, S., P. Behrens and a New Architecture for the Twenthieth Century , MIT Press, Candbrige (MA) London 2000. 2. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 7, 15-17. 3. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 31, 35, 42, 51, 65-69. 4. Buddensieg, T., Rogge, H. (edited by), Industriekultur. P. Behrens and the AEG 1907-1914 (1964) , MIT Press, Camdbridge (MA) 1984. 5. Burkhardt, F., P. Behrens et AEG , Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit, 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 153-155. 6. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 48, 49, 66, 67, 76, 77, 108-109, 116, 117. 7. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 29, 30, 53, 65, 68. 8. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 129, 140, 142-144, 146, 199, 232. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 224, 225, 227. 10. Pasca, V., Russo, D., Corporate Image. Un secolo dimmagine coordinata dallAEG alla Nike , Lupetti, Milan 2005, pp. 11-15, 64-69. 11. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Abecedario. La grafica del Novecento , Electa, Milan 2003 (2002), pp. 52-61. 12. Windsor, A., P. Behrens. Architect and Designer 1868-1940, Architectural Press, London 1981.

An artist, architect and designer considered to be an advocate of the typographic reform of the 20th Century and of the concept of corporate identity. From 1882, thanks to a substantial inheritance, Behrens studies art in various cities, form Hamburg to Karlsruhe, from Dusseldorf to Munich. In 1898 the grand duke Ernst Ludwig von Hessen invites him to join the Knstlerkolonie in Darmstadt. In 1900 he writes his first series of important essays, Feste des Lebens und der Kunst, entirely composed in a sans-serif font. In 1901 he designs the cover of Dokumente des Modernen Kunstgewerbes by Heinrich Pudor, with a sans-serif alphabet based on a square shaped unit. He subsequently creates his first typeface, the Behrens-Schrift, produced by the Klingspor Type Foundry, followed by the Behrens-Kursiv (1906-07), the Behrens-Antiqua (1908) and the Behrens-Medival (1914). In 1907, in addition to being one of the most respected members of the Deutscher Werkbund, he is appointed by the general manager of AEG (Allgemeine Elektricitts-Gesellschaft), Paul Jordan, as artistic consultant of the company. From 1922 he is also a distinguished professor at the Akademie der Bildenden Knste in Vienna and from 1936 at the Preuische Akademie der Knste in Berlin. Very early in his career Behrens understands the need of having a clear and effective brand communication. He completely revolutionises the general image of AEG. In 1908 he designs Behrens-Antiqua, a classical-style typeface, used in all the catalogues, posters and stationary and conceived to be the institutional font of the firm. In the same year he draws the logo, a hexagon containing three smaller hexagons with the letters of the monogram AEG. The result is that the strict geometric layout suggests an idea of modern standardised industrial output, and also alludes to the shape of a beehive, a symbol of industriousness. One of Behrens most extraordinary works is the poster drawn for the incandescent light bulb in 1910, which fully adopts the typographical and spatial standards set by the firms corporate identity. The advertisement has a symmetrical structure, inside which the space is framed and meticulously divided into geometric figures. The product is therefore seen from a central point of view, with no shadows nor depth, and depicted with a simple approach in order to highlight the abstract nature of mass production.

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AEG: incandescent lamp, Poster, 1910 AEG, Logo, 1907 Eckmannschrift, Font, 1896 Behrensschrift, Font, 1901 Behrens-Antiqua, Font, 1908 Mitteilungen Der Berliner Elektricitaets-Werke, Cover, June 1908

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LUCIAN BERNHARD
Bad Cannstatt, 1883 New York, 1972

An object impersonal and neutral becomes the new centre of attraction: one could even say that it sells on its own. Karl Gersner

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit , 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 111, 239. 2. Barnicoat, J., Posters. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1998 (1972), pp. 31, 106, 108, 223, 108, 117. 3. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 66, 70, 71, 79. 4. Gersner, K., La nouvelle vague nella pubblicit , Linea grafica, 5-6, May-June 1962, p. 179. 5. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 20, 21. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 30, 32, 34, 52, 67. 7. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 8, 140-142, 148, 171, 172, 174, 213, 265, 275. 8. Lietzsch, F., Lucian Bernhard , Ruhfus, Hagen 1913. 9. Marsano, B., Manifesti , Electa, Milan 2003, pp. 21, 27. 10. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 249-251. 11. Rademacher, H., Master of German Poster Art (1965), October House, New York 1966. 12. Russo, D., Il manifesto attuale , Linea grafica, 368, March-April 2007, pp. 44-51.

Bernhard is one of the most respected German graphic designers of the first half of the 1900s. He starts as an autodidact and subsequently studies at the Akademie der Bildenden Knste of Munich and Berlin. This is where he wins a contest thanks to his Priester matches poster in 1905, giving a start to his career. In the same year he co-founds the Verein der Plakatfreunde (the Society of the Friends of the Poster), in 1907 he becomes a member of the Werkbund and in 1910 he becomes the art director of the Deutsche Werksttten. In addition, in 1910, he founds the magazine Das Plakat (together with Hans Sachs), later renamed Gebrauchsgraphik. At the same time he works on the design of various typefaces, like Antiqua (1911) and Fraktur (1913). From 1914 to 1918 he creates a series of posters to support the Germans in the war. In 1920 he teaches art at the Kunstakademie in Berlin. In 1923 he moves to New York and starts teaching at both the Art Students League and New York University while working as an interior and graphic designer. In 1928 he founds the Contempora studio together with Rockwell Kent, Paul Poiret, Bruno Paul and Erich Mendelsohn. In the same year he starts collaborating with the American Type Founders Company, designing numerous typefaces such as Gothic (1929-30), Fashion (1929) and Tango (1933). Bernhard is one of the leading figures of Sachplakat, a way of approaching the poster which could be translated as poster-object. Indeed his posters can be described as being extremely synthetic and didactic, since all they show is the image of the object being advertised and its trade name. In this way they immediately capture the viewer's attention. Moreover, the lettering is always bold, dense, except for when a gothic font is being used; while areas of flat colour stand out against uniform, vividly tinted backgrounds. In this way the composition catches the eye with remarkable strength. In the Priester matches poster for example, Bernhard tries different solutions before choosing his final option: originally he surrounds the product with objects directly connected to its use, like cigars and ashtrays, but he eventually reconsiders his plan, gradually eliminating whatever is unnecessary. He is left only with two oblique lines that depict two enlarged red matchsticks with bright yellow tips. The background is very dark in order to enhance the saturation of the primary colours. And the name Priester, in a bold font, crosses the entire width of the poster.

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Priester cigarettes, Poster, 1905 Bernhard-Brushscript, Font, 1933 Adler typewriter, Poster, 1909 Women!, Poster, 1919

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MAX BILL
Winterthur, 1908 Berlino, 1994

I am of the opinion that it is possible to develop an art largely on the basis of mathematical thinking. Max Bill

1. Bignens, C., Bosshard, H. R., Fleischmann, Gerd, Max Bill. Typography, Advertising, Book Design, Niggli, Zurich 1999 (English-Deutsche). 2. Bill, M., Form, Function, Beauty, Architectural Association , London 2010 (English-Deutsche-French). 3. Bill, M., Form. A BA.ce Sheet of Mid-Twentieth-Century Trends in Design , Werner, Basel 1952 (English-DeutscheFrench). 4. Bill, M., x = x , Allianz, Zurich 1945. 5. Buchsteiner, T., Letze, O. (edited by), Max Bill, Maler, Bildhauer, Architekt, Designer, Hatje Cantz 2005. 6. Gomringer, E. (edited by), Max Bill, Niggli, Teufen 1958. 7. Hollis, R., Swiss Graphic Design. The Origins and Growth of an International Style. 1920-1965 , Laurence King, London 2006, pp. 11, 21, 22, 30, 31, 38, 45, 49, 54, 55, 59, 68-70, 84, 92, 97, 99, 101, 108-112, 118, 119, 121, 124, 125, 130, 131, 135, 138, 145-148, 152-155, 169-172, 176, 177, 197, 208, 224, 248. 8. Httinger, E., Max Bill, ABC, Zurich 1978. 9. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 9, 277, 281-284, 321-325, 328, 353, 357, 360, 372, 412. 10. Maldonado, T., Max Bill, Nueva visin, Buenos Aires 1955. 11. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 321-323. 12. Staber, M., Max Bill, Methuen, London 1964.

A versatile and very prolific artist, Bill helps in the renewal of Swiss graphic design thanks to intense didactic work and field experimentation. In 1924 he trains as a silversmith at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. In 1927 he moves to Dessau to attend the Bauhaus founded by Gropius. In 1929 he starts working in Zurich, covering different roles: architect, graphic designer and painter. Later he also takes care of exhibition designs with the exponents of Neue Bauen. In 1937 he becomes a member of Allianz (Swiss group of modern artists), and in 1941 he founds the homonymous publishing house. In 1947 he takes part in the formation of the Institut fr Progressive Kultur, while in 1949 he becomes a member of the Union des Artistes Modernes in Paris. From 1948 he teaches at the Technische Hochschule in Darmstadt. In 1951 he works in Milan in collaboration with Le Corbusier, Ernesto Nathan Rogers and Giuseppe Samon after the De divina proportione conference. In the same year, together with Inge Scholl, Otl Aicher and Hans Werner Richter, he founds Ulms Hochschule fr Gestaltung, which he eventually leaves due to internal conflicts. He wins numerous awards throughout his career, like the Grand Prix at the Triennale in Milan (1951), the Premio Marconi (1988) and two honorary degrees, in Engineering (1979) and in Technical Sciences (1994). All of Bills work is based on research and scientific knowledge. His goal is to reach complete formal clarity primarily through a mental and then a logical and rational order. With this kind of approach he conceives extraordinary projects, like the USA Baut (USA builds) poster for the exhibition of American modern architecture held at the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Zurich in 1945. The poster is composed and proportioned according to a meticulous combination of rhombuses which contain various glimpses of red, blue and grey architecture, conveying a coherent and perfect construction neatness. It is evident that Bill finds geometrical shapes to be extremely effective as their clarity helps to transmit information better and, most of all, helps to make the composition more dynamic. The background is uniform, in order to highlight the photos, and the typeface is a sans-serif, strictly in lower case; in this case, Bill is mostly influenced by the Bauhaus typographical reform, which is why he decides to remove all upper case letters for simplicity and economic reasons, while the whole poster is affected by avant-garde movements, above all, Russian Constructivism.

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USA Baut, Poster, 1945 Personal exhibition, Poster, 1968 Personal exhibition, Poster, 1967 Personal exhibition, Poster, 1979 Personal exhibition, Poster, 1968

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ANTONIO BOGGERI
Pavia, 1900 Santa Margherita Ligure, 1989

Freed from the rigidity of existing techniques, even colour photography will produce new and genuine sensations one day. Advertising will be the first one to benefit from it. Antonio Boggeri
1. Anceschi, G., Il campo della grafica italiana: storia e problemi, Rassegna, 6, April 1981, pp. 5-19. 2. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 84, 85, 194. 3. Boggeri, A., Luovo di Colombo , Campo Grafico, 12, December 1934, pp. 271-274. 4. Boggeri, A., La fotografia nella pubblicit , La pubblicit, 5-6, November-December 1937, pp. 16-25. 5. Boggeri, A., Erberto Carboni, Linea grafica, 11-12, November-December 1953, pp. 323-328. 6. Boggeri, A., Il Catalogo, strumento di informazione e di vendita, Linea grafica, 9-10, September-October 1958, pp. 222-227. 7. Boggeri, A., Appunti sul marchio , Linea grafica, 3 May-June 1969, pp. 204-205. 8. Boggeri, A., Una B rossa fra due punti. Colloquio con Antonio Boggeri, Rassegna, 6, April 1981, pp. 20-21. 9. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia , Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 8, 10, 11, 56, 61, 71, 76-79, 91, 92, 94, 102-104, 106, 108, 120, 126, 136, 144, 199202, 204. 10. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 257-259, 335. 11. Monguzzi, B. (edited by), Lo Studio Boggeri, 1933-1981, Electa, Milan 1981. 12. Fossati, P., Sambonet, Roberto (edited by), Lo Studio Boggeri 1933-1973. Comunicazione visuale e grafica applicata, Pizzi, Milan 1974.

Without a doubt, Boggeri is one of the fathers of Italian graphic design. He attends the Istituto Tecnico in Pavia in 1916 and he receives his diploma in violin at the Milan Conservatory. In 1924, Giuseppe Crespi puts him in charge of the Alfieri & Lacroix foundry. He takes part in photography debates and in 1929 he writes the introduction to a yearbook on Italian artistic photography called Luci e ombre (Lights and shadows). Subsequently, he takes an interest in the experiments of Lszl Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray and the Swiss Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) in the field of photography. In 1933 he sets up Studio Boggeri in Milan, the first major graphic and photographic studio in Italy. He collaborates with many greatly talented designers (not only Italian) such as Walter Ballmer, Erberto Carboni, Fortunato Depero, Paolo Garretto, Franco Grignani, Max Huber, Giancarlo Iliprandi, Enzo Mari, Armando Milani, Bruno Monguzzi, Bruno Munari, Reno Muratore, Marcello Nizzoli, Bob Noorda, Xanty Schawinsky, Saul Steinberg, Albe Steiner, and Carlo Vivarelli. Dalmine, Pirelli, Motta, Roche, La Rinascente, Glaxo ed Einaudi are among his major clients. His articles are published on the main design magazines, like Campo Grafico, Domus, Stile Industria and Fotografia. Studio Boggeri closes in 1981. Photography achieves a new purpose in the field of commercial art through Boggeri. As a matter of fact, photography offers the chance of continuous experimentation, as it allows the designing of new and infinite graphic solutions. Studio Boggeri follows the entire process, from the conception to the completion of the graphic project. Thus, a new profession is born, which is capable of being a link between the customers' requests and the output of the typographer, producing a result that combines both esthetics and functionality and capable of conveying a message clearly. In general, Boggeri prefers asymmetric yet balanced typographical compositions, in order to leave space for more complex and versatile images. One of the prime examples of Studio Boggeri is without a doubt its famous logotype, the polished red B between two black dots designed by Deberny and Peignot (1933). But the most well-known work, that best represents the studio, is Luovo di Colombo, a photo taken by Boggeri in 1933, a clear reference to the anecdote according to which there are no insurmountable problems and a simple solution can always be found, not trite, but brilliant in its communicative effectiveness.

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- - - -

Deberny & Peignot, Boggeri Studio, Logo, 1933 Valtur, Logo, 1969 Luovo di Colombo , Cover, 1933 Boggeri Studio: Comunicazione visuale e grafica applicata, Cover, 1974

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ALEXEY BRODOVITCH
Ogolitchi, 1898 Le Thor, 1971

All graphic designers, photographers and art directors are, consciously or not, pupils of Alexey Brodovich. Irving Penn

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit , 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 68, 320, 323-326, 328, 329. 2. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 41, 18, 19, 112. 3. Bauret, G., Alexey Brodovitch , Assouline, Paris 1998. 4. Grundberg, A., Brodovitch , Abrams, New York 1989. 5. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 98, 99, 110, 111, 136, 137, 190, 191. 6. Heller, S., Ilic , M., The Anathomy of Design. Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design , Rockport, Gloucester (MA) 2007, pp. 16, 40, 41. 7. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 87, 88, 99, 101, 117, 118. 8. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 9, 220, 266-268, 275, 312, 314, 317. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 302-305, 307, 310, 311, 346. 10. Miller, A., Through Thick and Thin: Fashion and Type , Eye, 65, Autumn 2007, pp. 17-23. 11. Purcell, K. W., Alexey Brodovitch , Phaidon, London 2002. 12. Raimes, J., Bhaskaran, L., Retro Graphics Cookbook. Recreate 100 Years of Graphic Design , Ilex, Lewes 2007, p. 86, 106, 120, 122.

Brodovitch is considered a pioneer of American modern publishing. He commences his education in Saint Petersburg, then moves to Paris in 1920, where he works as a graphic designer creating various posters for the theatre and taking care of the scenography of the Ballets Russes founded by Sergei Pavlovic Diaghilev. In 1931 he moves to the Unites States and opens a studio of his own. Moreover, he founds and directs the Advertising Design Department at the College of Art in Philadelphia until 1938, while working as a freelancer for the N. W. Ayer advertising agency. From 1934 to 1958 he becomes the art director of Harper's Bazaar magazine. In New York, he takes care of the advertising for Saks from 1939 to 1941. In 1949 he becomes the art director of Portfolio magazine. Brodovitch's passion for photography brings him to work with artists of the likes of Man Ray, Salvador Dal and Henri Cartier-Bresson and famous graphic designers such as Herbert Bayer and Cassandre. Moreover, he dedicates himself to teaching in various schools and institutes, among which the New School for Social Research and the School of Art, both in New York. The Steinway & Sons piano company and the Elizabeth Arden e Helena Rubinstein cosmetic companies are amongst his most important clients. Before long, Brodovitch becomes an example for all art directors. His extremely innovative graphic solutions revolutionise the look of modern American magazines. With no exceptions, he is able to organise all the graphic material contained on the page from the text to the images, from illustrations to photographs in elegant and efficient layouts. In particular, he highlights the photographs, taking a distance from the custom of the fashion industry which imposed pictures taken in studios and with artificial lights; on the contrary, he prefers shooting outside, so that the photos appear more natural, spontaneous and dynamic. In the composition of a page, Brodovitch tends to place the images in a repetitive and specular way, following a precise disposition, while the text is arranged in an innovative fashion, always in synergy with the pictures on the page. An example can be found on the double page spread 66-67 of the 1936 March issue of Harpers Bazaar, where the text follows the train on the model's dress (shot by Man Ray), overturning the traditional rules of text alignment. A similar layout can be appreciated on the 1938 March issue spread, where the text of page 61 mimics the pose and the shape of the dress worn by the model portrayed by George Hoyningen-Huene.

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- Harpers Bazaar (Photo by Man Ray), Pages, March 1936 - Harpers Bazaar (Photo by George Hoyningen-Huene), Pages, March 1938 - Harpers Bazaar, Cover, October 1947 - Harpers Bazaar, Cover, June 1940

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NEVILLE BRODY
London, 1957

The content and the style of a magazine coincide. Neville Brody

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 203, 206-208, 212, 213, 220, 222, 223. 2. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 300-302, 308, 312, 314. 3. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 38, 39, 154, 155, 170-173, 178, 179. 4. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 382, 386-388, 387, 392, 399-401. 5. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 451-454. 6. Poynor, R., No More Rules. Graphic Design and Postmodernism , Laurence King, London 2003, pp. 33, 35, 48, 49, 73, 75, 76, 120, 151-153, 159, 160-162. 7. Raimes, J., Bhaskaran, L., Retro Graphics Cookbook. Recreate 100 Years of Graphic Design , Ilex, Lewes 2007, pp. 154, 155, 166, 167. 8. Rauch, A., Dallavanguardia russa a Neville Brody in Aa. Vv., Tipografia russa. Tra Costruttivismo e pensiero grafico moderno , Graphis, Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna) 1993, pp. 81-86. 9. Russo, D., Free Graphics. La grafica fuori delle regole nellera digitale, Lupetti, Milan 2006, pp. 36-45, 49, 57, 128-135. 10. Russo, D., From Da-Da to Bit-Bit , in Igor Dukhan (a cura), Avant-Garde and Cultures: Art, Design, Cultural Environment , UNESCO Office for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation, Minsk 2007, pp. 128-132. 11. Wozencroft, J., The Graphic Language of Neville Brody 2 , Thames & Hudson, London 2001 (1988). 12. Wozencroft, J., The Graphic Language of Neville Brody , Thames & Hudson, London 1997 (1994).

Considered to be the rock star of typography, Brody is one of the most influential graphic designers of the Eighties. He is a designer of logotypes, art director of magazines and creator of numerous digital fonts. He is a leading figure in the fields of graphic design, fashion, show business and visual communication in general. In 1975 he studies painting at Hornsey College in London and from 1976 to 1979 at the London College of Printing. His first works include various record sleeves for Rocking Russian and for independent labels such as Stiff and Fetish Records. In 1981 he is the art director of The Face (1981-1986), a magazine that brings him international fame and gives him the chance to experiment one of his characteristic styles, known as noisy graphics. The look of the magazine introduces some original ideas, with the aim of intriguing the reader. In fact, Brody totally disrupts the typography, modifying the typefaces, combining them with each other and using plenty of icons, weighing every single element on the page in order to obtain an emotional response to enhance the figurative expression of the idea. After having designed various successful digital fonts, he founds Fuse in 1990, an interactive magazine on type design entirely developed to be read on a screen. The Brody style, full of punk references, is strongly inspired by the historical avant-garde movements, such as Dadaism, Futurism and Constructivism. According to Brody, the traditional typographic methods are too rigid and static and tend to bore the reader, while communication should always be appealing and entertaining. Words and letters should therefore slip out of their conventional and impersonal alphabetical dimension and take on new and more expressive communicative forms. An example is the typeface Blur (1992), where the letter shapes symbolically represent the fluidity of digital writing and the liquidity of the object on which they are displayed: the computer screen. The soft lines that define the font, are indeed a long way from the proportions of traditional typography, and let the reader unexpectedly catch a glimpse of an image, a visual manifestation. Therefore, if on one hand the typographical perfection of a typeface like Garamond is abandoned, on the other hand Brodys typeface gives more importance to the speed with which information is conveyed on the screen (in airports, train stations, shopping centres, etc.) or to the pace with which images follow one another on monitors. There is no more time for precision, no time to focus on single details: the artwork must be appreciated in motion.

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- The Face, Cover, March 1985 - Blur, Font, 1992 - Fuse Exhibition, Poster, 1996

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LEONETTO CAPPIELLO
Leghorn, 1875 Cannes, 1942

He succeeds in reconciling the technique and colour of Lautrec with the seductive cunning of Chret. Elio Grazioli

1. Barnicoat, J., Posters. A Concise History, Thames & Hudson, London 1998 (1972), pp. 41, 42, 193, 194. 2. Cappiello, L., 70 dessins de Cappiello, Floury, Paris 1905. 3. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia, Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 8, 18, 26, 27, 30, 31, 36, 47, 53, 56, 58, 65, 80, 200. 4. Frnches-Thory, C., Cappiello, Runion des Muses Nationaux, Paris 1981. 5. Grazioli, E., Arte e pubblicit, Mondadori, Milan 2001, pp. 19-21. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History, Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 13, 41, 80, 84-86, 147, 207. 7. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present, Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 122, 145, 219, 220, 226, 257, 291. 8. Monti, R., Mattucci, E. (edited by), Leonetto Cappiello. Dalla pittura alla grafica, Artificio, Florence 1985. 9. Rennert, J., Cappiello. The posters of Leonetto Cappiello, The Poster Art Library, New York 2004. 10. Russo, D., The Modern Poster, Linea grafica, 368, March-April 2007, pp. 44-51. 11. Sangiorgi, G., Mascherpa, G., Veronesi, G., Grafica Ricordi. Dal manifesto storico alla produzione davanguardia, Ente Premi Rome, Rome 1967, figg. 23-25, 35, 177, 180. 12. Vinot, J. (edited by), L. Cappiello. Sa vie e son vre, De Clermont, Paris 1946.

Particularly prolific and brilliant, Cappiello is a great innovator of the modern advertising poster. He is an autodidact, as can be seen in his first work inspired by Renaissance art. In 1891 he makes his debut at the Mostra Promotrice in Florence, displaying four paintings. In 1896 he publishes an album with his caricatures entitled Lanterna Magica. In 1898 in Paris, he draws a series of caricatures, better known as Les contemporaines, for the magazine Le Rire. He later works for Le Cri de Paris, La Rampe, Le Sourire, Le Figaro and Le Journal. In 1899 the prestigious magazine Revue Blanche publishes a series of eighteen of his caricatures. In the same year he designs a poster to promote the new humorous magazine Frou Frou. In 1900 he signs a contract with Pierre Vercasson, for whom he designs illustrations and numerous posters until 1916, year in which he creates the front cover for Le pote assassin by Guillaume Apollinaire. During the First World War he returns to Italy and then again back to Paris, where he starts working for the printing house Devambez from 1919 to 1936. Among other jobs, he takes care of the decoration of the Pavillon de la Publicit for the Exposition Universelle in Parigi in 1937. In the first years of the twentieth century, Cappiello's style can be considered ripe: a distinguished and highly communicative language that can be found in all his posters. Cappiello does not follow precise models, but rather exhibits an original style that opens a new chapter in the creation of modern posters. His work is synthetic, yet very effective; his artworks are not at all realistic, and display imaginary and highly engaging characters, fruit of his lively imagination: seductive women, weird animals, masks, elves, etc. These figures become emblems, symbols of the product they promote. The background is usually dark in order to highlight the characters and the company logo, which are depicted in bright and striking colours. An example is the poster of Chocolat Klaus where areas of flat radiant colours stand out against a black background; the image depicts a fascinating horsewoman dressed in green riding a red horse which seems to be flying. The primary and complementary colours (red and green) and the anti-realist expressive form have affinities with Expressionism and Fauvism, marking a transition from the light backgrounds and colours used during the first period. Moreover, the point of view is central and below the woman, making the composition more dynamic.

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- Chocolat Klaus, Poster, 1904 - Bitter Campari, Poster, 1921 - Fumez le Globe, Poster

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ERBERTO CARBONI
Parma, 1899 Milan, 1984

Every day is Sunday with Barilla pasta. Erberto Carboni

1. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 139, 175, 176, 193, 196-198, 216. 2. Bianchino, G. (edited by), Erberto Carboni. Dal Futurismo al Bauhaus, Mazzotta, Milan 1998. 3. Boggeri, A., Erberto Carboni, Linea grafica, 11-12, November-December 1953, pp. 323-328. 4. Carboni, E., Dodici icone con forme geometriche , Silvana, Milan 1979. 5. Carboni, E., Dodici personaggi emblematici , Silvana, Milan 1979. 6. Carboni, E., Exhibitions and displays , Silvana, Milan 1959. 7. Carboni, E., La Grecia in sogno , Silvana, Milan 1962. 8. Carboni, E., Pubblicit per la radiotelevisione , Silvana, Milan 1959. 9. Carboni, E., Venticinque campagne pubblicitarie , Silvana, Milan 1961. 10. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia , Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 10, 12, 45, 71, 78, 90-92, 121, 200. 11. Fontanella, R., Di Somma, M., Cesar, M., Come cambiano i marchi. Metamorfosi di 60 marchi italiani, Ikon, Milan 2003, pp. 66, 67, 172-175, 198-201. 12. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 110, 139, 140, 143. 13. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 257, 260, 336. 14. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. Segni, simboli e segnali, Electa, Milan 2005, pp. 38, 39, 44, 150, 160, 174, 175, 202.

Considered to be one of the most influential Italian graphic designers, Carboni creates brilliant works for famous customers, even institutional ones. In 1923 he graduates in architecture in Parma and starts working as an illustrator for some chromolithography workshops. From his first projects the influence of post-Cubism, the French affiche and Art Dco can be noticed. At the end of the Twenties he designs the covers of the magazines Il Dramma and Le Grandi Firme and of numerous novels. In the Thirties he starts collaborating with LUfficio Moderno, and at Dino Villanis request (manager of the publishing house of the magazine), he takes care of the advertising department of the renowned company Motta. In 1937 he designs some metaphysical covers for Natura magazine. In the same years he works with the advertising and development department of Olivetti and with Studio Boggeri. In this way he can broaden his competence, developing a critical awareness towards the role of graphic design in advertising. In the second half of the Thirties his extraordinary expertise can be appreciated in the works he accomplishes for Campari and Lagomarsino (1935), for the Bantam hat (1936) and for a Shell advertising campaign (1937). Influenced by the Bauhaus and by Herbert Bayer in particular, Carboni skillfully uses a well-educated and modern style. This can clearly be seen in his campaign for Barilla pasta, carried out in a flawless manner. The famous 1952 poster La pasta del buon appetito (The pasta for a good appetite), for example, is an absolute novelty in the advertising field, because instead of simply promoting the product, Carboni prefers to insert it in an image that reminds the spectator of its qualities at the moment of consumption. The artwork shows the slogan and a fork and spoon which divide the space in two equal parts and recall a table set for mealtime. Different types of pasta, which had already been depicted in the 1938 poster Pasta sul pentagramma (Pasta on a stave) by Giuseppe Venturini, float over the white cutlery. The cutlery and logo turn into a symbol which will be repeated on all the following posters. This amazing poster, with its strength and its originality, makes Carboni win the Palma dOro of a national advertising award with the motivation that his artwork is the most brilliant and effective piece of advertising of 1952.

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- Barilla: La pasta del buon appetito, Poster, 1952 - Rai TV, Poster, 1955 - Barilla: vera pasta alluovo, Poster, 1954

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JEAN CARLU
Bonnires-sur-Seine, 1900 Nogent-sur-Marne, 1997

Carlus peculiarity is that his works always contain force and simplicity. John Barnicoat

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit , 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 53, 267. 2. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 24, 50, 81, 82. 3. Barnicoat, J., Posters. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1998 (1972), pp. 96-98, 242. 4. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 116, 117, 119, 122, 124, 160. 5. Carlu, J., Rflexions sur lesthtique de laffiche , Arts et mtiers graphiques, 7, September 1928, pp. 437-438. 6. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 48, 49, 86, 87, 92, 93, 114, 115. 7. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 85, 105, 108, 109, 127, 148. 8. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 9, 145, 217, 220, 229, 230, 265, 271, 274, 286, 291, 293, 296, 297, 300, 301, 341. 9. Livingston, A., Livingston, I., Graphic Design and Designers, Thames & Hudson, London 1992, p. 39. 10. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 258, 259, 305, 307, 309. 11. Weil, A., Rtrospective Jean Carlu (catalogue), Muse de lAffiche, Paris 1980. 12. Wlassikoff, M., Histoire du Graphisme en France , Les Arts Decoratifs, Paris 2008, pp. 79, 86, 87, 107, 123.

Carlu is without a doubt one of the most important French affichiste of the first postwar years. He starts off studying architecture but eventually gives up his studies to dedicate himself to drawing and graphic design. In 1917 he creates his first poster for Gassier. In 1921 he designs the poster for Charlie Chaplins movie The Kid, and collaborates with the advertising agency Avenir Pubblicit until 1923. In the same year, in Paris, he co-founds the Union des Artistes Modernes, together with Ren Herbst, Francis Jourdain and Robert Mallet-Steven: a group that focuses on up-dating public taste to the new and modern industrial society giving equal importance to the different arts. In 1940 the French government assigns him the task of designing the exhibition area of the New York Worlds Fair. He decides to stay in America, producing advertising and propaganda posters. In 1953 he goes back to France, where he continues to work as a graphic designer. Container Corporation of America, Air France, Firestone (now Bridgestone), Pan American Airways and Larousse are among his clients. Furthermore he is the president of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) from 1945 to 1965. On issue number 7 of the magazine Arts et mtier grafiques of 1928, Carlu states that it is possible to elevate posters to the level of paintings applying the same laws of composition. The intent of posters is different however: they have to promote a product in the best possible way, involving the spectator. Therefore it is vital that the poster should be easily understandable thanks to a fixed composition, based upon a simple geometric system that should catch the eye only thanks to the strength of visual means. Following this idea, Carlu conceives his masterpiece for a Second World War propaganda poster: Americas Answer: Production (1941) for the Office for Emergency Management, Division of Information, designed with the objective of promoting army recruitment and the purchase of bonds and workforce for the weapon industry. One hundred thousand copies of the poster are printed and distributed to the factories. Drawing inspiration from Cubism, Carlu uses very few elements to convey the message in a clear and distinctive manner: he simply draws a hand wearing a glove that is holding a wrench; the tool is tightening a nut that coincides with the letter o of the word production.

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- - - - -

Americas Answer: Production, Poster, 1941 Gell Frres Toothpaste , Poster, 1927 Odon Vinyl, Poster, 1929 Caz Syrup, Poster, 1950 Pschitt! Soda, Poster, 1954

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CARLO DALMAZZO CARR

Quargnento, 1881 Milan, 1966

Strongly condemn every form of imitation. Carlo Dalmazzo Carr

1. Bartram, A., Futurist Typography and the Liberated Text , The British Library, London 2005, pp. 120, 121, 128, 129, 156. 2. Carr, C., et alii, La pittura dei suoni, rumori e odori (1914), in V. Birolli, Manifesti del Futurismo , Abscondita, Milan 2008, pp. 100-104. 3. Carr, C., et alii, La pittura futurista (1910), in V. Birolli, Manifesti del Futurismo , Abscondita, Milan 2008, pp. 30-33. 4. Carr, C., et alii, Manifesto dei pittori futuristi (1910), in V. Birolli, Manifesti del Futurismo , Abscondita, Milan 2008, pp. 27-29. 5. Carr, C., Guerra pittura. Futurismo politico, dinamismo plastico, disegni guerreschi, parole in libert , Salimbeni, Florence 1978. 6. Carr, C., Il rinnovamento delle arti in Italia, Il Balcone, Milan 1945. 7. Carr, C., La mia vita , Feltrinelli, Milan 1981. 8. Carr, M. (edited by), Carlo Carr. Tutti gli scritti, Feltrinelli, Milan 1978. 9. Carr, M., Carr. Tutta lopera pittorica , Edizioni dellAnnunciata, Milan 1968. 10. Carr, M., Coen, E., Lemaire, G.-G., Carlo Carr , Giunti, Milan 1987. 11. Fagone, V. (edited by), Carlo Carr. La matita e il pennello , Skira, Milan 1996. 12. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia , Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 40, 42, 56, 58, 200.

Well known as one of the signers of the Manifesto dei pittori futuristi (1910), Carr is a tireless experimenter in the field of painting and a follower of various artistic movements of the Twenties and the Thirties, such as Realism and Metaphysical art. His artistic experience begins when he is twelve, working as a stucco and wall decorator. In 1895 he moves to Milan and five years later to Paris, where he is commissioned the task of decorating some pavilions of the 1900 Exposition Universelle. In 1904, after having come back to Milan, he attends the Scuola Serale dArte Applicata for a year and the Brera Academy in 1906. In 1910 he joins the Futurist movement. In 1913 he draws illustrations and writes articles for the magazine Lacerba, founded by two former collaborators of La Voce, a Florentine group with ideals close to the ones of the Futurists. In 1921 he becomes an art critic for the newspaper LAmbrosiano. In 1933 he signs the Manifesto della pittura murale (Manifesto on mural painting) written by Mario Sironi, and in the same year he paints a series of frescoes for the Triennale di Milano. In 1938 he completes some more frescoes in the Milan Courthouse. In 1941 he receives an award for his work and is appointed professor of painting at the Brera Academy. His interest for words in freedom, an artistic and literary expression invented by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, induces Carr to experiment with new typographical methods. Words and sentences, typed or painted, are arranged in order to fill the page in an unusual manner, with the intent of sending out a direct and provocative message. In the painting called Manifestazione interventista (Interventionist demonstration) (1915), Carr combines Cubist features with the beat set by typical Futurist art, resulting in a sort of highly figurative typographical painting: newspaper clippings are placed in a circle to form a pinwheel of words and colours which captures the viewer and conducts him inside the artwork. In the same year he publishes Guerrapittura (War painting), a collection of texts which can be appreciated from both a visual and an auditive point of view, words in freedom made up of elements taken from the typographer's crates, which demonstrate in practice what Carr had described in his manifesto La pittura dei suoni, rumori, odori (The painting of sounds, noises, smells) (1912), a set of new Futurist rules of syntax. Another noteworthy project is his Composizione Ta (Ta composition) (1916), where not only the influence of Futurism and therefore of words set free can be observed, but also of Cubism when he mixes different writing in a completely metaphysical composition.

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- Manifestazione interventista, Painting, 1915 - Guerrapittura, Page, 1915 - Rapporto di un nottambulo milanese, Drawing, 1914

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DAVID CARSON
Corpus Christi, 1954

I am a product of digital instruments: I absorb media; I dont have other references. David Carson

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 203, 232, 233. 2. Blackwell, L., D. Carson: 2ndsight. Grafik Design after the End of Print, Univers Publishing, New York 1997 (1995). 3. Blackwell, L., The End of Print: The Graphic Design of D. Carson , Laurence King, London 2000 (1995). 4. Carson, D., Fotografiks. An Equilibrium between Photography and Design Through Graphicconverter Expression that Evolves from Content , Laurence King, London 1999. 5. Carson, D., Trek. D. Carson Recent Werk , Ginko, Corte Madera (CA) 2003. 6. Castellacci, C., Sanvikate, P., Il tipografo mestiere darte , il Saggiatore, Milan 2004, pp. 50-59. 7. Donnelly, D., Cutting Edge Web Design. The Next Generation , Rockport, Gloucester (MA) 2002 (introduction by D. Carson). 8. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 40, 41, 154, 155, 170, 173, 178, 179, 192, 193. 9. McLuhan, M., Carson, D., The book of Probes , Ginko, Corte Madera (CA) 2002. 10. Poynor, R., No More Rules. Graphic Design and Postmodernism , Laurence King, London 2003, pp. 16, 50, 51, 53, 61-63, 88, 113, 118-120, 131, 143, 147, 102, 103, 150, 151, 160, 169. 11. Russo, D., Free Graphics. La grafica fuori delle regole nellera digitale, Lupetti, Milan 2006, pp. 28, 47-61, 138-145. 12. Russo, D., Grafica multimodale , in AA. VV., Gli spazi e le arti, Enciclopedia del XXI Secolo, vol. IV, Treccani Terzo Millennio, Turin 2010, pp. 579-587.

Without a doubt Carson can be considered one of the most explosive graphic designers of the Nineties. In 1977 he concludes his studies at San Diego State University and at the Oregon College of Commercial Art. In 1980 he attends a course on graphic design at the University of Arizona and in 1983 he achieves a PhD in art and sociology in Switzerland. From 1982 to 1987 he teaches graphic design at Torrey Pines High School in San Diego. Being an expert surfer, by the end of the Eighties, he decides to dedicate himself to magazines about this sport, starting from the art direction of Beach Culture (1989-1991), giving it a revolutionary look. At the beginning of the Nineties he brings fame to another magazine, Surfer (1991-1992); and in 1992 it is the turn of Ray Gun, his most famous and innovative magazine, characterised by a pyrotechnic look, full of compelling graphic solutions, with a masthead that changes radically on every issue. The magazine articles are capsized and specular, lacking in punctuation and made using letters that are often too big or too small. In 1995 he confirms his planetary success by publishing all his work in the book The End of Print. In the same year he founds the David Carson Design studio, which boasts clients of the likes of Pepsi, Ray Ban, Nike, Microsoft, American Airlines, Levis, AT&T, Kodak, Toyota, Warner Bros., CNN, MTV and Fox TV. The pages of The End of Print are a lab for Carson's revolutionary typographical experimentation. The text is organised in staggered double columns of varying sizes and with slanted lines, illogical kerning and overlapping line-spacing. As a result, appreciating the contents of an article is often tortuous, but as Carson specifies the readers of his magazines are used to images in motion and are thrilled when a page can be understood with a single glimpse, released of the burden of conventional reading. Therefore, however contorted the text might be, Carson stresses the concept of communication, which might not coincide with that of legibility, but which is able to surprise and shock the reader nonetheless. Among the pages of the book is a provocative layout in which the viewer must read from bottom to top, going through fonts of different sizes, on a multi-coloured background that adds a hindrance to the, already poor, legibility. There is a word, for example, that is completely illegible, annihilated by a dark ink stain on the background; it is not a printing error but rather an expression of the projects manifesto: the style must convey the concept. Carson disrupts the traditional norms of graphic design through images, confusing layouts and dark stains behind the text.

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- The End of Print presentation, Cover, 1995 - Ray Gun, Cover, 1992-95

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ADOLPHE MOURON CASSANDRE

Kharkov, 1901 Paris, 1968

There can only be one Cassandre per century. Paul Rand

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit, 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 53, 54, 104-106, 267-370. 2. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 24, 41, 50-54, 97, 102, 116. 3. Barnicoat, J., Posters. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1998 (1972), pp. 78-81, 96-98, 100, 131, 167, 168, 198, 214. 4. Cassandre, A. M., Publicit , Charles Moreau, Paris 1929. 5. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 94, 99, 100, 101, 105, 120, 154, 172. 6. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 9, 10, 145, 206, 217, 220-225, 228, 231, 257, 265, 268, 271, 272, 274, 275, 280, 281, 291, 390, 402, 414. 7. Masutani, Y. (edited by), Every Face of the Great Master Cassandre (catalogue), Suntory Museum, Tokyo 1995. 8. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 255-259, 303, 306. 9. Mouron, H., Cassandre , Thames & Hudson, London 1985. 10. Raimes, J., Bhaskaran, L., Retro Graphics Cookbook. Recreate 100 Years of Graphic Design , Ilex, Lewes 2007, pp. 82-85. 11. Vox, M. (introduction by), A. M. Cassandre. Peintre daffiches, Les ditions parallles, Paris 1948. 12. Weill, A., Cassandre. Les matres de laffiche , Bibliothque de lImage, Paris 1995.

Cassandre, the alias of Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron, is one of the most important and influential French affichiste of the first half of the twentieth century. In 1915 he moves to Paris to study at the cole des Beaux-Arts and the Acadmie Julian. He then works for Hachard & Cie, where he learns the art of designing posters. Between 1923 and 1936 he directs a studio in Paris, creating posters influenced by Cubism and Purism. The most noteworthy are the ones drawn for the newspaper Lintransigeant (1925), for the drinks Pivolo (1925), Dubonnet (1932), Bonal (1935) and Nicolas (1935), for railway trains L. M. S. The Best Way (1929), Nord Express (1927) and the Wagon-Bar (1932) and for the ocean liners LAtlantique (1931) and Normandie (1935). In 1927 he is the founder of Alliance Graphique (closed in 1935), together with Charles Loupot e Maurice Moyrand. Moreover, he designs numerous typefaces for the Deberny & Peignot foundry like Bifur (1929), Acier Noir (1936) and Peignot (1937). In 1936 he concentrates on painting, while the MoMA dedicates a retrospective exhibition to his work. In the same year he collaborates with Harpers Bazaar, working in New York until 1938. In 1959 he designs a font for Olivetti. In 1962 he is made an officer of the Legion of Honour. Recurring features in Cassandres work are the use of geometrical shapes in dynamic compositions which bring forward a perfect combination of images and words with wide spaces and colour gradations. In agreement with Le Corbusiers functionalist statements, Cassandre believes that the poster should be a machine annoncer, a kind of telegraph dispatched by the firm to the public to promote their product. An interesting example is the Dubo-Dubon-Dubonnet series of 1932, conceived for the homonymous drink. The three posters, when arranged alongside each other represent a cinematic sequence and depict the interaction of the main character with the product along with his reactions. On the the first one the man is looking at his glass. Only his face and his arm are coloured, and the lettering spells Dubo, a word that sound a lot like du beau, something beautiful. In the second poster the lettering spells Dubon, sounding like du bon, something good. In the third and last poster the products name is fully spelled out Dubonnet identifying the brand of the ad, and the figure fills his glass to appreciate his drink all over again.

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- - - -

Dubonnet, Poster Project, 1932 Normandie, Poster, 1935 Bifur promotional brochure, Page, 1929 LIntrasigeant, Poster, 1925

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PIERLUIGI CERRI
Orta San Giulio, 1939

Cerri is capable of imposing his strong personality as a designer with great spontaneity and apparently without ever exaggerating. Andrea Rauch

1. Baroni, D., Il manuale del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 1999, pp. 66, 200, 246, 263, 309. 2. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 273, 274. 3. Bucci, F., F. Bucci intervista Pierluigi Cerri. I racconti dellautomobile, Casabella, 748, October 2006, p. 74. 4. Cerri, P. (edited by), Autentico ma contraffatto. Cinque graphic designers, Romen Cieslewicz, Paul Davis, Milton Glaser, R. Hess, Tadanori Yokoo, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice 1977. 5. Cerri, P. (edited by), Pubblicit dautore, Electa, Milan 1983. 6. Colonnetti, A. (edited by), Grafica e design a Milan 19332000, Abitare Segesta, Milan 2001, pp. 170, 171. 7. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia , Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 126, 146, 147, 150, 151, 200, 204. 8. Fontanella, R., Di Somma, M., Cesar, Marcello, Come cambiano i marchi. Metamorfosi di 60 marchi italiani, Ikon, Milan 2003, pp. 110, 111, 186-189. 9. Friedl, F., Ott, N., Stein, B., When Who How , Knemann, Cologne 1998, pp. 166, 167. 10. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. La storia, i protagonisti e i temi dallOttocento ai giorni nostri , Electa, Milan 2006, pp. 108, 109. 11. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. Segni, simboli e segnali, Electa, Milan 2005, pp. 78, 79, 108, 109, 118, 119, 134, 163.

The creator of sophisticated systems of corporate identity, Cerri receives his degree in Architecture from the Milan Polytechnic. In the first years of the Seventies he is included among the members of the AGI (Alliance Graphique Internazionale) and is a co-founder of the architectural studio Gregotti & Associati (1973). In 1976 he is in charge of the corporate identity of the Venice Biennale, and later, of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, of Pitti Immagine, of Unifor (thanks to which he wins the Compasso dOro in 1995) and of Ferrari Auto. Cerri is very active in the editorial field and in 1978 he takes care of the graphic layout of the quarterly magazine Rassegna. Problemi di architettura dellambiente, directed by Vittorio Gregotti. In the same year he starts supervising various book series for publishing houses like Electa (with the series on graphic design Pagina), Einaudi, Bollati Boringhieri, Fabbri, Bompiani, Skira, Costa & Nolan and Editori riuniti. In 1973, together with Pierluigi Nicolin, he takes care of the Italian edition of Le Corbusiers book Vers une architecture (1923) and publishes Pubblicit dautore (1983). In 1986 he designs the corporate identities of the Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle in Bonn and Palazzo Grassi. Other noteworthy collaborations include Alessi, Poltrona Frau, Rai 3 and Pirelli. According to Cerri, simplicity and clarity are the prerequisites needed to compose new and effective languages capable of supporting visual communication. His attention and preciseness are tangible in his corporate identity projects, like the one elaborated for the exhibition Futurismo & Futurismi in 1986, for which he designs a sensational poster; the chaos in the arrangement of the letters and the randomness of the typefaces and their colours is only apparent: everything is actually perfectly predisposed in order to evoke Tommaso Marinetti and Ardengo Sofficis typographical experiments, with the aim of creating an evocative and specular visual scenery. Another example is the logo of the Centro Lingotto in Turin (1984), one of the largest Fiat car factories, where the letters of the brand interact in a three-dimensional space: some are positioned vertically, others lean on each other in order to give the general impression of a temporary layout, still to be decided. In 1984 Cerri also creates the logotype of Palazzo Grassi, with perfectly combined and overlapping letters. Another noteworthy project is the very refined brand manual conceived for the corporate identity of Ferrari Auto (1994-1995).

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- Futurismo e Futurismi, Poster, 1986 - Asiago: orientare al futuro, Poster, 1994 - Calder, Poster, 1983

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JULES CHRET
Paris, 1836 Nice, 1932

Chrets posters represent a pictorial equivalent of the expectation aroused by the sound of the cork released from a bottle of champagne. John Barnicoat
1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit , 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 38-42, 69, 100-103, 112, 113, 115, 308. 2. Barnicoat, J., Posters. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1998 (1972), pp. 6-26, 37, 40-42, 45, 52, 149, 188, 195, 207, 208, 222. 3. Broido, L., The Posters of Jules Chret. 46 Full-Color Plates and an Illustrated Catalogue Raisonn , Dover, New York 1992 (1980). 4. Buhrs, M. (edited by), Jules Chret, Knstler der Belle poque undPionier der Plakatkunst , Arnoldsche, Stuttgart 2011. 5. Camille, M., J ules Chret , M. Le Garrec, Paris 1930. 6. Grazioli, E., Arte e pubblicit , Mondadori, Milan 2001, pp. 13-17, 20. 7. Johonson, M., Jules Chret , Bibliothque des Arts, Lausanne 1983. 8. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 8, 113, 114, 117, 118, 122, 126, 145. 9. Le men, S., S eurat & Chret. Le peintre, le cirque et laffiche, CNRS Editions, Paris 2003. 10. Mauclair, C., Jules Chre t, Le Garrec, Paris 1930. 11. Morin, L., Jules Chret. Peintre, illustrateur, lithographe , Meunier, Paris 1902. 12. Russo, D., The Modern Poster, Linea grafica, 368, March-April 2007, pp. 44-51.

Chret is widely regarded as the father of the modern poster. Thanks to the teachings of his father, in 1849 he is already able to handle the printing process. Between 1849 and 1852 he works as an apprentice in a lithography studio, while studying the works of art exposed at the Louvre. In 1853 he attends the cole National de Dessin in Paris. In 1854 he leaves for London to make a career move, but he only ends up designing the catalogue for the Maple Furniture Company. Back in Paris, the musician Jacques Offenbach asks him to draw the poster for his operetta Orphe aux Enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld). He returns to London and becomes a theatre enthusiast, creating posters for various plays. Thanks to his friendship with the perfumer Eugne Rimmel, Chret gets the chance to travel to Italy, where he can admire the works of art of Correggio e and Giambattista Tiepolo, from whom he clearly draws great inspiration. In 1866 he opens his own printing house in Paris, through which he becomes very famous, designing posters for theatres, music halls and night clubs like Eldorado, Olympia, the Thtre de lOpra, Folies Bergres, Alcazar dt and Moulin Rouge. In 1881 he sells the printing house to the Imprimerie Chaix, and becomes its artistic director. After having reached the age of sixty, he dedicates himself mainly to painting, drawing and decoration. Being a powerful communicative tool, able to combine art and skill to reach its goal, a poster must be clear, effective and appreciable, even if only for a split second: it must strike the distracted viewer. Therefore Chret simplifies the composition, concentrating everything into a single image along with the product or club name. This image is usually a charming young woman who floats past, enticing the spectator with her mellow and carefree nature in a nebulous dreamy scenery: this female character is so typical of Chret that it became commonly known as chrette. It is clear how the artist exploits this cheerful and fresh female figure to better capture the audience's attention. In the famous Folies-Bergre poster of 1893, for example, the chrette dances as if she were floating in the air, holding onto the end of her wide dress so as to wrap it around her shapes and make it dynamically follow her performance. There is no perspective nor any shadows: only a black background that helps to make the composition more straightforward. The colours of the lettering are warm and lively, while the hair and part of the dress are very soft, almost blurry, giving the artwork an even greater perceptive impact.

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- Folies-Bergre, Poster, 1893 - Redoute des etudiants, Poster, 1894 - Bal au Moulin Rouge, Poster, 1889

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SEYMOUR CHWAST
New York, 1931

My drawing teacher, Sidney Delevante, revolutionised my way of thinking by making me start everything from zero with nothing preconceived. Seymour Chwast

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 7, 152-154, 156, 162. 2. Chwast, S., Heller, S., Graphic style. From Victorian to Post-Modern , Thames & Hudson, London 1994 (1988). 3. Chwast, S., Cohen, B., Heller, S., Trylon and Perisphere. 1939 New York Worlds Fair, Abrams, New York 1989. 4. Chwast, S., Cohen, B., Heller, S. (edited by), New York Observed, Abrams, New York 1987. 5. Chwast, S., Heller, S., Graphic style. From Victorian to Digital, Abrams, New York 2000. 6. Chwast, S., Heller, S., Illustration. A Visual History , Abrams, New York 2008. 7. Chwast, S., Heller, S., Jackets Required , Chronicle Books, San Francisco 1995. 8. Chwast, S., Heller, S., The Sourcebook of Visual Ideas , Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York 1989. 9. Chwast, S., Seymour. The Obsessive Image of Seymour Chwast , Chronicle Books, San Francisco 2009 (introduction of S. Heller, essay by Paula Scher). 10. Chwast, S., The Push Pin Graphic. A Quarter Century of Innovative Design and Illustration , Chronicle Books, San Francisco 2004. 11. Heller, S. (edited by), Seymour Chwast. The Left-Handed Designer , Abrams, New York 1985. 12. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 394-399, 447.

With a distinctive and easily identifiable style, Chwast is a model for many graphic designers and illustrators. He studies graphic design and illustration at Cooper Union Art School in New York, from which he graduates in 1951. He then works for some of the most important American brands answering various company needs: advertisements, animations, posters, packaging and book and CD covers. He also illustrates childrens books and designs hundreds of typefaces. In 1954 he founds the Push Pin Studios, together with Milton Glaser and illustrators Reynold Ruffins and Edward Sorel. The studio draws inspiration from various artistic currents, both old, like xylography or Victorian typography, and new, like Pop Art, strictly rejecting the standardising assumptions of the International Typographic Style. Chwast creates witty images, with lively colours and original shapes, often characterised by clashing contrasts and combinations. From 1957 to 1981 he supervises the publication of the magazines Push Pin Graphic and The Nose, together with Steven Heller. In the first half of the Eighties, he starts collaborating with Herb Lubalin and Alan Peckolick. In 1983 he is inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in New York, while in 1985 he is awarded the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Art) medal. His anti-war posters are among the most famous works of the Push Pin Studios. The one that gives Chwast most fame is End Bad Breath (1967), against the Vietnam war, designed in protest of the American B-52 bombing of Hanoi to pound the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh into submission. Chwast strongly expresses his disapproval, convinced, along with many others, of the cruelty and futility of the conflict, ridiculing, in a surreal way, some Western values, apparently important but actually ephemeral. First of all he makes fun of Uncle Sam, depicted as a sort of wicked and corrupt puppet, whose spite is shown through the use of an unpleasant greenish colour. His face, that occupies most of the stars and stripes background, is in the act of opening his mouth, displaying military planes, drawn in an infantile manner, indiscriminately bombing entire villages with soldiers and civilians. There is also a sarcastic criticism against consumerism: End Bad Breath could easily be the slogan to promote a toothpaste.

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- End the Bad Breathe, Poster, 1967 - Push Pin Graphic: Eleven Nursery Rhymes, Cover, 1961 - War is Madness, Poster, 1986

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PAUL COLIN
Nancy, 1892 Nogent-sur-Marne, 1985

As a poster designer Jean Colin is really a textbook example. He uses a discrete, concise and direct language to communicate. Umberto Capelli

Considered to be one of the musketeers together with A. M. Cassandre, Jean Carlu and Charles Loupot, Colin is one of the most interesting French affichistes of the century. In 1913, after completing his painting studies at the Acadmie des Beaux-Arts in Nancy, he moves to Paris. He draws his first movie poster in 1923 for Ren Clairs picture Voyage imaginaire. His career as an affichiste, graphic designer and stage designer officially takes off in 1925 at the Thtre des Champs Elyses. From 1926 onwards he teaches innovative techniques to create posters, an activity that he carries on for many years. In 1927 he organises the Bal Ngre (for which he draws the poster), a famous and very popular jazz festival. In the Thirties he supervises the stage design of various movies, like Fritz Langs Carnet de Bal (1937). Between 1939 and 1945 he designs a few war propaganda posters. In 1949 he is a member of the Cannes Festival jury. In 1964 he displays his work at the Documenta 3 Internationale Ausstellung in Kassel. During the Sixties and the Seventies he mainly takes care of graphic design for the tourism industry. Colin's style is drenched with references from avant-garde movements such as Cubism, Futurism and Purism. These are combined with elements of the new visual culture in order to obtain a result which is sophisticated and widely admired. Colins work is intellectual, essential and abstract. His posters (more than a thousand), and some of his covers (more than eight hundred), often show a rigorous composition characterised by a few lively colours; his works often display a figure at the centre of the layout, and some text located above or below so that it does not take up the space dedicated to the main image. One of his most famous posters is for the Revue ngre (1925), a concert with Josphine Baker a widely appreciated jazz musician of the time and Colins lover together with her band at the Thtre des Champs Elyses. Cubism influences are evident in this poster, and the caricatures of the three main characters, Baker and two jazz musicians, mainly the figure on the extreme left of the page, look like African wooden sculptures. Also worthy of being mentioned is his poster Libration (1944), and the movie poster conceived for Robert Bressons film Le journal dun cur de campagne (1950).

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit, 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 53, 267. 2. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 24, 50, 116, 120. 3. Barnicoat, J., Posters. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1998 (1972), pp. 97, 105. 4. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 116, 119, 122. 5. Bos, B., Bos, E. (edited by), Graphic Design. Since 1950 , Thames & Hudson, London 2007. 6. Capelli, U., Jean Colin , Linea grafica, 3-4, March-April 1963, pp. 93-100. 7. Colin, P., Dalton, K. C. C., Gates, H. L., Introduction toJosephine Baker and La Revue Negre: Paul Colins Litographs of Le Tumulte Noir in Paris , Abrams, New York 1998 (1927). 8. Forlaj, G., Lorigine del cartello pubblicitario francese , Linea grafica, 11-12, November-December 1953, pp. 247-249. 9. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 85, 148. 10. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Presen t, Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 9, 217, 220, 230, 231, 291, 293, 301. 11. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 258, 259. 12. Rennet, J. (edited by), 100 Posters of Paul Colin , Images Graphiques, New York 1977.

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- Revue ngre, Poster, 1925 - Tabarin, Poster, 1928 - Vichy, Poster, 1930

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GIULIO CONFALONIERI
Milan, 1926

The graphic mark that Confalonieri prefers has a strong impact and is based on dynamic tension and the negativepositive contrast. Daniele Baroni, Maurizio Vitta

1. Aa. Vv., Giulio Confalonieri. Opere grafiche , Franco Maria Ricci, Milano 1998. 2. Anceschi, G., Monogrammi e figure , La casa Usher, Firenze 1988 (1981), p. 157. 3. Baroni, D., Il manuale del design grafico , Longanesi, Milano 1999, pp. 99, 177. 4. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milano 2003, pp. 217-20, 237. 5. Colonnetti, A. (a cura di), Grafica e design a Milano 19332000, Abitare Segesta, Milano 2001, pp. 134, 135. 6. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia, Leonardo Arte, Milano 1997, pp. 112-14, 116, 117, 162, 200. 7. Friedl, F., Ott, N., Stein, B., When Who How , Knemann, Kln 1998, pp. 171, 172. 8. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, Londra 1994, p. 143. 9. Romagnoli, E., Confalonieri, G., Bianucci, P., Lune , Springer, Milano 2009. 10. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. Segni, simboli e segnali, Electa, Milano 2005, pp. 28, 194. 11. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. La storia, i protagonisti e i temi dallOttocento ai giorni nostri , Electa, Milano 2006, pp. 104, 105, 107.

A relentless traveller, Confalonieri can be considered a leading figure of the Swiss style in Italy. In 1956 he starts his career as a graphic designer, founding, together with Ilio Negri, Michele Provinciali and Pino Tovaglia, the CNPT studio, a name derived from the acronym of the initial letters of each member's surname. In 1965 he leaves the studio, when each of the members decide to pursue a career of their own. Confalonieri decides to dedicate himself to editorial planning, working as an art director for the publishing house Lerici, and its magazine Marcatre, in addition to magazines like FMR, Art Esquire, Graphis, Imago and PM. He also receives various awards like the Bodoni award in Parma, two gold medals in occasion of the 11th and 15th Milan Triennale and the certificate of honour at the Typomundus of New York. Furthermore, his works of art are displayed in museums worldwide, like the MoMA in New York, the Muse dArt Moderne in Paris and the MUMOK (Museum Moderner Kunst) in Vienna. Pirelli, Esso, the 14th Milan Triennale, Valextra, Tecno, Boffi and Block are among his clients, for whom Confalonieri designs numerous posters. Confalonieris style is very incisive, cold, rigorous and Gestalt-like. His compositions are minimized to simple but bold outlines, which almost look like abstract colour stains, that create a strong and immediate visual impact. Another feature of his is the use of only black and white in most of his works. This style leads to exceptional projects for Esso and Cassina, like Esso Augusta and Cassina interior design, both in 1961. On the occasion of the launching of one the largest oil tankers in the world, for example, he draws a poster to promote the event and, indirectly, also the taking over of the Augusta refinery by Esso. His solution is simple and effective: the prow of a ship that takes up the whole of the right side of the page is not immediately recognisable, if not for the formally more marked rounded bottom. No other elements on the page imply that it is the outline of a ship: everything else is white with nothing but the Esso logo and some information on the whereabouts of the event and the weight and length of the ship. In the poster for Cassina instead, the outline of a chair is made up of countless repetitions of the company name, as if it were a structural element or a texture.

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- Cassina interior design, Poster, 1961 - 15th Triennale di Milano, Poster, 1973 - Pirelli, Poster, 1959

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WIM CROUWEL
Groningen, 1928

We need to move on to a completely different form of letter. Wim Crouwel

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 180-182. 2. Broos, K., Helfting, Paul, Dutch Graphic Design , Phaidon, London, 1993, pp. 9, 136, 145, 146, 149, 158, 164, 165, 168, 171, 174, 177, 180, 192, 198, 123. 3. Broos, K., Quay, D., Wim Crouwel Alphabets , BIS, Amsterdam 2003. 4. Crouwel, W., Kunst + Design , Cantz, Ostfildern 1991. 5. Crouwel, W., Packing. An International Survey , Thames & Hudson, London 1968. 6. Crouwel, W., Wim Crouwel. A Graphic Odyssey (catalogue), Unit Editions, London 2011. 7. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 177, 193-195. 8. Huygen, F., Hugues, B., Wim Crouwel. Mode en module , 010 Publishers, Rotterdam 1997. 9. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 10, 14, 353, 358, 374, 398, 410. 10. Lauwen, T., Wim Crouwel. In His Own Words , Lauwen Books, The Hague 2010. 11. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Desig n, Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 422-425. 12. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Abecedario. La grafica del Novecento , Electa, Milan 2003 (2002), pp. 188-209.

An innovator and experimenter, Crouwel is one of the most famous and influential Dutch graphic designers in the world. From 1946 to 1949 he attends the Academie Minerva, before doing his military service for three years. From 1951 to 1952, he attends an evening typography course at the IvKNO (Instituut voor Kunstnijverheidsonderwijs) in Amsterdam, and later at the renowned Gerrit Rietveld Academie. In 1952 he is an apprentice in the exhibition design company, Enderberg, which allows him to get in touch with the most important Swiss graphic designers. In 1954 he works as a freelancer in Amsterdam. In 1963, together with Benno Wissing, Friso Kramer and the Schwarz brothers, he founds and directs the TD Associatie voor Total Design NV, Total Design for short, and eventually called Total Identity, which gives him international fame. In the same year he starts designing the typeface New Alphabet. Furthermore, he teaches at the Art Academy in Den Bosch (19541957), at the IvKNO (until 1963), at the Delft Technical University (1965-1985) and at the Royal College of Art in London (1981-1985). From 1985 to 1993 he is the director of the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. He receives numerous awards like the Piet Zwart award in 1991, the Dutch Oeuvre Award in 2004 and the Gerrit Noordzij award in 2009. Crouwel takes an interest in the typographic work of Herbert Bayer and Josef Albers created at the Bauhaus, and the alphabets drawn by Jan Tschichold and Kurt Schwitters. The study of these grand masters of (experimental) typography is the foundation of Crouwels New Alphabet: his typographic masterpiece and the project with which he makes his debut in the world of programmed typography. The typeface is developed in 1963, and presented in 1965 on the occasion of the first congress on human communications, Vision 65, that takes place at the Southern Illinois University of Carbondale, and eventually published in the experimental graphic design series Quadrat-Print. New Alphabet is a monoalphabetic font which is not too easy to read because the letter shapes are not immediately recognisable; nevertheless it is all based on precise technological parameters; it is designed inside a basic matrix and developed using straight perpendicular lines and 45-degree corners; upper case letters are distinguished by an upper horizontal stroke while the lower stroke is used only for letters n and v in order to double their shape, and obtain m and w.

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Quadrat-Print: New Alphabet, Font, 1967 Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam catalogue, Cover, 1963-70 International ciam, Poster, 1983 Edgar Fernhout, Poster, 1963 Leger, Poster, 1957 Vormgevers, Poster, 1968

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FORTUNATO DEPERO
Malosco, 1892 Rovereto, 1960

The frontier between painting and advertising has been knocked down forever and exchanges work both ways because it is a single activity. Elio Grazioli

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit, 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 48, 166-179, 186-189, 191, 194. 2. Belli, Gabriella, Un prcurseur du graphisme publicitaire moderne: Fortunato Depero , in Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit, 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 166-179. 3. Belloli, C., La componente visuale-tipografica nella poesia davanguardia, Pagina, 3, October 1963, pp. 5-47. 4. Depero, F., Depero Futurista Dinamo Azari (1927), S.p.e.s. Salimbeni, Florence 1988. 5. Depero, F., Numero unico futurista Campari 1931 (1931), S.p.e.s. Salimbeni, Florence 1978. 6. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia , Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 8-10, 36, 43, 45-47, 56, 65, 78, 98, 200. 7. Marsan, C., Fortunato Depero , Galerie Pic-Pus, Florence 1974. 8. Scudiero, M. (a cura), Depero futurista e larte pubblicitaria, Galleria Fonte dAbisso, Modena 1988. 9. Scudiero, M., Depero. Istruzioni per luso , LEditore, Trento 1992. 10. Scudiero, M., Fortunato Depero. Aattraverso il Futurismo. Opere 1913-1958, Galleria Poggiali & Forconi, Florence 1998. 11. Scudiero, M., Leiber, D., Depero futurista & New York , Longo, Rovereto (TN) 1987.

A Futurist painter and designer, Depero is one of the most important graphic designers of the Twentieth century. He attends the Scuola Reale Elisabettina in Rovereto, where he studies drawing and applied arts. In 1913 he publishes his first collection of illustrated poems entitled Spezzature. In 1914 he moves to Rome, where he displays his work at the Esposizione Libera Futurista Internazionale, after having visited Umberto Boccionis exhibition and having met Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Francesco Cangiullo and Giacomo Balla. In 1917 he meets the entrepreneur Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, during a European tour of Ballets Russes (Russian ballets), together with his collaborators, one of which is the painter Michel Larionov. In 1918 he organises the show Balli plastici (Plastic ballets) together with poet Gilbert Clavel. Two years later he is in Milan to work for the advertising agency Le tre I, while from 1924, he collaborates with the companies Alberti, Schering and Campari. His monograph, Depero futurista (Depero, the Futurist), is published in 1927 by Dinamo-Azari in Milan. In 1931 he publishes the Manifesto dellarte pubblicitaria Futurista (Futurist Advertising Art Manifesto) and in 1951 the poster on the Arte nucleare (Nuclear Art). Moreover, he sets up the Casa dArte Futurista Depero, an extraordinary studio, which is officially opened in 1959 with the name of Galleria Museo Depero and restored in 2009. Futurists in general are fond of means of mass communication, especially of the world of advertising. While an aptitude for advertising can be found throughout all Futurist art, it reaches its climax in Deperos work, a means to spread Futurist ideas of the manifesto Ricostruzione futurista delluniverso (Futurist rebuilding of the universe) of 1915. According to Depero, advertising is the most influential expression of modern life, and is an opportunity to create artworks and effects never seen before. Therefore art is supposed to adapt to its form. Consequently, if Deperos paintings are treated as posters, his posters must be considered out-and-out works of art. The poster Squisito al selz designed for the Campari company, for example, was exhibited at the 15th Venice Biennale in 1926, and is an early proof of how art and advertising are starting to interpenetrate. Here the Depero style, mechanic and based on playfulness and irony, is clear in all its particular features: the geometrisation of shapes, the stylisation of figures, the interpenetration of oblique surfaces (which increases the dynamism of the space), and uniform colour. His puppet-like characters acquire an unusual statuesque effect.

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Campari: Squisito al selz, Poster, 1926 Studded book for Dinamo-Azari, Cover, 1927 Vanity Fair, Cover project, 1929-30 Vanity Fair, Cover, July 1930

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MARCELLO DUDOVICH
Trieste, 1878 Milan, 1962

The women created by Dudovich are charming characters that present the product to promote, they are live actresses rather than alluring elements. Germano Lombardi

1. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 31, 52, 54, 55, 116. 2. Curci, R., Dorfles, G., Marcello Dudovich 1878-1962. I cento bozzetti e manifesti per La Rinascente , Fabbri, Milan 1985. 3. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia , Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 7, 18, 19, 22-24, 27-33, 50, 52, 80, 94, 200. 4. Galati, S., Marcello Dudovich , Minuti menarini, 307, October 2002, pp. 1-2. 5. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 13, 14, 41. 6. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 133, 255, 257, 260. 7. Marsano, B., Manifesti , Electa, Milan 2003, pp. 15, 28, 29, 38, 54, 55, 138, 267, 304, 316, 332. 8. Marsano, B., Manifesti. Grafica e pubblicit , Electa, Milan 2005, pp. 13, 15, 23, 30, 154. 9. Munari, C., Dudovich, un maestro. Una mostra a Palazzo Reale, Linea grafica, 4, July-August 1968, pp. 245-246. 10. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. La storia, i protagonisti e i temi dallOttocento ai giorni nostri , Electa, Milan 2006, pp. 38-41. 11. Sangiorgi, G., Mascherpa, G., Veronesi, Giulia, Grafica Ricordi. Dal manifesto storico alla produzione davanguardia, Ente Premi Rome, Rome 1967, figg. 26, 28, 36, 37, 43, 45-48, 50-52, 71, 76, 83, 111, 183, 187, 188, 191, 194, 205. 12. Granzotto G., Marcello Dudovich , Giulio Corbelli, Brescia 2000.

Dudovich is one of Italys most famous and admired poster artists. He attends the Scuole Reali, an art institute in Trieste, and starts working as a graphic designer in Milan in 1897 with the Officine Ricordi, under the wing of great masters of poster design like Adolf Hohenstein and Leopoldo Metlicovitz. In 1899 he becomes the art director of the Atelier Chappuis in Bologna, and in 1900, and for three consecutive years, he is the winner of the poster contest for the Feste di Primavera in Bologna. In the same year he wins a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. In 1906 he goes back to work at Ricordi's in Milan. In the following five years he creates numerous posters for the Grandi Magazzini Mele in Naples. In 1911 he wins a poster contest announced by the Borsalino company and collaborates with the German magazine Simplicissimus, for which he moves to Munich. In 1917, in Turin, he designs various film posters. In 1920 he founds Star, an agency that plans advertising campaigns for some of Italy's major industries. From 1921 to 1952 he collaborates with La Rinascente, while from 1922 to 1936 he is appointed artistic director of the Industria Generale Affissioni Pubblicitarie. Both elegant and charming, the Marca Zenit poster, designed for Borsalino in 1911, is without a doubt one of the first advertisements that shows a product without necessarily having another presence, man, woman or child interact with it. On the contrary, only the main object is depicted, attracting all the attention, without other figures that justify nor highlight its use. The poster it therefore very simple, characterised by the colour yellow and composed of a few, carefully selected elements: a Louis XV armchair, a pair of gloves, a walking stick and a hat, all elements that help to make the picture more communicative. The scene seems to be set in a wealthy house, of which only a portion of the room preceding a boudoir is visible. It is therefore presumable, thanks to the elements portrayed in the composition, that a sophisticated man has just passed by the scene, leaving his belongings on the armchair before accessing the room. The muffled atmosphere hints to a game of seduction around which Dudovich often like to build his stories to better attract the observer's attention and make him feel involved in the scene.

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- Borsalino: Marca Zenit, Poster, 1911 - Mele novit estive, Poster, 1908 - Agfa film, Poster, 1922

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GERT DUMBAR
Jakarta, 1940

A creative, anarchic and playful imagination, overlapping colours on an iridescent palette, lettering that meets reading requirements that have to be conquered with effort. Andrea Rauch
1. Aa. Vv., Studio Dumbar, Pyramyd, Paris, 2006. 2. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 184, 185, 224. 3. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 251, 267, 292, 254, 266, 296, 316. 4. Broos, K., Helfting, P., Dutch Graphic Design , Phaidon, London 1993, pp. 170, 176, 180, 186, 187. 5. Gerken, H., Studio Dumbar. Take New Ways to Express Yourself, Schmidt, Mainz 1993. 6. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 84, 85, 186, 187. 7. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 193-195, 213. 8. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 375, 381, 384, 385, 398. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 427-429. 10. Pijbes, W., Behind the Seen. Studio Dumbar, Schmidt, Mainz 1996. 11. Poynor, R., No More Rules. Graphic Design and Postmodernism, Laurence King, London 2003, pp. 58, 59. 12. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. Segni, simboli e segnali, Electa, Milan 2005, pp. 145, 166, 167.

Busy both in his homeland and abroad, Dumbar is known for his exceptional corporate identity systems. Born in Indonesia, he later moves to Holland and attends, from 1959 to 1964, the Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague, where he studies painting and graphic design. In 1967 he receives a Masters degree at the Royal College of Art in London. He then starts teaching at the Royal College of Art, at the Universitas of Bandung in Indonesia, at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Detroit, at the DesignLabor in Bremerhaven and at the Koninklijke Academie in The Hague. In 1967 he supervises the graphic design section of the Tel Design Associates group. During this period he develops the corporate identity of the Dutch railways, the Nederlands Spoorwegan. In 1977 he leaves Tel Design to found the Dumbar studio in Rotterdam together with Michel de Boer and Kitty de Jong. From here he starts to receive important assignments such as the corporate identities for the Dutch postal services and the police force, for national festivals and at an international level, for companies like IBM, Philips and Apple Europe. He also is given many awards, such as the honorary membership of the Humberside Polytechnic (1990) and of the ADG (Asociacion de Diseadores Grficos de Buenos Aires) (1994), and a honorary degree in Design at the English Southampton Institute (1995). Studio Dumbars philosophy is named Free Spirit by its members and consists in taking into account the idea that is at the base of a project of graphic design rather than only its aspect, and being open to different cultural contributions, without any bars to art or design. The concept of Visual Branding is born, a design that is never static nor uniform but always and everywhere, original, intense and appealing. In 2005 Dumbar leaves his studio to open a new one with his children. Together with them, he conceives an international system of disaster pictographs: a series of standardised symbols which come in handy to the rescue teams that intervene in the case of conflicts (war zones) or natural calamities. The signs convey important information, both in the local language and in English, and use the international colour system for roadsigns. These devices help avoid the issues often related to cultural differences, linguistic barriers and illiteracy.

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International system of pictographs for emergencies, 2005 De Stijl, Poster, 1982 Mondrian, Poster, 1971 Piet Zwart, Poster, 1974

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OTTO ECKMANN
Hamburg, 1865 Badenweiler, 1902

Eckmannschrift was an attempt to revitalise typography combining medieval and Roman characteristics under the influence of Japanese print. Philip B. Meggs
1. Eckmann, O., Neue Formen. Decorative Entwrfe fr die Praxis. Sammlung 1 , Spielmeyer, Berlin 1897. 2. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico, Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 29, 34, 51, 67. 3. Burkhardt, Franoise, P. Behrens et AEG , in AA. VV., Art & Publicit, 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, p. 27. 4. Friedl, F., Ott, N., Stein, B., When Who Ho w, Knemann, Cologne 1998, pp. 202, 203. 5. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 28, 30. 6. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 129, 130, 143. 7. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 203-205. 8. Pasca, V., Russo, D., Corporate Image. Un secolo dimmagine coordinata dallAEG alla Nike , Lupetti, Milan 2005, pp. 13, 15, 66, 67. 9. Raizman,D., History of Modern Design. Graphics and Products since the Industrial Revolution , Laurence King, London 2010, p. 132. 10. Savigny, B. von, Otto Eckmann (1865-1902). Graphiker und Kunsthandwerker, Freiburg, 1993. 11. Simmen, J., Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik von Otto Eckmann. Der Bestand in der Kunstbibliothek Berlin , D. Reimer, Berlin 1982. 12. Sturgis, A., Rebels and Martyrs. The Image of the Artist in the Nineteenth Century , Yale University Press, New Haven 2006, p. 136.

Eckmann is one of the most important figures in the Jugendstil art movement. He studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hamburg and in Nuremberg and at the Akademie der Bildenden Knste in Munich. He leaves his art studies in 1894 and sells all his Symbolist paintings at an auction stating, We will never meet again; he then decides to dedicate himself to applied arts. He starts working with metal, coloured glass and silver, while studying Japanese art and culture, imitating its traditional techniques in his xylographs and other projects. In 1895 he is the art director of the magazines Pan and Jugend, while collaborating with publishing houses like Cotta, Diederichs, Scherl, Seemann and Fischer, drawing covers and illustrations for various publications (as well as the logo for Fischer). In 1897 he teaches ornamental painting at the Unterrichsanstalt des Kniglichen Kunsterwerbemuseums in Berlin. In 1889 he designs the logotype for the magazine Die Woche. From 1900 to 1902 he works as a graphic designer for AEG (Allgemeine ElektrizittsGesellschaft). Moreover, in 1900 he designs the typefaces Eckmann-Schrift, similar to Japanese calligraphy, and Fette Eckmann in 1902, one of the most commonly used fonts in the German Jugendstil movement and in Art nouveau in general. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the following one, the Jugendstil can be distinguished by an extraordinary linearism, a feature which had already been developed and supported during the mid-nineteenth century. This thin line, both supple and dynamic, is strongly influenced by Naturalism (both graphic and pictorial) and Japonism (for example Japanese xylography and ukiyo-e printing). The floral style of which Eckmann is a pioneer, has a strong impact on his job, especially in the covers designed for the AEG catalogues, in the logotype he draws for the company and in the sophisticated typefaces that are named after him. On the cover of one of the 1900 catalogues, on which even the logotype is depicted, the font is curvy and enveloping, while the frame, rectangular and symmetrical, looks like an electrical circuit through which current, supplied by two power transformers, is passing. The typefaces Eckmann-Schrift and Fette Eckmann, designed for the Klingspor foundry, in 1900 and 1902, are a Jugend reinterpretation of the Neo-gothic typefaces of the 19th century, where letters become abstract decorations, hardly readable and destined to be printed in large formats.

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- Eckmann-Schrift, Font, 1900 - Jugend, Cover, July 1898 - Jugend, Cover, 1896

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LYONEL FEININGER
New York, 1871 1956

The only thing that can keep Expressionist art alive is the fact that everyone sees a way of his own to reach it. Lyonel Feininger

1. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 92-94, 96. 2. De Michelis, M., Kohlmeyer, A., Bauhaus , Giunti, Florence 1997, p. 5. 3. Feininger, A., Feininger on Photography , Crown Publishers, New York 1953. 4. Feininger, L., Das musikalische Werk Lyonel Feiningers , Schneider, Tutzing 1971. 5. Gay, P., La cultura di Weimar. The outsider as insider, Dedalo, Bari 1978, pp. 153-155. 6. Hess, H., Lyonel Feininger, Abrams Thames & Hudson, New York London 1961 (1959). 7. Luckhardt, U., Lyonel Feininger, Prestel, Munich 1989. 8. Mrz, R., Lyonel Feininger, Henschelverlag, Berlin 1981. 9. Muir, L., Timpano, N., Lyonel Feininger. Photographs 1928-1939, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern, 2011. 10. Nisbet, P., Lyonel Feininger. Drawings and Watercolors , Harvard Art Museums Hatje Cantz, Camdbridge Ostfildern 2011. 11. Prasse, L. E., Lyonel Feininger, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland 1972. 12. Wingler, H. M., The Bauhaus. Weimar, Dessau, Berlin, Chicago (1962), MIT Press, Chicago 1969.

Feininger, painter and caricature artist, is also very well known for being a teacher at the Bauhaus. In 1887 he attends the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hamburg. The following year he moves to Berlin, where he studies at the Kunstakademie and starts to work, drawing caricatures and illustrations. In 1892 he continues his studies in Paris and two years later he completes his studies at the Kunstakademie. From 1896 the magazines Ulk and Das Narrenschiff periodically publish his caricatures. In 1906 he works as a lithographer, engraver and comic strip artist for the Chicago Sunday Tribune. In 1907 he dedicates himself to painting and for two years he travels, mostly living in Paris and London. In 1913 he displays some of his paintings at the Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon. His first solo exhibition is held at the Der Sturm gallery in Berlin in 1917. He teaches at the Bauhaus from 1919 and is in charge of the printing workshop until 1932. In 1931 he exhibits his work at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, where he goes to live two years later. In 1937, to escape Nazi persecution, he moves to New York, where the MoMA dedicates a retrospective to him in 1944. In 1947 he is elected president of the Federation of American Painters and Sculptors. Despite being famous and widely appreciated for his prolific activity as a caricaturist, Feininger decides to dedicate himself exclusively to painting in 1909 and his paintings are immediately at the centre of lively debates for being characterised by an extreme modernism. Moreover he is the author of some valuable xylographies, amongst which the well-known Cathedral of socialism, designed in 1919 for the cover of the Bauhaus manifesto, with a strong Expressionist influence. The cathedral is used as a symbol of social unity, therefore of democracy, and as a new religion to be professed in the field of modern art. According to Feininger, modern works of art must bring various social classes together, without prejudice or power abuse. Just like in the past, to build imposing Gothic cathedrals, professionals of different fields worked synergistically architects, sculptors, painters and craftsmen Feininger wants society to be united in the development of modern works of art. It is not by chance that on the tips of the pinnacles of the Cathedral there are three stars, they symbolise the three visual arts: painting, sculpture and architecture. The Cathedral is, therefore, a universal work of art, and its completion is the result of both artistic and intellectual knowledge.

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- Cathedral, Illustration, 1919 - The Kin-der-Kids, Cover, 1906 - Woman in mauve, Painting, 1922

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EDWARD FELLA
Detroit, 1938

He investigated the aesthetic potential of invented letterforms, irregular spatial intervals, eccentric characters and vernacular imagery. Philip B. Meggs

1. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 253, 309, 315. 2. Fella, E., Edward Fella. Letters on America. Photographs and Lettering , Laurence King, London 2000 (essays by Lewis Blackwell and Lorraine Wild). 3. Friedl, F., Ott, N., Stein, B., When Who How , Knemann, Cologne 1998, p. 218. 4. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 375, 383, 384, 398, 399. 5. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 414-17. 6. Polano, S., Ed Fella, lettere dallAmerica , Casabella, 658, July-August 1998, pp. 50-61. 7. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Abecedario. La grafica del Novecento , Electa, Milan 2003 (2002), pp. 234-245. 8. Poynor, R., No More Rules. Graphic Design and Postmodernism , Laurence King, London 2003, pp. 13, 54-57, 150. 9. Tuset-Anrs, V., Froux, R., Guiral, C., Nakamura, R. (edited by), Ed Fella Documents (catalogue), Pyramyd, Paris 2011. 10. Wild, L., Bates, L., Blackwell, L., Edward Fella. Letters on America, Princeton Architectural Press, New York 2000.

A particularly inventive person, Fella grows up to be a tireless experimenter in the fields of graphic design and typography. He studies illustration, design and history of art at the Cass Technical High School of Detroit. In 1957 he starts working for an advertising agency, designing catalogues, logotypes, brochures, illustrations for cars, hospitals etc. In the same year, while still a high school student, he is awarded a scholarship to continue his academic career in a College of Art. Even though his preference would have been the California Institute of the Arts or the Cooper Union School of New York, the John Herron School of Indianapolis is the only one that accepts him. He therefore decides to continue working as a graphic designer. During the Fifties and Sixties he is influenced by the Push Pin studios, by Op Art and Kinetic art, and develops a very eclectic style. In 1985 he attends a Master degree programme at the Cranbrook Academy of Arts, being interested in decostructing and recycling existing forms, with quotations, pastiches, parodies, processes using a certain kind of non-condescending irony. He subsequently starts teaching graphic design at the California Institute of the Arts (1987), and thanks to his enthusiasm, he influences numerous graphic designers like Katherine McCoy, Jeffery Keedy, Scott P. Makela, Barry Deck and Elliot Earls. Fella's work features a bold yet poetic approach to the graphic language: irreverent regarding typography and nonconformist in the handling of the images. He continuously experiments with his drawings and the result is that his work is often a stream of ideas, words and sentences arranged in what might seem a random way. He can be considered a mediator or a broker of graphic design, and his illustrations can be defined as being fluid and iridescent, for they seem to mutate, giving rise to surprising effects, soaked in references to philosophy, literature, history of design and American culture. His posters sometimes tend to be chaotic: rich of allegories and pastiches, with inconsistent and improbable kerning. Apparently, Fella deforms his typography giving it a discordant and awkward look, but everything is actually carefully prepared resulting in great communicative effectiveness. Execution before conception, meaning before perception, says his oxymoronic motto. However, his heterogeneous style a graft of pop culture can be fully appreciated in his first collection of Polaroid snapshots, Edward Fella. Letters on America (2000).

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Letters on America, Cover, 2000 Plazm, Cover, 1998 Size Life, Poster, 1982 CIType, Pages, 1999 The Detroit Invitational Tennis Tournament, Poster, 1968

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ALAN FLETCHER
Nairobi, 1931 London, 2006

A typeface is an alphabet in a straitjacket. Alan Fletcher

1. Aa. Vv., Ideas on Design , Faber & Faber, London 1986. 2. Aa. Vv., Living by Design Pentagram , Lund Humphries Library of Design, London New York 1978. 3. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 139, 176, 177. 4. Crosby, T., Fletcher, A., Forbes, C., A Sign System Manual , Praeger, New York Washington 1970. 5. Fletcher, A., A Menagerie of Imaginary Creatures , Offset Printing Company, Istanbul 2002. 6. Fletcher, A., Beware Wet Paint , Phaidon, London 1996. 7. Fletcher, A., Forbes, C., Gill, B., Graphic Design: Visual Comparation , Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York 1963. 8. Fletcher, A., Picturing and Poeting , Phaidon, London 2006. 9. Fletcher, A., The Art of Looking Sideways , Phaidon, London 2001. 10. Fletcher, A., Typographic Folk Art, Tulis Russell Papermakers, Markinch (Scotland) 2006. 11. Hollis, R., The Art of Looking , Domus, 897, November 2006, pp. 59-63. 12. Myerson, J., Vickers, G., Rewind. Forty Years of Design & Advertising , Phaidon, London 2002.

Fletcher is one of the most influential graphic designers of the English post-war years. He begins his studies at the Hammersmith School of Art in London and carries on at the Central School of Art and the Royal College of Art (1953-1956), always in London. Soon after, he moves to the United States and attends a course at the Yale School of Architecture and Design. He makes his debut as a graphic designer in New York, working for Fortune magazine, the Container Corporation and IBM. Subsequently he works as an assistant at the Saul Bass & Associates studio in Los Angeles. In 1959 he moves to Italy where he works for Pirelli in Milan. He then returns to London where he founds the Crosby/Fletcher/Gill studio in 1962, which later becomes the Crosby/Fletcher/Forbes studio when Colin Forbes joins in the place of Bob Gill in 1965. In 1972 together with his partners, Kenneth Grange and Mervyn Kurlansky, he founds Pentagram where he works for the following two decades. In 1992 he leaves Pentagram and finds a job as a freelance consultant and art director for Phaidon Press. Beware Wet Paint (1996), a personal monography and The Art of Looking Sideways (2001) are to be mentioned among his publications. From his debut, the Pentagram studio presents ironic and extremely original graphic solutions. Fletcher supervises eccentric projects, supported by derisive and provocative ideas. Together with the group, he develops the corporate identities for famous clients such as the Bank of Kuwait, the insurance company Lloyds and the Victoria & Albert Museum, for which they also redefine the internal sign system. His approach to graphic design, strengthened by a strong iconographic feeling and a particular stage effect, is visible in the poster for the Designers Saturday (1982), created on the occasion of a London event. Fletcher chooses the typical chromo-geometric triad used in the Bauhaus in an unusually playful way. He chooses what he considers to be the most predictable colours, the primary ones (red, yellow and blue), and the three dullest shapes, the basic geometric shapes (square, triangle and circle), and he transfers them all in an astonishing party scene, giving a sparkling result which is all but trite. This is exactly how he works: he has fun, he plays with shapes that become letters and letters that become symbols, adjusting it all with great effectiveness, thanks to his incredible capacity to communicate a message with very few elements.

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- Designers Saturday, Poster, 1982 - Beware Wet Paint, Cover, 1996 - IBM, Poster, 1983

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AG FRONZONI
Pistoia, 1923 Milan, 2002

I hate what is unnecessary, in excess, redundant, whatever is wasted. AG Fronzoni

1. Apollonio, U., Brunazzi, M., AG Fronzoni (catalogue), Nava, Milan 1969. 2. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 203, 216, 218. 3. Campana, M., Un anno dopo AG Fronzoni , Progetto grafico, 1, July 2003, pp. 62-65. 4. Carmagnola, F., Pasca, V., Minimalismo. Etica delle forme e nuova semplicit nel design , Lupetti, Milan 1996, pp. 33, 98-102. 5. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigotti, S., La grafica in Italia, Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 126, 128-129, 201. 6. AG Fronzoni, Sul progetto , Progetto grafico, 1, July 2003, p. 62. 7. Heigl, C., AG Fronzoni, Manifesti darte. Esposizione 1-21 September 1969. Ca Giustinian, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice 1969. 8. Heller, S., Ilic , M., The Anathomy of Design. Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design, Rockport, Gloucester (MA) 2007, p. 27. 9. Passoni F., Art and Plastics, Industria pubblicazioni audio- visivi, Milan 1975. 10. Pavese, F., AG Fronzoni: in-finito , Progetto grafico, 1, July 2003, p. 66. 11. R ossi, A., Ad AG Fronzoni assegnata la targa dargento dellA.i.a.p., Linea grafica, 1-2, January-February 1959, p. 48. 12. Tadini, E., AG Fronzoni, Linea grafica, 5-6, May-June 1960, pp. 197-204.

Fronzoni is considered to be the master of Italian Minimalism. In 1945 he sets up an architecture studio but he soon starts being interested in industrial and graphic design as well. Most of all, he takes care of exhibitions, fairs and restoring old buildings. In 1947 he founds the magazine Punta, while in 1965 he is the copy editor of Casabella. His most important works are the poster designed for the Lucio Fontana exhibition of 1966, produced the same year as the corporate identity developed for the Venice Biennale; the 1967 poster for the Experimental museum of Turin; the organisation of the modern art gallery of the Palazzo Reale in Genova. He is awarded various prizes both in Italy and abroad, like the lifetime achievement award in Zagreb in 1972 and the Zanotti Bianco award in 1980 for the design of the Walser museum in Alagna Valsesia. Some of his projects are displayed in important museums, like the Muse des arts dcoratifs in Paris, the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Zurich and the MoMA in New York. Moreover, from 1949 he devotes himself to teaching at the ISIA in Urbino and Monza (for twenty years), at the Accademia di comunicazione in Milan and in 1982 he sets up an international specialisation workshop in his studio. Fronzonis posters are real typographic works of art. Lacking images and only composed by text, they can be distinguished by their being monochromatic and for their meticulous composition which makes them solemn, dignified and poetic. The poster he designs for the exhibition of Lucio Fontana at Galleria La Polena in Genova in 1966 is particularly heuristic. Drawing inspiration from Fontanas renowned Concetto Spaziale/Attesa conceived a year before, Fronzoni reproduces it by placing the typography vertically and dividing it down the middle to make it look as if it has been sliced. The text is concise: it states the name of the artist and the place and time of the exhibition, without adding any other information which would have been unnecessary. Only letters and numbers define the space and only two colours are used, black and white, giving the maximum contrast: colours which Fronzoni believes to be the symbol of human rationality. This poster therefore works by subtraction and the observer is intrigued by how a three-dimensional concept is translated onto a two-dimensional surface; he is asked to decipher a message which is not immediately comprehensible if not with an effort of perceptive unification, or rather of amodal completion: a brilliant concept which makes Fronzonis artwork one of the all time masterpieces of Italian graphic design.

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- Fontana Galleria la Polena Genova, Poster, 1966 - Ricerche estetiche concrete, Poster, 1980 - Angelo Giuseppe Bertolio, Poster, 1975

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ADRIAN FRUTIGER
Unterseen, 1928

We had to wait until the Seventies to have a good, modern and rational typeface: Frutiger, by Adrian Frutiger. Giovanni Lussu

1. Friedl, F., The Univese by Adrian Frutiger, Form, Frankfurt am Main 1998. 2. Friedl, F., Univers Font. Adrian Frutiger, in Aa. Vv., Icons of Design. The 20th Century, Prestel, Munich London New York 2000, pp. 94, 95. 3. Frutiger, A., Typefaces: The Complete Works , Birkhuser Architecture, Basel 2008. 4. Frutiger, A., Signs and Symbols. Their Design and Meaning , Studio Editions, London 1989. 5. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 10, 341, 349, 350, 353-355, 357, 410. 6. Lussu, G., La lettera uccide , Nuovi equilibri, Rome 1999, pp. 34, 76, 77, 177. 7. Lussu, G., Turchi, D. (edited by), Adrian Frutiger, segni & simboli. Disegno, progetto, significato , Nuovi equilibri, Viterbo 1997. 8. Osterer, H., Stamm, P. (edited by), Adrian Frutiger. Typefaces. The Complete Works , Springer, Basel Birkhser London 2009. 9. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Abecedario. La grafica del Novecento , Electa, Milan 2003 (2002), pp. 152-155. 10. Russo, D., Free Graphics. La grafica fuori delle regole nellera digitale, Lupetti, Milan 2006, pp. 8, 109. 11. Weingart, W., My Way to Typography , Lars Mller, Basel 2000 (English-Deutsche), pp. 88, 320, 321.

A meticulous and cultured designer, Frutiger is known for the designing of excellent typefaces. From 1944 to 1948 he is apprenticed as a typographer at the printing house of Otto Schaerffli. Between 1949 and 1951 he attends the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, mainly interested in calligraphy. In 1952 he is employed by the Paris foundry Deberny&Peignot, after having stood out with History of letters, a very detailed illustrated essay which demonstrates his competence and his knowledge on typographic design. At Deberny&Peignot he creates the typefaces President and Ondine in 1954 and Univers (1955), his masterpiece, and adapts many other typefaces so they can be used by the new phototypography technique Lumitype. In 1956 he designs Egyptienne using Clarendon as a model (which had been created during the second half of the 19th century). Egyptienne is a typeface designed especially to be used in the process of phototypesetting. Other noteworthy works are OCR-B, a standard face developed to facilitate optical character recognition (1965-1971), Serifa (1967), Iridium (1972), Glypha (1979) and Icone (1980). During the first years of the Seventies he works as a consultant for IBM and he is commissioned a signage alphabet by the French airport authorities for the new international airport Charles de Gaulle: the Frutiger typeface (1975). Based on Herbert Bayers Universal (1925), Frutigers Univers (1956) is considered to be the quintessential typeface: universal and practical always and everywhere. In the twenty years that follow its debut it spreads far and wide, well out of the Swiss area. Its strength is in its flexible uniformity given by a systematic articulation. Therefore, the whole typographic family finds itself in a perfectly clear pattern: different typographic sizes are structured around Univers 55 (the standard type, commonly used when printing books), from size 39 (the thinnest) to size 83 (the boldest). The sizes have nothing to do with the height of the letters but rather regard their width and their fullness: the various types of Univers are arranged in order of letter width from left to right, and in order of boldness from bottom to top. What remains constant is the x height of each character and the length of ascenders and descenders. Univers, which has been critisised for its strict systematic nature, on the other hand owns great clarity, coherence and modernity.

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- Univers board, Font, 1956 - Univers, Font, 1956 - Fonts by Frutiger, Font, 2007

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SHIGEO FUKUDA
Tokio, 1932 2009

His work is full of humour and paradoxes, often conveyed through metaphors. Daniele Baroni, Maurizio Vitta

1. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 263, 264. 2. Bos, B., Bos, E. (edited by), Graphic Design. Since 1950 , Thames & Hudson, London 2007. 3. Chwast, S. (introduction of), Shigeo Fukuda Masterworks , Firefly Books, New York 2005. 4. Fukuda, S., Posters of Shigeo Fukuda , Mitumura Tosho Shuppan, Tokyo 1982. 5. Fukuda, S., Shigeo Fukuda. Masterworks , Firefly, New York 2005. 6. Fukuda, S., Visual Illusion , Rikuyosha, Tokyo 1982. 7. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 36-37. 8. Heller, S., Ilic , M., The Amthomy of Design. Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design , Rockport, Gloucester (MA) 2007, p. 5. 9. Henrion, F. H. K., Top Graphic Design , ABC, Zurich 1983, pp. 10, 63. 10. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 206, 2081. 11. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 420-423. 12. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. La storia, i protagonisti e i temi dallOttocento ai giorni nostri , Electa, Milan 2006, pp. 178, 179.

Amongst the most admired Japanese graphic designers, Fukuda is a master of optical illusion. He graduates from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1956. After having worked at Ajinomoto Co. for two years he starts up his own graphic design studio. He designs the official poster for the Osaka World Expo in 1970 and for the Expo in Toyama in 1991. He designs the logotype for the National Cultural Festival in 1986. He also creates a poster to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the French revolution. In 1972 he designs the sign system for the winter Olympics of Sapporo. From 1972 to 2002 he teaches at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and from 1982 to 1984 at Yale. From 1967 to 2004 he displays his works in numerous exhibitions worldwide: New York in 1967, San Francisco in 1987, Quimper in 1991, Buenos Aires in 1993, Toyama and Warsaw in 1995 and Tokyo in 1997. He receives awards at various Biennials, in Warsaw in 1972, in Brno in 1993 and in Lahti in 1995, and numerous acknowledgments: in 1979 he is elected to the AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) and becomes the first Japanese designer to be inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame of the in New York (1987). With originality and an ability to synthesise, Fukuda is able to break down the cultural barriers existing between Japanese artistic traditions and modern Western style. Throughout Japan the purpose of graphic design is not so much commercial as it is cultural. It is considered an effective communication medium from both a social and a political point of view. As a result, the work Fukuda creates for this purpose is often much more interesting than the projects developed for the world of advertising. In particular, Fukuda is keen on social issues and conveys this passion through effective and rather unique posters. One of his most famous works is certainly Victory 1945, drawn for the 30th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The barrel of a cannon and a projectile are displayed, both in black, on a lively coloured background. However, the shell is travelling in the wrong direction: instead of being shot outwards, it is heading back to the weapon, contradicting its function. The poster wins the Warsaw Poster Contest in 1975, a competition whose proceeds went to the Peace Fund Movement.

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- Victory 1945, Poster, 1975 - Enviromental Pollution, Poster, 1973 - Personal exhibition, Poster, 1975

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ERIC GILL
Brighton, 1882 Uxbridge, 1940

Letters are not forms nor representations. Letters for us are the Roman alphabet and the Roman alphabet is our alphabet. Eric Gill

1. Brady, E., Eric Gill. Twentieth Century Book Designer, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen 1974. 2. Brewer, R., Eric Gill. The Man who Loved Letters , Muller, London 1973. 3. Cribb, R., Cribb, J., Eric Gill. Just for Letter & Line , British Museum Pubns, London 2011. 4. Gill, E., An Essay on Typography , Sheed & Ward, London 1931. 5. Gill, E., Autobiography (1939), Lund Humphries, London 1992. 6. Gill, E., Beauty Looks after Herself , Sheed & Ward, London New York 1933. 7. Gill, E., Engravings. 1928-1933 , Faber & Faber, London 1934. 8. Gill, E., Essential Perfection. An essay , St. Domincs Press, Ditchling 1918. 9. Holliday, P. J., Eric Gill in Ditchling. Four Essays , Knoll, New Castle 2002. 10. Kindersley, D., Eric Gill. Further thoughts by an apprentice, Wynkyn de Worde Sociaty Sandstone Press, London New York 1982. 11. MacCarthy, F., Eric Gill. A Lovers Quest for Art and God , Faber Dutton, London-New York 1989. 12. Skelton, C., Eric Gill. The Engravings , Godine, Boston 1990. 13. Yorke, M., Eric Gill. Man of Flesh and Spirit (1981), Tauris Parle Paperbacks, London New York 2000.

Eric Arthur Rowton Gill is an extremely skilled engraver specialised in the design of typefaces, which are still well-known and used today. He attends the Technical and Art School of Chichester in 1897. From 1900 to 1903 he works in London at the office of Willam D. Caroe, an architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in Westminster. During his apprenticeship he takes classes in stone masonry at the Westminster Technical Institute and calligraphy classes under Edward Johnston at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. He then starts his career as a freelancer working as an artisan and a letter carver producing inscriptions, incisions, signs, plaques for private customers, and for WH Smith and Insel Verlag. In 1907 he moves to Sussex County, where he works as a stone carver for important clients. In 1924 he collaborates with the Monotype Corporation and the Golden Cockerel Press as an engraver and a type designer. Some of his most famous typefaces are Perpetua (1925), Gill Sans (1929) and Joanna (1930-1931). In 1931 he publishes An Essay on Typography, a valuable theoretical contribution which deals, among other themes, with the mechanisation of printing techniques and the design of typefaces. Gills typefaces have always been considered classics of type design. While classifying typefaces, Perpetua is regarded as being the quintessential mediator (combining elements of ancient Roman and modern Roman alphabets); it is characterised by small horizontal serifs that make it elegant and ideal in any kind of situation. The Gill Sans, an evolution of Lner (1928), a font family previously designed by Gill for the London & North Eastern Railway, is produced by Monotype between 1928 and 1932. It is a rather calligraphic humanist typeface, consisting of upper case letters inspired by Roman square capitals and lower case letters modelled after Carolingian minuscule. The capital M is built on the proportions of a square, the stems join at a right angle and the unusual bending of the joints is a common feature in Gill's alphabets. It is light and extremely legible, widely used in editorial productions (like in the magazine Progetto grafico), on packaging, and in various logotypes, like the ones of BBC, TNT, Philips, Monotype Imaging, University of Southampton, Wikimedia Foundation, United Colors of Benetton, Firedog, Peugeot. It can also be seen in the opening credits and the logotype of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

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- - - - - -

Joanna, Font, 1930-31 Gill Sans, Font, 1929 Perpetua, Font, 1925 Kayo, Font, 1936 Kayo, Font, 1936 Gill Sans, Font, 1929

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MILTON GLASER
New York, 1929

Irony is the most effective form of communication. Milton Glaser

1. Aa. Vv., Milton Glaser. Opere 1960-2000 , Nuages, Milan 2000. 2. Aa. Vv., The Push Pin Style , Communication Arts Magazine, Palo Alto CA 1970. 3. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 152-156, 162, 216, 218, 234. 4. Glaser, M., Art is Work , Thames & Hudson, London 2000. 5. Glaser, M., Drawing is Thinking , Overlook Press, Woodstock (NY) 2008. 6. Glaser, M., Graphic Design (1973), Penguing, London 1983. 7. Glaser, M., Ilic , M., The Design of Dissent, Rockport Publishers, Gloucester (MA) 2005. 8. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, p. 16-17, 80, 81, 88, 89, 100, 101, 140, 141, 154, 155, 172, 173. 9. Heller, S., Ilic , M., The Anathomy of Design. Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design , Rockport, Gloucester (MA) 2007, pp. 8, 22, 23, 31, 49. 10. Mayer, P., Graphic Design. Milton Glaser, Overlook, New York, 1972. 11. McAlhone, B., Stuart, D., A Smile in the Mind. Witty Thinking in Graphic Design , Phaidon, London 1996, pp. 196, 197. 12. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 394-397.

Illustrator and graphic designer, Glaser is an important point of reference in the world of American design. Known for having set up the Push Pin Studios in New York together with Seymour Chwast in 1954, he is currently director of Milton Glaser Inc., established in 1974. His artistic education begins in 1948, at the Cooper Union Art School in New York, and continues in Italy, at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna (1952-1953) under the guidance of the painter Giorgio Morandi. Characterised by an eclectic and humourous approach, Glaser draws covers for books and CDs, magazines and posters, designs packaging and supervises the organisation of exhibitions and expositions. In 1968 he founds the New York Magazine together with Clayton Felker, but also works for the magazines Paris Match, LExpress, Esquire and Village Voice of which he is both vice-president and design director (19751977). In 1974 he draws a 180-metre-tall mural for the New Federal Office Building in Indianapolis, while in 1978 he designs the corporate identity of Grand Union Company, an American supermarket chain. In 1983, together with Walter Bernard, he founds the WBMG studio. In 1987 he designs various posters for the World Health Organization. Furthermore, he creates numerous typefaces; amongst the most renowned are Glaser Stencil, Hologram Shadow, Houdini, Kitchen, Sesame Place, Aint Baroque and Baby Teeth. Glaser has always been fond of traditional drawing techniques and can be considered to be a sort of graphic craftsman. At the same time though he is an important innovator gifted with great talent as both an artist and a designer. His portfolio boasts more than three hundred posters, amongst which is his most famous 1966 Bob Dylan, drawn for Columbia Records, with six million or more distributed copies. In 1976 the Department of Commerce in New York asks him to design a logo which would promote tourism in the city. Glaser designs the famous I love N Y logo, which immediately becomes a symbol of New York: it identifies its inhabitants but mostly its tourists thanks to its application on t-shirts, key chains, shopping bags and other gadgets. The logotype consists of a letter I, a subject personal pronoun, the symbol of a heart, which visually translates into the verb love, and NY the acronym for New York. The typeface used is American Typewriter (designed by Joel Kaden and Tony Stan in 1974). In 2001, following the September 11 attacks, Glaser redesigns the same logotype but without the stems of the letter N, indicating the fall of the twin towers, and adding the text more than ever.

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- - - -

I Love New York, Logo, 1976 Bob Dylan, Poster, 1966 Temple University Music Festival, Poster, 1968 Olivetti: Valentine, Poster, 1969

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APRIL GREIMAN
New York, 1948

O is not only a letter, but also something towards which to go, a void, a tactile condition, an expression of sound. April Greiman

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 175, 190, 203-05. 2. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 252, 307, 308, 310. 3. Farrelly, L., April Greiman. Floating Ideas into Time and Space, Thames & Hudson, London 1998. 4. Fiell, C., Fiell, P., Graphic Design for the 21st Century. 100 of the Worlds Best Graphic Designers , Taschen, Cologne 2003, pp. 242-247. 5. Greiman, A., Hybrid Imagery. The Fusion of Technology and Graphic Design , Watson-Guptill, New York 1990.7. 6. Greiman, A., Janigian, A., April Greiman, rflexions creative. Essai philisophique sur le graphisme numrique , Pyramyd, Paris 2001. 7. Greiman, A., Something from Nothing , RotoVision, Hove 2011. 8. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design, Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 164, 165, 202, 203. 9. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 374, 379-381, 387, 398. 10. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Parigi 2006 (2005), pp. 374, 379-81, 387, 398. 11. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 438-441, 456-458, 468, 469. 12. Poynor, R., No More Rules. Graphic Design and Postmodernism, Laurence King, London 2003, pp. 21-24, 34, 35, 96, 97, 99, 100. 13. Russo, D., Free Graphics. La grafica fuori delle regole nellera digitale, Lupetti, Milan 2006, pp. 30-35, 122-125

An imaginative and eclectic character, Greiman is known for having brightened up the rigid rules of the Swiss school with an extremely expressive style, full of figurative references. She studies graphic design at the Kansas City Art Institute (1966-1970) and continues her graduate education at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel together with Wolfgang Weingart and Armin Hofmann (1970-1971). She is a keen experimenter since her debut. She teaches at the Philadelphia College of Art and works for Architects Collaborative in Boston and Anspach Grossman Portugal. In 1976 she designs the catalogue and some posters for the competition on eco-sustainability Taxi Project, a project coordinated by the MoMA. In 1982 she is head of the Department of Visual Communications at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia while starting to design videos and computerised textures. From 1984, thanks to the recently born Macintosh, she is able to use a computer in the graphic design process in an unexpected and amazing manner. Among her clients are Benetton, Xerox Corporation, Esprit, Wet, Optica and the Los Angeles Olympic Committee of 1984. In 1990 she publishes her monograph which she entitles Hybrid Imagery. The Fusion of Technology and Graphic Design. In 1998 she is awarded a medal from the American Institute of Graphic Arts. In 2000 she joins Pentagram. Much before anyone else, Greiman starts experimenting with digital technologies, outlining a new way of communicating. Perceiving the potentials of the Mac, she soon creates stunning and multi-faceted compositions, characterised by hybrid imagery, a mix of technology and graphic design. Significantly, her 1986 self portrait, made for the magazine Design Quarterly of the Walker Center of Minneapolis, is a file: electronically developed and printed in a low resolution on standard paper. Even though it may seem commonplace today, this project is one of the first digital collages carried out with the sole use of a Mac: a rather articulate mix of text, ideograms, bitmap images and computer textures. A spiral (one of her most recurring symbols) appears from the top left; another point of attraction on the right side of the composition is a circle with its horizontal stroke, which look like the London Underground logo; other noteworthy features are the two checkered elements at the bottom right corner, which reveal the pixel grid, and the two larger images in the lower part, taken from videos. The same mix of digital design and collage can be appreciated in the 1992 poster for SCI_ARC (Southern California Institute of Architecture).

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- - - - -

Does it make sense?, Poster, 1986 Los Angeles Olympic Games, Poster, 1984 Art Direction, Cover, July 1978 Art in Los Angeles, Poster, 1981 Vertigo, Business card, 1979

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FRANCO GRIGNANI
Pieve Porto Morone, 1908 Milano, 1999

The drawing of a logo for a designer is the most [] exciting assignment, because in that symbol he tries to pour all his graphic sensitivity. Franco Grignani

1. Aa Vv., Franco Grignani: una metodologia della visione , Comune di Milano Ripartizione Cultura, Milan 1975. 2. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 202, 212, 219-25. 3. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigotti, S., La grafica in Italia , Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 10, 11, 78, 88, 108, 109, 112, 116, 117, 121, 201. 4. Grignani, F., Mataloni, F., La mano che non disegna , Linea grafica, 1, January-February 1968, pp. 29-31. 5. Grignani, F., Mataloni, F., Licenza visiva nei nuovi caratteri tipografici, Linea grafica, 2, March-April 1972, pp. 77-79. 6. Grignani, F., Mataloni, F., Ripetitivo nel tempo e nello spazio , Linea grafica, 3, May-June 1968, pp. 161-163. 7. Grignani, F., Struttura e decorazione: una scelta della grafica, Linea grafica, 1, January-February 1973, pp. 32-34. 8. Grignani, F., Tipografia da buttare , Linea grafica, 2, March-April 1974, pp. 61, 62. 9. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 137, 144-146, 156, 198, 204. 10. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 257, 260, 311, 336, 337, 344. 11. Piazza, M. (edited by), Franco Grignani: progetti di grafica e comunicazione visiva (catalogue), AIAP, Milan 1995. 12. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Abecedario. La grafica del Novecento , Electa, Milan 2003 (2002), pp. 178-189.

A brilliant and versatile artist, Grignani attends the Milan Polytechnic in 1929 and graduates in 1933. During those years he joins the Second Futurism movement and proves to be a valid pioneer of Op art. During the second half of the Thirties he starts working as a graphic designer for Borletti, Mondadori, Montecatini and the Domp pharmaceutical company. Moreover he experiments in the fields of photography and photomontage coming nearer to the theories on the psychology of form. In 1952 he works on the renewal of the corporate identity of the firm Arti Grafiche Alfieri & Lacroix in Milan, for which he will design other 150 posters. In 1959 he is the winner of the Palma d'Oro for advertising and of the gold medal at the Milan Triennale. In 1965 he takes part in Vision 65, the first Congress on human communication, held at the Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. In 1966 he receives an award at the Warsaw Poster Biennale and one at the Venice Biennale in 1972. In 1967 he wins the Typomundus 20, awarded by the International Center for the Typographic Arts in New York to Alfieri & Lacroix. His work is displayed in the world's most famous museums like the MoMa in New York, the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam and the Victoria and Albert Museum of London. Grignanis projects are founded on continuous research and experimentation in the field of visual perception. He modifies images creating tension, twisting and combining them in order to generate new shapes and create virtual movements. Everything is strictly in black and white and organised with mathematical precision. His most important work is characterised by a great visual synthesis yet an astonishing and inimitable graphic and communicative strength: the Pura Lana Vergine logo, designed in 1963 and used by the International Wool Society in 1964. There are many stories regarding this logo; the most reliable seems to be that Grignani participated in the design competition of the said logo, under the pseudonym of Francesco Serraglio. Since he also was a member of the jury of the contest, to be fair, he did not vote for his own work, but won the first prize nevertheless. This world famous, concise and enigmatic logo seems to be based upon Max Wertheimers laws of formation of phenomenical units: it depicts a stylised ball of wool with a rather obscure shape, so much so that it has been compared to the Mobius strip or to Penrosess impossible triangle, since the woolen thread has no beginning and no end.

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Pura lana vergine, Logo, 1964 Alfieri & Lacroix, Poster, 1960 Alfieri & Lacroix, Poster, 1960 Alfieri & Lacroix, Poster, 1960 Alfieri & Lacroix, Poster, 1960

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JOHANN GUTENBERG
Magonza, 1394-99 ca. 1468

Gutenberg, the inventor of the system of printing from movable type, printed a few books by this method which stand as the highest achievement in book art. El Lisitsky

1. Baudin, F., Leffect Gutenberg , Cercle de la Libraire, Paris 1994. 2. Bechtel, Gui, Gutenberg et linvention de limprimerie: une enqute, Fayard, Paris 1992. 3. Castellacci, C., Sanvitale, P., Il tipografo mestiere darte , il Saggiatore, Milan 2004, pp. 118-157. 4. Childress, D., Johannes Gutemberg and the Printing Press, Twenty-First Century Books, Breckenridge 2008. 5. Fssel, S., Gutenberg and the impact of printing , Ashgate, Aldershot 2005. 6. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 14, 36-40, 38, 48, 398. 7. Kapr, A., Johann Gutenberg. The Man and his Invention , Scolar, Aldershot 1996. 8. Man, J., Gutenberg: How one Man Remade the World with Words, Wiley, New York 2002. 9. Man, J., The Gutenberg Revolution , Transworld, London 2010. 10. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 61-70. 11. Rees, F., Johannes Gutenberg. Inventor of the Printing Press, Compass Point Books, Minneapolis 2005. 12. Scholderer, V., Johann Gutenberg. The Inventor of Printing , The Trustees of the British Museum, London 1963.

Johann Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg goes down in history for having invented mechanical movable type printing in the fifteenth century. A 1420 document mentions him being over 18, so it is possible to assume his date of birth between 1394 to 1399. His family lives in a building named Hof zum Gutenberg, from which he derives his name. He initially works as a goldsmith. In 1430, after moving to Strasbourg, he signs a contract with Andreas Dritzehen and Andreas Heilman to teach them gem-polishing and a technique for manufacturing looking glasses. In 1438 Dritzehen dies and his brothers file a law suit to receive a refund. During the trial some witnesses reveal that Gutenberg owns a press, which he probably uses for his first experiments which eventually lead to the invention of printing. In 1488, Gutenberg returns to Mainz and asks for a huge loan to further modify and perfect his printing techniques. In 1450 he collaborates with a banker, Johann Fust and an engraver, Peter Schffer, and in 1452 he prints indulgences, commissioned by the German cardinal Nikolaus Chrypffs (Niccol Cusano). His first project and masterpiece is the 42-line Bible completed in 1455. Before the invention of movable type printing, xylography was the only way to generate multiple copies of the same text, by engraving on wood. Gutenbergs approach is rather different because by grouping movable types, the typography matrix is formed that can be used over and over again for further prints. He initially creates each character by engraving them in small wooden blocks according to the shape of Gothic-style letters. He eventually is able to obtain the same result by engraving metal. His first printed book is the famous 42-lined Bible or Mazarin Bible, based on the official Latin translation, known as Vulgata. The name refers to the 42 lines that form each page, divided into two columns; while 4.2 mm is the height of the median part. The first typeface ever (the one used in the first printed book) therefore is Textura, a Gothic type distinguished by equidistant and rather tight vertical stems, which gets its name from cloth (textum) since the text that it composes seems tightly woven. Gutenbergs Bible is still considered to be a masterpiece of typographic art, an unequalled work of art, flawless since its first copy.

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- 42 lines Bible, Page, 1455 - Miniature showing a hand press - 42 lines Bible, Page, 1455

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JOHN HEARTFIELD
Berlin, 1891 1968

Thanks to this technique, Heartfield is able to concentrate in an image concepts that would otherwise require thousands of words. Beba Marsano

1. Barnicoat, J., Posters. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1998 (1972), pp. 159, 167, 172. 2. Coles, A., John Heartfield. 1891-1968 , Ikon Gallery, Birmingham 1975. 3. Drew, J., John Heartfield 1891-1968. Photomontages , Arts Council of Great Britain, London 1969. 4. Evans, D., John Heartfield AIZ/VI 1930-38 , Kent Fine Art, New York 1992. 5. Evans, D., Photomontage. A political Weapon , Fraser, London 1986. 6. Heartfield, J., Herzfelde, W., Photomontages of the Nazi Period , Universe Book, New York 1977. 7. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 64, 65, 74, 75, 96-99, 146, 147, 162, 163, 178, 179. 8. Herzfelde, W., John Heartfield: Lehre und Werk , VEB, Dresden 1984. 9. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 51, 52, 60-62, 78, 171, 176. 10. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 8, 169, 198, 205, 206, 215, 218, 246, 248, 251, 253, 254, 412. 11. Spencer, H., Pioneers of Modern Typography , Lund Humphries, London 1982 (1969), pp. 9, 44, 50. 12. Wilett, J., Heartfield contre Hitler, Hazan, Paris 1997.

John Heartfield, the pseudonym of Helmut Herzfeld, anglicises his name as a form of protest against German nationalism. In 1907 he works in the studio of the Berlin-born painter Hermann Bouffier and attends the Knigliche Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich, where he specialises in poster design. In 1912 he works as a graphic designer in Mannheim, producing book covers. A year later he moves to Berlin to study at the Kunstgewerbeschule. In 1917 he meets Georg Gro (who anglicises his name to George Grosz), an artist who strongly opposes National Socialism and war. Influenced by this encounter, Heartfield destroys all the work done until that moment and dedicates himself to political and social issues. In the same year he supervises the publishing of the magazine of pacifist art Die Neue Jugend. In 1918 he joins the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD), taking care of party propaganda and is a key figure in Berlin Dada, together with George Grosz, Richard Huelsenbeck, Raoul Hausmann and Hannah Hch. In 1929 he works for the magazine AIZ. In 1938 the Nazis demand his extradiction and he flees to London, where he lives for twenty years. In the first years of the Sixties, various Eastern European cities organise exhibitions which display his works of art. Dadaism dates back to the early Twentieth century, a movement that rejects traditional art and its aesthetics and ideology. It is against war and against art itself, irrational and in search of new creative stimuli. Therefore Dadaists continuously experiment, they come up with new techniques and reinvent existing ones, like in the case of the collage, already used by Cubist artists. In fact, in Dada collages, instead of juxtaposing pieces of paper or other materials, the fragments are dropped on the surface in a random manner. All this has repercussions in the world of graphic design. Heartfield pioneers the method of photomontage, very innovative for the time, only seemingly random, but in reality very articulately and meticulously planned. Thanks to different visual stimuli, he is able to convey an effective, baffling, and strongly political message. For example, this is clear in his 1932 collage Adolf the Superman: swallows gold and spouts junk, where, like in an x-ray, it is possible to look into Hitler's oesophagus and see a stack of coins that rises from the bowels and a swastika in the place of his heart, symbolising the combination of Capitalism and Nazism.

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- Adolf TheSuperman: Swallows Gold and spouts Junk, Photomontage, 1932 - Voice from the swamp, Photomontage, 1936 - Millions behind me, Photomontage, 1932

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FREDERIK HENRI KAY HENRION

Nuremberg, 1914 London, 1990

By bringing industrial design to the same level of other means of expression through visual symbols, he has underlined its aesthetic value. Herbert Read

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit, 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 276, 277. 2. Anceschi, G., Monogrammi e figure , La casa Usher, Florence 1988 (1981), pp. 86, 87, 90, 152, 160, 161, 170, 17, 175, 184, 195, 196. 3. Artmonsky, R., Webb, B., FHK Henrion , Antique Collectors Club, Woodbridge 2010. 4. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 120, 121, 180, 220. 5. Bos, B., Bos, E. (edited by), Graphic Design. Since 1950 , Thames & Hudson, London 2007. 6. Henrion, F. H. K., Parkin, A., Design Coordination and Corporate Image , Studio Vista Reinhold Publishing Corporation, London New York 1967. 7. Henrion, F. H. K., Top Graphic Design , ABC, Zurich 1983 8. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 7, 8, 107, 108, 155, 163. 9. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 295, 295, 301, 392, 412. 10. Pasca, V., Russo, D., Corporate Image. Un secolo dimmagine coordinata dallAEG alla Nike , Lupetti, Milan 2005, pp. 7-9, 47, 99. 11. Salvadori, R., Henrion. Un maestro inglese dellarte grafica e del disegno industriale , Linea grafica, 5-6, May-June 1960, pp. 180-86.

Henrion hugely influences British graphic design of the postwar period. From 1933 to 1934 he studies textile design in Paris and graphic design at the cole Paul Colin. He is immediately charmed and influenced by the posters of Cassandre and by the cultural and artistic avant-garde movements, such as Surrealism. In 1937 he works for the Exposition Universelle in Paris and two years later at the New York Worlds Fair. He then moves to England, where he gets a commission to work on the project for the Smoke Abatement Exhibition. During the Second World War he designs posters and organises exhibitions for the Ministry of Information and the US Office of War Information in London. In 1951 he sets up the Henrion Design Associates studio, renamed HDA International in 1972 and he designs the Countryside and Agriculture pavilions at the Festival of Britain. In 1967 he coordinates design at the British Pavilion for the Expo in Montreal. Moreover, he plays a part in designing the corporate identities of Blue Circle Cement, the London Electricity Board, British Leyland and KLM. In 1967 he publishes Design Coordination and Corporate Image together with Alan Parkin, where he states the necessity of having a system of corporate identity meticulously articulated in a manual. One of Henrions most effective projects is the corporate identity designed for KLM (1961). It is based on the logo, a redesign of a geometric crown, with the formal cleanliness and the typographic incisiveness of the Swiss school, marking the transition from hand-drawn images to those drawn according to strict geometric proportions. The elements which form the crown are basic geometric figures, widely used by the historical avant-garde movements (Russian Constructivism, De Stijl, Bauhaus): the horizontally extended rectangle (like the bars used in Bauhaus graphic design) the cross and the circle (fundamental ingredients in the works of Malevic ). The sans-serif typeface of the KLM logotype is very thick and widened and typographically expresses the strength of the crown. Even from far, though of microscopic size and in an inverted version (white on black), the lettering KLM and the crown are always perfectly clear. In this way the logo can be recognised even in poor visual conditions, with a quick glance at a moving plane. Therefore the brand manual of KLM stresses the importance of the chromatic system of the logo white, black and blue that contributes to the formation of distinctive and unmistakable graphic features.

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- - - -

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Logo, 1961 D Day, Poster, 1943 Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Poster, 1963 Philips: Philishave, Poster, 1914

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ARMIN HOFMANN
Winterthur, 1920

He was convinced that the more elementary the exercise the more it would have stimulated and developed the students imagination. Wolfgang Weingart

1. Anceschi, G., Monogrammi e figure , La casa Usher, Florence 1988 (1981), pp. 85, 192. 2. Heller, S., Hofmann, A., Armin Hofmann , Lars Mller, Baden 2003. 3. Hofmann, A., Graphic Design Manual. Principles and Practice, Niggli, Teufen 1965 (English-DeutscheFrench). 4. Hofmann, A., Wichmann, H. (edited by), Armin Hofmann: His Work, Quest and Philosophy , Birkhuser, Basel 1989 (English-Deutsche). 5. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 134, 211. 6. Hollis, R., Swiss Graphic Design. The Origins and Growth o fan International Style. 1920-1965 , Laurence King, London 2006, pp. 162, 180, 182, 195, 213-17, 249, 252-254, 260. 7. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 9, 307, 323, 326-329, 379. 8. Livingston, A., Livingston, I., Graphic Design and Designers, Thames & Hudson, London 1992, p. 101. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 326-329, 435, 436. 10. Russo, D., Free Graphics. La grafica fuori delle regole nellera digitale, Lupetti, Milan 2006, pp. 8, 15, 108, 109. 11. Weingart, W., My Way to Typography, Lars Mller, Basel 2000 (English-Deutsche), pp. 55, 56, 59, 76, 83, 85, 93, 94, 101, 139, 201, 270, 420.

A leading figure of the Swiss style, Hofmann is deeply convinced that graphic design should be based on strict and organised rules. From 1937 to 1938 he attends the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, followed by an apprenticeship where he works mostly as a lithographer. Subsequently he works as a graphic designer at Frobenius AG and at the atelier of Fritz Bhler in Basel. In 1947 he starts teaching at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule in Basel. He then teaches at the Philadelphia College of Art, at Yale and at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, in India. Moreover, he publishes Graphic Design Manual (1965) and Work, Quest and Philosophy (1989), on the topic of teaching graphic design. In 1968, together with Emil Ruder, he starts a class on graphic design at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule; a class that soon gains international fame. His portfolio also includes various editorial and artistic projects, exhibitions, studies on colour, logos and signage systems. In 1987 he receives an honorary doctorate from the Philadelphia University of Arts. He then becomes an honorary member of the Royal Society of Arts, and in 1997 receives the City of Basel Culture Prize. In his considerations regarding the design of a poster, Hofmann states the urgency of neutralising the coarseness of the naturalistic colours spreading throughout the world of advertising. Having observed that the defect of the hyper-realistic images in the mass media is that of not being withheld in ones memory, he considers black and white photography to be more effective since it enables a more symbolic interpretation. When colour is removed, graphic elements become neutral and interchangeable, just like the characters in an alphabet. In the poster Giselle (1959), for example, the title stands out on a vertical axis, where the circular curves of the letters G, s and e are in sharp contrast with the linearity of the letters i and l. Arranging the word vertically, Hofmann highlights its abstract and purely graphic qualities. The poster therefore plays on the relation between the title, which tends to become an abstract yet clear and relevant figure, and the photograph of the ballerina, still recognisable but cropped and blurred as if she were about to fade away: a striking contrast between geometric, static and strongly emphasized typographic forms and a dynamic, light and fluctuating arrangement.

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- Giselle, Poster, 1959 - Basel Stadttheater, Poster, 1963 - The Dot, Poster, 1965

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LUDWIG HOHLWEIN
Wiesbaden, 1874 Berchtesgaden, 1949

Hohlwein was the most famous poster artist of his time, the most well-known at an international level and the most prolific. Patricia Frantz Kery

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit, 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 110, 239. 2. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 24, 25, 93. 3. Barnicoat, J., Posters. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1998 (1972), pp. 47, 106, 107, 116, 155, 223. 4. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 71, 111, 117, 160. 5. Duvigneau, V., Gtz, N., Ludwig Hohlwein 1874-1949. Kunstgewerbe und Reklamekunst , Klinkhardt & Biermann, Munich 1996. 6. Hohlwein, L., Frenzel, H. K., Schubert, W. (introduction of), Ludwig Hohlwein, Phonix Illustrationsdruck und Verlag, Berlin 1926. 7. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 8, 31, 32, 35, 52, 66, 67, 85, 92, 94. 8. Marsano, B., Manifesti , Electa, Milan 2003, pp. 18-20, 22, 40, 190, 260, 279, 281, 282. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 254, 255. 10. Rademacher, H., Master of German Poster Art (1965), October House, New York 1966. 11. Raimes, J., Bhaskaran, L., Retro Graphics Cookbook. Recreate 100 Years of Graphic Design , Ilex, Lewes 2007, pp. 34, 35. 12. Staatgalerie Stuttgart, Ludwig Hohlwein. Plakate der jahre 1906-1940, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1985.

One of the most important German poster artists, Hohlwein suffers the political and cultural repercussions of both the World Wars. While studying at the Technische Hochschule in Munich he works as an illustrator for the magazine Akademische Architektenverein. He then continues his studies travelling to various cities like Dresden, London and Paris. Once back in Munich he find a job as an architect. In 1904 he dedicates himself to graphic design and he is commissioned some illustrations for the magazine Jugend. He designs a great amount of posters for the men's clothing company Hermann Scherrer, showing some relation to the work of the Beggarstaff brothers. Nevertheless, the simplicity of his work is conveyed through the use of realistic images, which are extremely well balanced throughout the composition, with masterfully applied coloured and geometric textures and decorative patterns. During the First World War he designs propaganda posters. After 1918 takes an interest in commercial design using photography and the air brush technique. During the Thirties he draws posters for the Nazi movement, and his style undergoes various changes, becoming harsh and militaristic. Hohlweins posters feature areas of flat colouring on clean backgrounds, against which the main objects can clearly be discerned. For this reason, his works are listed among the Sachplakat posters (poster-object); nevertheless, there is a fundamental element that makes his posters differ from these, and that is the presence of a human figure promoting the product. While the flatness of the colours, the simplification, the lack of precise outlines make his work appreciable from a graphic point of view, it is the characters on the posters that contribute to making it unique: Torpedo, Gipsy, Riquetta, Jgeha and the Kleine Stubchen woman are so realistic and so human that they look like real-life drawings or inspired by a photograph. These characters take up most of the poster and form the narrative and illustrative nucleus, while the schematisation is evident in the use of geometric elements. Furthermore Hohlwein takes great care of the lettering of his compositions by using, depending on the circumstances, serif, sans-serif and Gothic typefaces, all in bold, and always meticulously planned and perfectly legible.

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Kehl tailoring, Poster, 1908 Roberin shoe polish, Poster, 1926 Peoples Charity for Prisoners of War, Poster, 1915 Herkules Bier, Poster, 1926 Herman Scherrer tailoring, Poster, 1908 Casanova Gipsy cigarette, Poster, 1926 Torpedo typewriter, Poster, 1926

2.

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MAX HUBER
Baar, 1919 Mendrisio, 1992

I was influenced by the work carried out at the Graphic Workshop in Italy in the Thirties, especially by the design of Max Huber. Neville Brody

1. Aa. Vv., Max Huber. Progetti grafici 1936-1981 , Electa, Milan 1982. 2. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 84, 85, 100, 136. 3. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 137, 139, 162, 184-186, 201, 212, 218, 271. 4. Boggeri, A., Una B rossa fra due punti. Colloquio con Antonio Boggeri, Rassegna, 6, April 1981, pp. 20, 21. 5. Bosoni, G., Campana, M., Von Moos, S., Max Huber, Phaidon, London New York 2006. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 140-143, 154, 156, 159, 206, 215. 7. Hollis, R., Swiss Graphic Design. The Origins and Growth o fan International Style. 1920-1965 , Laurence King, London 2006, pp. 22, 131, 132, 135-138, 143, 255. 8. Huber, M., et alii, Due dimensioni. Grafici, illustratori e fotografi italiani pubblicitari, Editype, Milan 1964. 9. Polano, S., Max Huber. Thinking Through Images , Affiche, 9, April 1994, pp. 46-51. 10. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Abecedario. La grafica del Novecento, Electa, Milan 2003 (2002), pp. 140-151. 11. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. La storia, i protagonisti e i temi dallOttocento ai giorni nostri , Electa, Milan 2006, pp. 71, 81, 97, 102, 103, 186.

Brought up with a Swiss education, Huber is one of the leading figures of Italian graphic design in the Fifties and the Sixties. In 1935 he attends the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. In 1936 he works for the advertising agency P. O. Althaus, through which he meets Emil Schulthess and Gerard Miedinger. In 1940 he moves to Milan, and works for Studio Boggieri, while he attends evening classes at the Accademia di Brera. In 1947 he organises an abstract and concrete art exhibition with Max Bill, thanks to which, a year later, the Movimento Arte Concreta (Concrete Art Movement) is born. In the same year he works with Albe Steiner on the new identity of Einaudi and the VIII Milan Triennale (in which he wins a gold medal for graphic design). Furthermore, being a jazz enthusiast, he designs a series of covers for specialised magazines, records and books. In 1948 he wins a prize at a contest organised by the Automobile Club of Italy and designs posters for the Autodromo di Monza, while collaborating with the Castiglioni brothers. In 1950 he draws the logotype for La Rinascente. In addition he works for various magazines like 24 ore (1948), Aut-aut (1951), Il Caff (1961), Tempo presente (1966) and Cenobio (1980). Basically a rationalist, Hubers work is characterised by extreme visual synthesis, repetition of geometric elements and by a successful combination of these which helps the conveyed message to be immediately clear without any roundabout expressions. In fact, Huber often uses primary colours while the text rarely follows the traditional rules of character alignment, especially in the case of the posters designed for the car races in the Autodromo di Monza. His particular style is perfectly expressed in one of the posters, the one for the XII Gran Premio della Lotteria di Monza, of 1970. It is made up of thick red, yellow and blue stripes arranged diagonally on a grey background, in which the information is communicated following their pattern, some in the foreground, some in the background. The grey colour suggests the asphalt track, while the stripes depict the road markings. To contribute to the compositions dynamism, the name of the city, Monza seems to have just been crossed by a moving car, and hence has the typical blurry effect which is perceived when looking at something going fast.

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12 gran premio della Lotteria di Monza, Poster, 1970 Borsalino, Poster, 1949 Borsalino, Poster, 1949-50 Grand Prix of Switzerland, Program cover study, 1938 Gran Premio dellAutodromo di Monza, Poster, 1948

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VILMOS HUSZAR
Budapest, 1884 Hierden-Harderwijk, 1960

Vilmos Huszar, who designed the De Stijl magazine, explained that he wanted neither foreground nor background to dominate. Jeremy Aynsley

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 54, 55. 2. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 91, 106, 109-111. 3. Broos, K., Helfting, P., Dutch Graphic Design , Phaidon 1993, pp. 58-61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 74-75, 85, 96, 101, 107, 119, 133. 4. Finizio, L. P., Dal Neoplasticismo allArte Concreta. 1917-37 , Laterza, Rome-Bari 1993, pp. 4, 6-9, 21, 23, 26-31, 38, 39, 47, 50, 66, 71, 76 94, 96, 116, 123, 127, 132, 158. 5. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 42, 43 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 68, 72. 7. Huszar, V., De Reclame als Beeldende Kunst , De Reclame, 8, April 1929, p. 167. 8. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 10, 189, 190, 200. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 270, 272. 10. Overy, P., De Stijl. Art, Architecture, Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2000 (1991). 11. Spencer, H., Pioneers of Modern Typography , Lund Humphries, London 1982 (1969), pp. 21, 40, 41. 12. White, M., De Stijl and Dutch Modernism, Manchester University Press, Manchester 2003, pp. 37, 38, 96-102.

As a painter and a designer, Huszar is one of the founder members of the De Stijl movement. He attends the Kunstgewerbeschule of Budapest in 1901. Before moving to Holland in 1905, he lives for short periods in Paris, Munich and London. He meets Piet Mondrian and Theo Van Doesburg together with which he starts the magazine De Stijl, taking care of the graphic design and publishing numerous articles. In 1918 he works as an interior designer together with Piet Klaarhamer, designing the interior of the home of the industrialist Bruynzeel. In 1920 he collaborates with Piet Zwart on furniture designs. In 1923 he leaves the De Stijl group, but continues collaborating with Gerrit Rietveld at the Greater Berlin Art Exhibition. He moves to the advertising industry in 1925, while pursuing his career as a painter. In 1926 he designs the corporate identity for the Virginia Miss Blanche cigarettes (packaging, adverts, sales points). A lot of his work is lost, but remains immortalised in pictures taken by the artist or on the pages of De Stijl, like the Dancing mechanical doll of 1917, similar to a puppet (reconstructed in alluminium, wood, steel and nylon by Andy Kowalski and Robert Pachowski in 1985). The Gemeentemuseum in The Hague organises a retrospective exhibition on his art in 1985. In the year 1917, the painters Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian and Vilmos Huszar, the architect Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud and the poet Anthony Kok found the De Stijl group. They consider art as a meditated combination of basic geometric shapes, starting from the square and the rectangle, arranged horizontally and vertically filled only by primary colours (red, yellow and blue) and non-colours (white, black and grey). Differing from Mondrian, Huszar uses an invisible grid of horizontal and vertical lines. In this way he obtains a sequence of rectangular surfaces, without an outline and perfectly spaced out from one another. This style can be clearly seen on the covers of the magazine De Stijl, which Huszar designs from 1917 to 1921. The first one, on the October 1917 issue, displays one of the first graphic, and typographic, experiments on motion. Its a xylography lacking a background, whose abstract pattern implies an architectural composition. The title and the image are formed by small black rectangular elements on a white background, while the text below is justified with a sans-serif font.

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- De Stijl n 1, Cover, 1917 - De Stijl composition, Painting, 1916 - Miss Blanche Virginia cigarettes, Packaging, 1926

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JOHANNES ITTEN
Sderen-Linden, 1888 Zurich, 1967

He who wishes to become a master of colour must see, feel and experience each individual colour in its endless combinations with all other colours. Johannes Itten

1. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 92, 93, 96, 177. 2. De Michelis, M., Kohlmeyer, A., (edited by), Bauhaus 1919-1933. Da Klee a Kandinsky. Da Gropius a Mies van der Rohe, Mazzotta, Milan 1996, pp. 17, 18, 46-49, 63-80. 3. Droste, M., Bauhaus Archiv, Bauhaus , Taschen, Cologne 2006 (1990). 4. Fiedler, J., Feierabend, P., (edited by), Bauhaus , Knemann, Cologne 2006 (1999). 5. Hanish, O. Z.-A., Mazdaznan. Health and Breath Culture (first six exercises) , Open Editions, London 2012. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, p, 53. 7. Hollis, R., Swiss Graphic Design. The Origins and Growth o fan International Style. 1920-1965 , Laurence King, London 2006, pp. 21, 114, 130, 149, 159, 160. 8. Itten, J., Design and Form. The Basic Course at the Bauhaus, Thames & Hudson, London 1975 (1964). 9. Itten, J., Mein Vorkurs am Bauhaus. Gestaltungs und Formenlehre, Maier, Ravesburg 1963. 10. Itten, J., The Art of Color. The Subjective Experience and Objective Rational of Color, Reinhold, New York 1961. 11. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 197, 199-201, 205, 249, 280. 12. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 278, 279. 13. Wingler, H. M., The Bauhaus. Weimar, Dessau, Berlin, Chicago (1962), MIT Press, Chicago 1969.

An esteemed colour theorist, Itten is one of the dominant figures of the Bauhaus in Weimar. He attends the Meisterhaftschule in Hofwil from 1904 to 1908. He then dedicates himself to the study of mathematical and scientific studies, while attending the Akademie der Bildenden Knste of Stuttgart from 1913. In 1916 he displays his work for the first time at the Der Sturm gallery in Berlin. In the same year he is in Vienna, where he founds a private art academy and starts studying oriental philosophy. From 1919 to 1923 he teaches at the Bauhaus, and various students from his art school decide to follow him there. He is in charge of the preliminary course on basic design and a course on the theory of forms, together with metal, mural decoration and glass painting workshops. In 1920 he becomes a follower of Mazdaznan, spreading its principles throughout the school, which he eventually leaves because of internal differences with the school director, Walter Gropius. In 1926 he teaches artistic disciplines in a new school born in Berlin, which later will be named Ittenschule. He is in charge of the Textilfachschule of Krefeld from 1932 to 1938. Subsequently he directs the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich until 1953. In the Fifties he designs and directs the Rietberg museum in Zurich. Ittens seminal work, The Art of Colour, is published in 1961 and is still considered an important text today. Ittens preliminary course at the Bauhaus is of fundamental importance in defining the school's pedagogical ideas. His teachings are diverse and involve both theory and practice, including the theory of colour, the study of materials and the reproduction of antique works of art. His theory of colour also takes into account the theory of form since Itten does not only try to demonstrate how the intrinsic nature of colours has considerable potential for expressiveness, but also how it can, when applied to geometric shapes, restore specific expressive values of sensitive and conceptual nature. In fact, in an artistic composition, the basic geometric figures (square, triangle and circle) and the primary colours (red, yellow and blue) are combined to achieve this objective, following precise rules. The colour that best suits the square which is synonymous with matter, static and closed, is red, strong and opaque at the same time and also a symbol of matter. The triangle, with its acute, aggressive angles, is the symbol of thought and yellow is the colour that best corresponds to it. The circle, characterised by constant dynamism, is the symbol of spirit and the colour that represents it best is blue.

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- Peter Foster, 2011, Reproduction of Itten's Farbkreis, Colours study, 1961 - Shapes and colours, Colours study, 1961 - Colours sphere with seven light gradations and twelve shades, Colours study, 1921 - Colour's contrast, Colours study, 1961

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EDWARD JOHNSTON
San Jos, 1872 Ditchling, 1944

His work brought tradition to the breaking point. Richard Hollis

1. Banks, C., Londons Handwriting. The Development of Edward Johnstons Underground Railway Block-Letter, London Transport Museum, London 1994. 2. Clayton, E., Edward Johnston. Lettering and Life , Ditchling Museum, Ditchling, 2007. 3. Holliday, P., Edward Johnston. Master Calligrapher, The British Library Oak Knoll Press, London New Castle 2007. 4. Howes, J., Johnstons Underground Type , Capital Transport Publishing, London, 2000. 5. Johnston, E., Decoration and its Use , Ten Speed Press, Berkeley 1991. 6. Johnston, E., Formal Penmanship and Other Papers , Lund Humphries, London 1971. 7. Johnston, E., Lessons in Formal Writing , Lund Humphries, London 1986. 8. Johnston, E., Writing and Illuminating and Lettering (1906), A&C Black, London 1986. 9. Johnston, P., Edward Johnston , Faber & Faber, London 1959. 10. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 10, 170, 171, 231-234, 238, 339. 11. Pasca, V., Russo, D., Corporate Image. Un secolo dimmagine coordinata dallAEG alla Nike , Lupetti, Milan 2005, pp. 17-20, 70. 12. Polano, S., Tassinari, P., Sussidiario. Grafica e caratteri moderni, Electa, Milan 2010, pp. 48-53.

Johnston is remembered as the reformer of 20th century typography, as well as Eric Gills mentor. He initially attends the faculty of medicine at the University of Edinburgh from which he drops out in 1898 to go to London to study some antique manuscripts kept at the British Library. In 1899 he teaches typography at the London Central School of Arts and Crafts, and from 1901 at the Royal College of Art, while carrying out wonderful calligraphic work and inscriptions on parchment. In 1906 he publishes the famous manual Writing and Illuminating and Lettering, in 1909 Manuscript and Inscription Letters, and in 1914 A Book of Sample Scripts. In 1912 he designs the typeface Hamlet-Type and a Roman typeface for mechanical composition named Imprint Antiqua. In 1915 he creates his most important typeface, the Johnston Sans, for the London tube, the true symbol of the city. He is also a member of the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, established in 1920 in Ditchling and, from 1923 to 1936, he is the president of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, founded by William Morris in 1887. In 1921, the SSI (Society of Scribes & Illuminators) was instituted in his honour, while in 1939 he is appointed CBE (Commander of the British Empire). In 1916, the London Underground takes a decision, and a quite unusual one at the time, to commission a new series of typefaces to be used for their corporate communication. One of the brief requirements is not to revolutionize the English typographic traditions completely, but rather to simplify the shape of the characters in order to express an unequivocal feeling of modernity. Therefore, Johnston develops a sans serif alphabet (both simple and modern) which can be classified as linear-humanist (therefore reminiscent of traditional proportions): the Johnston Sans. The letters are based on circles and squares (the O is a circle while the M is made by two sides of a square whose diagonals meet in the centre). They thus have basic shapes, with even thickness, yet maintaining the (classic) proportions of lower case letters of Roman epigraphs. Johnston Sans is provided with such cleanliness and precision that it has undergone very few modifications in the years. It was digitalised in 1979 by Eiichi Kono and renamed New Johnston. Johnston also redesigns the logo for the London Underground, known as the bullseye, which had previously been designed in 1907: a red circle horizontally crossed by a blue bar (which graphically expresses the concept of a tunnel being run through by the underground), containing the white writing Underground or the name of a particular station.

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- Bullseye, Logo, 1918 - Johnston sans lowercase, Font, 1916 - Writing&Illuminating&Lettering, Page, 1906

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TERRY JONES
Northampton, 1945

What I am going through now is an anti-style phase. And I think we've got some way to go with the anti-style, the anti-layout and the anti-art before it gets assimilated. Terry Jones
1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 206, 208. 2. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 300, 301. 3. Blackwell, L., 20-Century Types , Laurence King, London 2000 (1998). 4. Friedl, F., Ott, N., Stein, B., When Who How , Knemann, Cologne 1998, pp. 310, 311. 5. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 170, 171. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 91, 92. 7. Jones, T. (edited by), 2001 (minus 3) , Electa, Milan 1998. 8. Jones, T., A Manual of Graphic Techniques. Istant Design Phaidon , London 1990. 9. Jones, T., Catching the Moment , Booth-Clibborn, London 1997. 10. Jones, T., Short Cuts, People and Scenes Gospel Stories , London National Society Church House Publishing, London 1989. 11. Livingston, A., Livingston, I., Graphic Design and Designers, Thames & Hudson, London 1992, p. 108. 12. Poynor, R., No More Rules. Graphic Design and Postmodernism , Laurence King, London 2003, pp. 41, 42.

A famous art director of American and British magazines, Jones studies graphic design at the West England College of Art in Bristol together with Richard Hollis, but leaves the school when his teacher gets fired. From 1968 to 1970 he works for the magazine Good Housekeeping as an assistant of Ivan Dodd. A year later he becomes art director of Vanity Fair and from 1972 of Vogue UK, designing its covers until 1976. In 1980 he starts i-D, a magazine dedicated to the street style with a punk outlook, whose alternative fashion trends are imitated and followed. In 1984 he develops this magazine, making it into a more commercial product together with the editor of Time Out, Tony Elliot. In 1990 he publishes Instant Design: A Manual of Graphic Techniques, where he describes his job and the different techniques used in his field (manual, editing, printing, stencils, polaroids, cad, video making, television, etc). In the same year he becomes the European art director for Esprit, a famous fashion label from San Francisco. He also produces videos and advertising posters for Fiorucci and Mexx. In 1997 he publishes Catching the Moment. For the 1998 Biennale in Florence he supervises the 2001 (minus 3) installation, in a collaboration between twenty-two designers and twenty-two photographers. The first issues of i-D look more like photocopies or drafts rather than a real magazine: they are heavy, punk, typewritten with fluorescent ink and hand stapled. For this reason, the first issue hardly sells more than fifty copies. The (commercial) failure of the magazine, due to the unfashionable and rather homemade appearance, is turned around by Tony Elliot, editor of Time Out. Thanks to him, the magazine develops a whole new, and much more attractive look. However, Jones never stops experimenting with polaroids, manipulating, distorting and mixing texts, through what he defines instant design, unique, intriguing, brilliant solutions, only apparently untidy and random. Also for this reason i-D is a good vehicle for many artists, journalists, stylists, photographers and designers who appreciate the punk and low-budget aspect of the magazine. Even though the subject of i-D mainly revolves around the fashion industry, fashion is a game is the mood that spills out of Jones amazing and irreverent front covers. And by playfully rotating the magazines logotype by 90 degrees, a winking smiley face will appear.

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- - - - -

i-D n1, Cover, 1980 i-D n174, Cover, 1998 i-D n28, Cover, 1985 i-D n54, Cover, 1987/1988 i-D n40, Cover, 1986

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EDWARD McKNIGHT KAUFFER

Great Falls, 1890 New York, 1954

Kauffer has developed his work in a world of his own: not of art, nor of industry and not even of graphic design. Richard Hollis

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 41, 46-49, 97, 118, 130. 2. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 124, 198, 199. 3. Bennett, A., Elsie and the Child. Drawings by E. McKnight Kauffer , Cassell, London 1929. 4. Haworth-Booth, M., E. McKnight Kauffer. A Designer and his Public (1979) , V&A Publications, London 2005. 5. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 66, 67, 92, 93. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 92-94. 7. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 232, 233, 238, 265, 275, 296. 8. Kauffer, E. McKnight (edited by), The Art of the Poster. Its Origin , Evolution and Purpose, Palmer, London 1924. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 255-257, 308, 309. 10. Miller, D. C. (edited by), Americans, 1942. 18 Artists from 9 States (catalogue), Museum of Modern Art, New York 1942. 11. Polano, S., Tassinari, P., Sussidiario. Grafica e caratteri moderni, Electa, Milan 2010, pp. 48-53. 12. Webb, B., Skipwith, P., Edward McKnight Kauffer Design , Antique Collectors Club, New York 2007.

Kauffer is certainly one of the most important British graphic designers of the Twenties and Thirties. He moves to San Francisco in 1910 and studies art at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute. In the meantime he works at a library to pay for his studies, until his professor Joseph McKnight of the University of Utah notices his work and decides to sponsor him, allowing him to attend the Art Institute of Chicago for six months and in 1913 the Acadmie Moderne in Paris. He therefore starts to use the surname McKnight as his own, in honour of his benefactor. After the break out of the First World War, Kauffer moves to London, where he meets Frank Pick, Publicity Manager for the London Underground, who immediately commissions him four posters. London Underground and London Transport become his main commissioners, but he also starts working for other major clients. Drawing influence from various avant-garde movements like Cubism, Constructivism, Futurism and especially Vorticism, he designs over a hundred posters for London Transport. In 1940 he moves to New York and from 1947 he works for American Airlines, for which he designs posters for the rest of his days. Among his noteworthy publications is The Art of the Poster (1924). Flight is without a doubt Kauffers most interesting poster. It is a 1916 xylography which depicts a flock of birds, then replicated in different versions. In 1917, to the original version, Kauffer adds an outline and gives the wings a geometrical shape to convey a greater impression of flight and speed, both recurring themes throughout avant-garde art. In fact, the poster resembles El Lisitzkys famous 1920 poster Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge. The magazine Colour publishes it for the first time in 1919, while the famous English editor Francis Meynel decides to use it to promote the newspaper of the Labour Party, The Daily Herald, after the First World War, since the birds flight seems to evoke a new feeling of hope for the future. In 1923, Kauffer loses his Vorticist inspiration and develops a more colourful and modern style of his own, defined as Jazz Style. In 1927 he works for Crawford, a well-known advertising agency, where his style shifts again, moving closer to modern photomontage, straight compositions rather than oblique ones, typefaces that rely on positive-negative contrasts and the use of airbrushes to achieve an aerodynamic effect, typical of the artworks he develops during the Thirties.

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- - - - -

Flight, Poster, 1917 The London Group, Poster, 1919 Metropolis, Poster, 1926 Britain at War, Cover, 1941 Museum of Natural History, Poster, 1923

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ZUZANA LICKO
Bratislava, 1961

It is not a problem of being a woman in a mans world; its being a type designer in a world that gives little recognition to this art form. Zuzana Licko

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 203, 216, 217. 2. Blackwell, L., 20-Century Types , Laurence King, London 2000 (1998). 3. Castellacci, C., Sanvitale, P., Il tipografo mestiere darte , il Saggiatore, Milan 2004, pp. 41-49. 4. Heller, S., Cult of the Ugly , Eye, 9, September 1993, p. 52. 5. Heller, S., Merz to Emigre and Beyond: Avant-Garde Magazine Design of the Twentieth Century , Phaidon, London 2003, p. 213. 6. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 374, 381, 398-400, 403. 7. Poynor, R., No More Rules. Graphic Design and Postmodernism , Laurence King, London 2003, pp. 96, 97, 108, 148, 145. 8. Russo, D., Free Graphics. La grafica fuori delle regole nellera digitale, Lupetti, Milan 2006, pp. 24-29, 119-121. 9. Vanderlans, R., Licko, Z., Gray, M. E., Emigre (The Book) . Graphic Design into Digital Realm, Wiley, New York 1993. 10. Vanderlans, R., Licko, Z., The New Primitives , I.D., 2, March-April 1988, pp. 58-61.

Licko moves to the USA in 1968, and initially studies architecture, photography and computer programming but eventually graduates in Graphic Communications in 1984 at the University of Berkeley. In the same year, together with her husband Rudy VanderLans, she founds the legendary Emigre journal, a landmark for the new era of digital graphic design. The first issue, however, is still a pre-digital product and, for economic reasons, images are hand cut and rearranged like a collage, while texts are typewritten and later modified with photocopying machines. From the second issue, thanks to the help of the newborn Mac (launched in 1984), Licko and VanderLans can start some bold and fruitful digital typography experimentation. Licko designs some important typefaces for the titles of the articles (still in low resolution), like Emperor, Emigre and Oakland. Some years later Lickos typefaces are already rather relevant at an international level, to the point that the couple decide to set up a digital type foundry: Emigre Fonts (1987). The project develops hand in hand with the magazine following a strategy which proves to be a success: throughout the magazine the amazing digital graphic experiments carried out are presented with Emigre Fonts typefaces. During the Eighties and Nineties, the catalogue of Emigre Fonts displays truly unique typefaces: initially based upon the pixel grid, then more and more informal. Totally Gothic (1991), for example, is a contemporary interpretation of a Gothic typeface, also known as blackletter due to its poor legibility. According to Licko, however, this is because serifs and sans serifs, unlike Gothic types, have been manufactured and widely used for centuries. Typefaces are not intrinsically legible says Licko Rather, it is the readers familiarity with faces that accounts for their legibility. In other words, readers read best what they read most, since readability is a dynamic process that varies according to the reader's habits. After all, the Gothic typefaces, which we now consider illegible, used to be preferred over humanist designs from the XI to the XV century. Who can tell whether they may one day become the most popular typefaces again? With this type of arguments, Licko creates a totally gothic typeface, combining the first typeface ever (the one used by Gutenberg) with the highest peak of digital typography experimentation.

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- Totally Gothic, Font, 1991 - Mrs Eaves, Font, 1996 - Fonts by Zuzana Licko

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EL LISSITZKY
Poinok, 1890 Mosca, 1941

Concepts should be expressed with the greatest economy. El Lissitszky

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 10, 54, 56, 57, 64, 71, 74, 90, 112, 122. 2. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History, Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 20, 47, 48, 51, 56, 62, 64, 69, 71, 156, 194. 3. Hollis, R., Swiss Graphic Design. The Origins and Growth o fan International Style . 1920-1965, Laurence King, London 2006, pp. 25-27, 30, 36-38, 40-43, 54, 56-58, 60, 68, 73-75, 144, 155, 244. 4. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 8, 181-185, 187, 191, 195-198, 205-208, 217, 231, 249, 261, 275, 277, 323. 5. Lissitzky-Kppers, S., El Lisitskij. Life. Letters. Text , Thames & Hudson, London 1968 (1967). 6. Lissitzky, E., Russia. An Architecture for the World Revolution , Lund Humphries, London 1970. 7. Lissitzky, E., The Isms of Art , Lars Mller, Baden 1990 (English-German-French). 8. Margolin, V., The Struggle for Utopia. Rodchenko, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy 1917-1946 , University of Chicago Press, Chicago London 1997. 9. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Abecedario. La grafica del Novecento , Electa, Milan 2003 (2002), pp. 62-71. 10. Russo, D., From Da-Da to Bit-Bit, in Igor Dukhan (edited by), Avant-Garde and Cultures: Art, Design, Cultural Environment , UNESCO Office for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation, Minsk 2007, pp. 128-132. 11. Spencer, H., Pioneers of Modern Typography, Lund Humphries, London 1982 (1969), pp. 9, 17, 27, 33, 45, 60, 58-85. 12. Tupitsyn, M., El Lissitzky. Beyond the Abstract Cabinet. Photography, Design, Collaboration , Yale University Press, New Haven London 1999.

A versatile and resourceful artist, El Lissitzky is one of the leading figures of Russian Constructivism. From 1909 to 1914 he studies architecture at the Technische Hochschule in Darmstadt. In the same year he goes back to Russia and in 1916 he graduates with a diploma in Engineering and Architecture at the Polytechnic Institute in Riga. In 1919, upon receiving an invitation from Marc Chagall, he teaches architecture and graphic design at the Art Institute of Vitebsk, together with Kazimir Malevic , and designs the first of a series of paintings named Proun (an acronym for design for the confirmation of the new); he also becomes a member of the Unovis group Exponents of the new art, started by Malevic . A year later he joins the Inkhuk (Institute of Artistic Culture) in Moscow and he designs the book About two squares. From 1921 to 1930 he teaches at the Vkhutemas (Higher Art and Technical Studios) later renamed Vkhutein (Higher Art and Technical Institute). In 1922 he designs the Erste russische Kunstausstellung, a Constructivist exhibition held in Berlin at the Galerie van Diemen, while collaborating with the magazine Veshch/ Gegenstand/Object. In 1923 he organises an exhibition of his works at the Kestner-Gesellschaft art gallery. In 1924 he works with Kurt Schwitters for the magazine Merz and with Hans Arp for the book Die Kunstismen. The main objective of El Lissitzkys works of art, which he names Prouns, is that of creating new objects, geometrically pure, using just a limited range of colours. Strongly influenced by Cubism, Futurism and Suprematism, he conceives his true masterpiece in 1920: the poster Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, a clear political message. Two basic geometric shapes a triangle and a circle replace strong political symbols: the red wedge of the Revolution, or rather the Red Army, and the white circle of the Tsarist forces, notoriously anti-revolutionary. The red wedge shatters the white circle, losing splinters in the surrounding space. The background surfaces also have symbolic colours; the white portion where the aggressive red triangle is coming from represents good, while the black portion surrounding the white circle, on the other hand, represents evil. Everything looks randomly placed, but actually is carefully studied according to a strict visual and conceptual logic, making the message more powerful and more accessible to the masses of illiterate farmers.

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- - - -

Beat the whites with the red wedge, Poster, 1919 Die vier Grundrechnungsarten, Poster, 1928 El Lissitzkij and Hans Arp, The Isms of Art, Cover, 1925 Prounen, Poster, 1923

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RAYMOND LOEWY
Paris, 1893 Munich, 1986

Ugly things sell badly. Raymond Loewy

1. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 133, 154, 211, 281. 2. Bayley, S., The Lucky Strike Packet by Raymond Loewy , Form, Frankfurt am Main 1998. 3. Brdek, B. E., Design. History, Theory and Practice of Product Design , Birkhuser, Basel Boston Berlin 2005 (1991). 4. Dormer, P., Design since 1945 , Thames & Hudson, London 2000 (1993), pp. 12, 14, 24, 28, 36, 60, 173, 180. 5. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design, Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 60, 61. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 97, 99, 100, 129, 153. 7. Kras, R., Lucky Strike Cigarette Pack. Raymond Loewy , in Aa. Vv., Icons of Design. The 20th Century, Prestel, Munich London New York 2000, pp. 84, 85. 8. Loewy, R., Industrial Design , Overlook Press, New York 2007 (1979). 9. Loewy, R., Never Leave Well Enough Alone , Simon & Schuster, New York, 1951. 10. Pasca, V., Russo, D., Corporate Image. Un secolo dimmagine coordinata dallAEG alla Nike , Lupetti, Milan 2005, pp. 31-33, 84, 85. 11. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. Segni, simboli e segnali, Electa, Milan 2005, pp. 60, 70, 71, 183. 12. Shoenberger, A. (edited by), Raymond Loewy. Pioneer of Industrial Design (catalogue), Prestel, Munich, 1990.

Brilliant and problem-solving, Loewy revolutionises the world of design, working for more than 200 companies. He creates products of every kind, from office and household items to means of transport like cars and trains. After having studied engineering at the Universit de Paris and the cole de Laneau (1910-1914, 1918), he moves to New York in 1919 where he works as a window-display designer for Saks and Macys, while working as a fashion illustrator for Vogue, Harpers Bazaar and Vanity Fair. In 1929 he receives his first commission as an industrial designer from Sigmund Gestetner, redesigning the casing of his duplicating machine, making its shape more appealing. From then on, Loewy embraces a concept which is destined to radically change American culture, the restyling of objects, a belief according to which an object is sold better if it looks better. Following these guidelines, his most famous projects include the redesigning of the Lucky Strike packaging and the Coca Cola bottle, the GG1 and S1 locomotives, the Studebaker cars, the stamp in memory John F. Kennedy, the interior of Saturn I, Saturn V and Skylab, the Greyhound logo and bus, the Shell and Exxon logos and Frigidaire refrigerators and freezers. The acronym MAYA (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable) summarises Loewys philosophy as a designer and is a synonym of the commercial success of his work. In the field of visual design, or more specifically of packaging, a very well-known case is the Lucky Strike cigarette packet: an extremely effective restyling. This brilliant operation is able to fulfil the two fundamental needs of the time, both consequences of the 1929 economic crisis (of overproduction): to cut production costs and stimulate sales. More precisely, while the existing packet showed on the front the classic red target logo on a greenish background, printed with a badly smelling ink, and technical information on the back, the new pack displays the red target on both faces (more visibility and appeal), which stands out against a shiny white background (less expensive than the greenish one); the technical information, considered less interesting, is printed on the side. Hence Loewy is able to improve the look of the product, without increasing production costs (on the contrary, reducing them), through a double exposure of the Lucky Strike red target, working under the firm belief that whichever is more beautiful will sell better.

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Lucky Strike, Packaging, 1940 Lucky Strike, Adv, 1949 Exxon, Logo, 1966 Shell, Logo, 1971 Dispenser Coca-cola, Product, 1947

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HERB LUBALIN
New York, 1918 1981

Sometimes you have to compromise legibility to achieve impact. Herb Lubalin

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 7, 156, 157, 162, 168, 194, 195, 216. 2. Baroni, D., Il manuale del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 1999, pp. 44, 45, 47, 49, 58, 60-63, 76, 239. 3. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 170, 172, 173, 227, 231, 232, 242, 423. 4. Blackwell, L., 20-Century Types , Laurence King, London 2000 (1998). 5. Cato, K., Mother & Child by Herb Lubalin , in Aa. Vv., Area, Phaidon, London 2005, p. 411. 6. Heller, S., Herb Lubalin Type Basher, U&lc, 25, summer 1998, pp. 8-11. 7. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 18, 19, 180, 181, 194, 195. 8. Heller, S., Ilic , M., The Anathomy of Design. Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design, Rockport , Gloucester (MA) 2007, pp. 22, 29. 9. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 8, 123, 124, 126, 188, 210, 211. 10. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 296, 310, 311, 314, 315, 320, 353, 354. 11. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 355-361, 447. 12. Snyder, G., Peckolick, A., Herb Lubalin. Art Director, Graphic Designer and Typographer, American Showcase, New York 1985.

Considered a master of Expressionist typography, Lubalin considerably influences American graphic design. He graduates in 1939 at the Cooper Union School in New York. In 1945 he works as an art director for Sudler&Hennessy, becoming its vice president in 1955. In 1964 he leaves the agency to set up his own studio, the Herb Lubalin Inc. He deals with systems of corporate identity, advertising, packaging and various publications. Over the years, the studio name varies according to the designer Lubalin is collaborating with: in 1969 it become LSC Inc., as it counts Ernie Smith, Tom Carnase, Roger Ferriter, Tony Di Spigna and Seymour Chwast among its graphic designers, while from 1975, Alan Peckolick joins the ranks, and it becomes LSC&P Design. In 1962 Lubalin becomes the art director of The Saturday Evening Post and Eros, in 1967 of Fact and in 1968 of AvantGarde. In 1970 he founds ITC (International Typeface Corporation) with Aaron Burns and Edward Rondthaler, while working as an art director for U&lc (short for Upper and lower case), a promotional journal published by ITC and one of the most important periodicals about typography. From 1972 he teaches at Cornell University in Ithaca, and from 1976 to 1981 at Cooper Union. Furthermore he wins numerous awards and recognitions, like a gold medal at the New York Art Directors Club in 1952. In the Seventies, American graphic design is characterised by an eclectic approach, a result of the combination of the strict rules of the Swiss School, with its typographic grids and sans serif typefaces, and the American trend of using images arranged freely, with no restraints. Lubalin devotes himself to experimentation with words and images, which mutually influence each other, becoming single elements. As a very skillful type designer, he develops iconic, and highly effective alphabets, which lead to astonishing alphabet images. For example, for AvantGarde he designs a great amount of graphic and typographic compositions that shake and drastically change the look of the more widespread trends. The logotype of the magazine makes the masthead so appealing and admired that Tom Carnase urges him to develop a complete alphabet in 1970. Lubalin therefore creates two versions, one suitable for titles, the other for text, with letters that are conceived for being overlapped and interlocked, yet maintaining a clear legibility.

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Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase, AvantGarde, Font, 1970 95 plus, Packaging, 1980 Marriage, Logo, 1965 Mother&Child, Logo, 1965 Families, Logo, 1980 Post, Cover, 1961 Typeface Competition, Poster, 1966

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ALVIN LUSTIG
Denver, 1915 New York, 1955

His approach uses abstract forms and symbols to capture the essence of the product. Alan Livingston

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 134, 144. 2. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 171-173. 3. Drew, N., Purity of Aim. The Book Jacket Designs of Alvin Lustig , RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press, Rochester (New York) 2010. 4. Foraboschi, O., Alvin Lustig , Linea grafica, 11-12, November-December 1954, pp. 319-325. 5. Heller, S., Born Modern. The Life and Work of Alvin Lustig , Chronicle Books, San Francisco 2010. 6. Heller, S., Lustig Cohen, E., Born Modern. The Life and Design of Alvin Lustig , Chronicle Book, San Francisco 2010. 7. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 101, 102, 118, 120, 127. 8. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), p. 315. 9. Lupton, E., Lustig Cohen, E., Letters from the Avant Garde. Modern Graphic Design , Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1996, pp. 88-91. 10. Lustig, A., Bookjackets for New Directions Books , The Gotham Book Mart Press, New York 1947. 11. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 338, 339, 344. 12. Melson, H. R. (edited by), The Collectd Writing of Alvin Lustig , Yale, New Haven 1958.

A skillful graphic designer, Lustig passes away prematurely, leaving a permanent mark nevertheless. He studies at Los Angeles Community College, followed by a year at the citys Art Center School from 1934. Moreover, he is involved with architecture and interior design with the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin. In 1936 he opens his first studio, which will be followed by numerous others. He works in both New York and Los Angeles at the same time: in 1944 he is in New York, where he works for the magazine Look from 1945 to 1946 after which he moves to Los Angeles to continue working as an architect and interior designer. From 1941 to 1952 he draws book covers for New Directions, and from 1951 to 1955 for Noonday Press, while he takes care of several editorial projects for the magazines Arts and Architecture, Art Digest and Industrial Design. In 1950 he founds the Department of Design at Yale, together with Josef Albers, and designs the signage for the Northland Shopping Center in Detroit with Victor Gruen. In 1951 he returns to New York where, the following year, he designs the opening sequence for the famous animated cartoon Mr. Magoo. Some of his most important clients include Girl Scouts of America in 1953 and American Crayon Company in 1954. The MoMA organises an exhibition of his work in 1953. Lustigs style goes through different phases, all characterised by intense experimentation. The first one coincides with his initial planning approach, influenced by historic avante-garde movements like Russian Constuctivism, and includes the use of old typographic techniques like metal type. During the second phase he is drawn towards the evolution of technology testing new photographic techniques. In the third phase, at the end of his career, he likes altering typography, giving it playful settings and lively colours. Among his works are numerous magazine and book covers, like the ones designed for Fortune or Francis Scott Fitzgerald's and Franz Kafkas bestsellers, all very effective and intriguing. For example, the cover of the 1952 Fortune issue on the language of advertising, results in an artfully arranged collage: set on a red and orange background, some silhouettes depict different radio and television broadcasting structures, like shortwave antennas or the more common television antennas; the shapes of the silhouettes are filled in black and white, made up of newspaper cutouts with advertising slogans and messages.

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- - - - - -

New Directions Publishing, Cover, 1941-52 New Directions Publishing, Cover, 1941-52 New Directions Publishing, Cover, 1941-52 New Directions Publishing, Cover, 1941-52 Fortune, Cover, December 1946 Fortune, Cover, September 1952

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JOHN MAEDA
Seattle, 1967

I chose the only possible solution: to concentrate on art, design and mathematical formation. John Maeda

1. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 387, 397, 400, 401. 2. Maeda, J., 12 oclocks , MIT Press, Cambridge (MA) 1997. 3. Maeda, J., Creative Code. Aesthetics + Computation , Thames & Hudson, London 2004. 4. Maeda, J., Design by Numbers , MIT Press, Cambridge (MA) 1999. 5. Maeda, J., Flying Letters, MIT Press, Cambridge (MA) 1996. 6. Maeda, J., Maeda@media, Thames & Hudson, London 2000. 7. Maeda, J., Reactive Square , MIT Press, Cambridge (MA) 1995. 8. Maeda, J., Tap, Type, Write , MIT Press, Cambridge (MA) 1998. 9. Maeda, J., The Laws of Simplicity , MIT Press, Massachusset (MA) 2006. 10. Polano, S., Tassinari, P., Sussidiario. Grafica e caratteri moderni, Electa, Milan 2010, pp. 146-149. 11. Russo, D., Free Graphics. La grafica fuori delle regole nellera digitale, Lupetti, Milan 2006, pp. 70-78, 152-156. 12. Russo, D., Grafica multimodale , in Aa. Vv., Gli spazi e le arti, Enciclopedia del XXI Secolo, vol. IV, Treccani Terzo Millennio, Turin 2010, pp. 579-587.

A skillful software engineer, Maeda enters the era of digital technology revolutionising graphic design. He studies Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), making the most of the new-born Macintosh (launched in 1984). In 1990 he moves to Japan and obtains a PhD in graphic design at the University of Tsukuba Institute of Art and Design. In 1996 he teaches art at the MIT, while leading the MIT Media Lab. In the same year he becomes Sony Career Development Professor of Media Arts and Sciences. In the meantime, inspired by the work of Paul Rand, he starts his own graphic design studio with his wife Kris. In the Nineties, he supervises various interactive publications, like the Reactive Books (1994), that can be considered a thrilling mix of digital design and printed graphic design. Among his clients are Sony, Shiseido and Absolut Vodka. Furthermore, he receives prestigious awards, like the National Design Award for Communication Design in 2001 and the Mainichi Design Prize in 2002. His most well-known publications are the books Design by Numbers (1999), Maeda@Media (2000) and The Laws of Simplicity (2006). Thanks to his contribution to digital graphic design, Maeda is named one of the most influential people in the XXI century by the Esquire magazine. His great success comes from his ability to mix computer science and graphic design giving astonishing results. From his point of view, the computer is not just a digital terminal, but rather an unexplored expressive medium which, if used with intelligence, can amplify the user's creativity. Maedas work, even though computer-oriented, can even be appreciated through direct human interaction. For example, the Reactive Books series, is very exciting; digital innovations mix with the traditional paper medium. The first one, called The Reactive Square, shows 10 squares that perform on the screen responding to vocal inputs. Another one introduces Flying Letters, maneuvered with the mouse, just like rowdy typographic marionettes. In this way, a connection is set with the reader, who moves the reactive letters as if he were tracing out the handwritten ones. Nevertheless, even though the traditionally printed letters maintain a fixed shape on paper, the flying letters glide around the screen creating an infinite series of variations, according to the users touch, which affects them directly.

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Reactive squares, Reactive book, 1994 Flying Letters, Reactive book, 1996 Shiseido, Poster project, 1995 Shiseido, Poster, 1995

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STPHANE MALLARM
Paris, 1842 Valvins, 1898

The blanks, in effect, assume importance and are what is immediately most striking; versification always demanded them as a surrounding silence. Stphane Mallarm

1. Arnar, A. S., The Book as Instrument. Stphane Mallarm, the Artists Book, and the Transformation of Print Culture, University of Chicago Press, Chicago London 2011. 2. Bartram, A., Futurist Typography and the Liberated Text , The British Library, London 2005, pp. 8-11, 158. 3. Belloli, C., La componente visuale-tipografica nella poesia davanguardia, Pagina, 3, October 1963, pp. 5-47. 4. Fraenkel, E., Les dessins trans-conscientes de Stphane Mallarm. A propos de la typographie de Un Coup de Ds, Librairie Nizet, Paris 1960. 5. Greer Cohn, E., Luvre de Mallarm, Les Lettres, Paris 1951. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 37, 89. 7. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 8, 134, 135, 137, 346, 398. 8. Mallarm, S., Lart pour tous , Wells College Press, Aurora (NY) 1942. 9. Mallarm, S., Un coup de ds jamais nabolir le hasard (1897), Gallimard, Paris 1993 (1914). 10. Maranda, M., Un coup de ds jamais nabolira le hasard . Livre, Art Metropole, Toronto 2008. 11. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 236, 237. 12. Scherer, J., Le livre de Mallarm , Gallimard, Paris 1975.

A leading figure of French symbolist poetry, Mallarm confers an unusual figurative element to this art. From 1852 he attends a boarding school with such poor results he drops out in 1855. He starts attending the high school of Sens, where he writes his first collection of poems Entre quatre murs (18591860), drawing influence from Victor Hugo, Thodore de Banville and Thophile Gautier. In the meantime he reads Le fleurs du mal (1857) by Charles Baudelaire, which radically changes his idea of poetry. In 1860 he studies in Auteuil and receives his baccalaureate degree. In 1862 he publishes a few poems in various magazines. He eventually moves to London, becoming an English teacher. In 1863 he teaches in a high school in Tournon, in 1866 in Besanon and a year later in Avignon. In 1869 he writes the novel Igitur, never published because incomplete. In 1870 he moves to Paris where he makes friends with Arthur Rimbaud and mile Zola. In 1874 he writes on six issues of the monthly magazine La dernire mode. In 1876 he publishes Laprs-midi dun faune (The afternoon of a faun), with illustrations by douard Manet. In 1883 he is numbered among Les Potes Maudits (Accursed Poets) by Paul Verlaine. In 1897 he writes the well-known experimental poem his masterpiece Un coup de ds jamais nabolira le hasard (A throw of the dice will never abolish chance). Mallarms work is very complex. To understand its relevance, it is important to highlight how much the poem Un coup de ds jamais nabolira le hasard, stirred up the critics and inspired avant-garde movements: the Futurists revolutionise the rules of syntax, the hermetics shorten their poems keeping only the essential, the visual poets transform words into images. This poem first appears in 1897, in the magazine Cosmopolis, in a slightly different version from the original due to editorial needs. The text says: In this work, of a completely new kind, the poet has endeavoured to make music with words. This attempt can be disapproved, but no one will deny the unique artistic effort of the author nor will find it uninteresting. Without a doubt, it is a confusing and anomalous piece of writing. The page is made up of lines lacking punctuation, which do not conform to traditional meter or rhyme schemes, and are for this reason named free verse (vers livre). In fact, the text is arranged randomly throughout the page and uses different devices. Above all, the typefaces have different sizes, suggesting a variety of voice tones, and are spaced out in such a way that the white areas between the words suggest silence, highlighting a phonetic pause, rather than only a visual one.

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- Un coup de ds jamais nabolira le hasard, Pages, 1897

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FILIPPO TOMMASO MARINETTI

Alexandria, Egypt 1876 Bellagio, 1944

With this typographic revolution and this multicoloured variety in the letters, I mean to redouble the expressive force of words. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

Best known as the founding father of Futurism, Marinetti carries out a typographic revolution against the traditional passist poetry. He starts growing fond of literature in boarding school and, together with some school mates, founds his first magazine called Papyrus in 1893. However he is expelled by the Jesuits for bringing the scandalous novels of mile Zola to school. He completes his baccalaureate in Paris in 1893. He eventually moves to Pavia, where he attends the law faculty, but graduates in Genoa in 1899. However, his literary vocation is too strong, to the point that he decides to abandon law and to devote himself completely to literature. Therefore in 1905, he founds the journal Poesia (a showcase for Futurism), which he directs and finances until 1909, the year the Futurist Manifesto is published. It is printed on the first page of Le Figaro (20th February), immediately gaining fame throughout Europe. A staunch supporter of Fascism, he takes part in the Italo-Turkish war and the war in Ethiopia and follows the expedition of the Italian 8th Army in Russia. The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature (1912) contains the fundamental principals of the movement, which give birth to effective, original, powerful poetics. The common rules of syntax are subverted in favour of the coupling of simple nouns in series of analogies, the abolition of adjectives, adverbs and punctuation, the use of verbs in the infinitive form, of onomatopoeia and of a great variety of typefaces, which differ in size, direction, weight and colour. The key concept is Words-in-Freedom, a total freedom of composition. The goal of the multi-coloured variety of letters is, as Marinetti states, to enhance the expressive strength of each word, which also become sounds and images, in an amazing multimodal composition. An example for all is the cover Zang Tumb Tumb (1914), which describes the Battle of Adrianople, obeying all the graphic and poetic rules of Futurism, hence giving more importance to the auditive and visual aspects of the battle. In this way, the (typo)graphic representation of the battle, which bursts over the page in a synoptic dimension, involves all the readers senses simultaneously.

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit, 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 180-182, 184, 185, 189, 190, 195, 196, 198. 2. Anceschi, G., Il campo della grafica italiana: storia e problemi, in Rassegna, n. 6, April 1981, pp. 5-19. 3. Bartram, A., Futurist Typography and the Liberated Text , The British Library, London 2005, pp. 7-9, 20-22, 24-32, 49, 70, 117, 118, 132, 136, 137, 142, 143, 147, 156, 158. 4. Belloli, C., La componente visuale-tipografica nella poesia davanguardia, Pagina, 3, October 1963, pp. 5-47. 5. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigotti, S., La grafica in Italia , Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 8, 36, 40, 41, 43-47, 58, 82, 98, 99, 147, 201. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 38, 39, 41-43, 89. 7. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 8, 156, 158-160, 164, 167, 168, 239, 256, 259. 8. Birolli, V., Manifesti del Futurismo , Abscondita, Milan 2008, pp. 11-26, 38-40, 58-64, 63-79, 90-96, 165-170, 131-137. 9. Marinetti, T. F., Zang Tumb Tumb Adrianopoli October 1912, Edizioni futuriste di Poesia, Milan 1914. 10. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 233-235, 238. 11. Russo, D., From Da-Da to Bit-Bit , in Igor Dukhan (edited by), Avant-Garde and Cultures: Art, Design, Cultural Environment , UNESCO Office for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation, Minsk 2007, pp. 128-132. 12. Spencer, H., Pioneers of Modern Typography , Lund Humphries, London 1982 (1969), pp. 15, 17, 22, 25, 60.

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Zang Tumb Tumb, Cover, 1914 Les mots en libert futuristes, Cover, 1919 Montagne+Vallate+Strade x Joffre, 1915 Guido Guidi, Board, 1916 Sintesi futurista della guerra, 1914

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HERBERT MATTER
Engelberg, 1907 Southampton, 1984

With the technique of photomontage, the juxtaposition of different negatives and the out-of-scale, he obtains surprising visual solutions. Daniele Baroni, Maurizio Vitta
1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 41, 96, 102, 103. 2. Barnicoat, J., Posters. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1998 (1972), pp. 91, 168-172. 3. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 140, 142, 143. 4. Binder, W., Bttig, A., Herbert Matter Foto-Grafiker. Sehformen der Zeit , Lars Mller, Baden 1999. 5. Head, J., Herbert Matter: Modernist Photography and Graphic Design (catalogue), S. University Libraries, Palo Alto (CA) 2005. 6. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 78, 79, 116, 117, 164, 165. 7. Heller, S., Ilic , M., The Anathomy of Design. Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design , Rockport, Gloucester (MA) 2007, pp. 16, 26. 8. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 22, 78, 79, 81, 100, 101, 108, 118, 120, 188. 9. Hollis, R., Swiss Graphic Design. The Origins and Growth o fan International Style . 1920-1965, Laurence King, London 2006, pp. 58, 67, 87, 74, 75, 78, 86-89, 90, 91, 96, 97, 99, 119, 136, 224, 252. 10. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 9, 246, 265, 272, 274, 275, 277, 278, 280, 281, 298, 301, 314, 315, 323. 11. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design, Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 298, 299, 307, 309, 312, 313, 323, 367, 368. 12. Raimes, J., Bhaskaran, L., Retro Graphics Cookbook. Recreate 100 Years of Graphic Design , Ilex, Lewes 2007, pp. 88, 89.

A master of the technique of photomontage in advertising and tourism posters, Matter studies painting at the cole des Beaux-Arts in Geneva from 1925 to 1927. In 1928, for one year, he continues his studies at the Acadmie de lArt Moderne, under the guidance of Fernand Lger and Amd Ozenfant. From 1929 to 1932 he moves to Paris, where he works as graphic designer and freelance photographer. In addition, he works for the foundry Deberny & Peignot, while collaborating with Cassandre on various posters. From 1930 to 1932 he works for the magazine Arts et Mtiers Graphiques. In 1936 he works as a photographer for Vogue, Harpers Bazaar and Town and Country in New York. During the Second World War he is commissioned various war propaganda posters from the US government. From 1946 to 1966 he is a design consultant at Knoll. He teaches photography at Yale from 1952 to 1976. From 1958, and for the following ten years, he works as a design consultant for the Guggenheim and for the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Among his clients are the New Haven and Boston & Maine railroads and the Cummings Engine Corporation. A documentary about him, called The Visual Language of Herbert Matter, is produced by PiXiU Films and directed by Reto Caduff in 2010. In his posters, unique in their kind, Matter is influenced by the modern photomontage techniques and by those artists, like Lszl Moholy-Nagy, who have made them a form of advertising art. In 1932 he starts drawing posters for the Swiss Tourist Office. He carries out an effective mix between collage and photomontage, typography and illustrations, with dynamic and surprising scale changes and unexpected connections between images taken from different naturalistic environments. In the travel poster with the slogan All Roads Lead To Switzerland (1935), he combines three different perspective levels in the same image. The result is a very deep depth-of-field: in the foreground is a cobblestone road, whose vanishing point coincides with a ridge with a famous Swiss winding roadway; on the background, the peak of a snowy mountain soars up against the blue sky. Another poster, designed for Pontresina (1935), is characterised by fantastic camera angles and extreme scale variations which go from the large head, which takes up most of the poster, to the tiny skier on the left, to the snowy mountains in the background.

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- All roads lead to Switzerland, Poster, 1935 - Pontresina, Poster, 1935 - Knoll International, Poster, 1950 ca.

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LSZL MOHOLY-NAGY
Bcsborsd, 1895 Chicago, 1946

Typography must be clear communication in its most vivid form... clarity is the essence of modern printing. Lszl Moholy-Nagy

1. Engelbrecth, Lloyd C., Moholy-Nagy. Mentor of Modernism , Flying Trapeze Press, Cincinnati 2009. 2. Fiedler, J., Lszl Moholy-Nagy , Phaidon, London New York 2011. 3. Hight, E. M., Picturing Modernism. Moholy-Nagy and Photography in Weimar Germany , MIT Press, Cambridge (MA) 1995. 4. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 19, 24, 54, 55, 57, 58, 60, 62, 63, 95, 101, 127-129. 5. Margolin, V., The Struggle for Utopia. Rodchenko, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy 1917-1946 , University of Chicago, Chicago London 1997. 6. Moholy-Nagy, L., Lszl Moholy-Nagy. A Life in Motion. Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings and Photography , Annely Juda Fine Art, London 2004. 7. Moholy-Nagy, L., Painting, Photography, Film (1925), Lund Humphries, London 1969. 8. Moholy-Nagy, L., The New Vision and Abstract o an Artist , Wittenborn, New York 1949 (1947). 9. Moholy-Nagy, L., Vision in Motion , Theobald, Chicago 1969 (1947). 10. Moholy-Nagy, S., Moholy-Nagy. Experiment in Totality , Haper, New York 1950. 11. Passuth, K., Moholy-Nagy , Thames & Hudson, London 1985. 12. Spencer, H., Pioneers of Modern Typography , Lund Humphries, London 1982 (1969), pp. 9, 17, 21, 33, 38, 41, 46, 47, 140-143.

Influenced by Russian Constructivism, Moholy-Nagy is one of the leading figures of the Bauhaus. In 1913 he attends the faculty of law at the Budapest University but is forced to interrupt his studies to take part in the First World War. In 1917, severely wounded, he leaves the war zone, and subsequently escapes abroad due to the defeat of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. In 1919 he moves to Vienna and a year later to Berlin, where he comes into contact with the Avante-Garde groups. In 1922 he starts creating the first photograms with his wife Lucia Schulz. From 1923 to 1928 he is head of the a preparatory course and takes charge of the metal workshop at the Bauhaus. Here he dedicates himself to painting, photography and typography, putting all his Constructivism principles into practice. Furthermore he works as a stage designer for the Kroll Opera House and later, develops an interest for experimental films and kinetic art. He travels to Amsterdam in 1934 when the Stedelijk Museum organises a retrospective of his work. Due to the growing Nazi threat, in 1935 he moves to London, where he works as a graphic designer. In 1937, in Chicago, he founds the New Bauhaus and the School of Design, based on the principles of the original European Bauhaus. From 1944 he goes back to working with acrylic paint. In the essay Malerei, fotografie, film (Painting, photography, film), published in 1925 by Bauhausbcher, Moholy-Nagy deals with the topic of photographic objectivity. He considers a photograph to be the purest of images: the observer sees nothing but reality and therefore has an unbiased perception of his surroundings. The results of these theoretical assumptions are a series of experiments performed at a perceptive and conceptual level: the photo plastics, a project that deals with the relationship between text and images. Even though analogies can be found with the Dada photomontage artworks, photo plastics are simpler and more understandable from a thematic and figurative point of view. A good example is the 1924 poster Pneumatik, where Moholy-Nagy exploits the contrast triggered by a racing car cruising in the opposite direction to our reading of the word, Pneumatik. The result is a feeling of speed, also thanks to the clear trajectories of the two subjects. The composition is highlighted by a beam of transparent moonlight which heads in a specular direction respect to the rest of the elements, giving the image some depth. The artwork is carried out using non-colours (black, white and grey) and is perfectly balanced in its dynamism.

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Pneumatik, Poster, 1924 The law of series, Photomontage, 1925 Behind Back of God/ Between Heaven and Earth, Photomontage, 1926

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WILLIAM MORRIS
Welthamstow, 1834 Hammersmith, 1896

To be short, the letters should be designed by an artist and not an engineer. William Morris

1. Briggs, A., William Morris: Selected Writing and Designs , Penguin, Harmondsworth 1962. 2. Colebrook, F., William Morris: Master Printer, Yellow Barn Press, Iowa 1989. 3. Faulkner, P., Against the Age. An Introduction to William Morris, Allen & Unwin, London 1980. 4. Gillian, N. (edited by), William Morris by Himself. Design and Writings, Macdonald Orbis, London Sydney 1988. 5. Gillow, N., William Morris: Designs and Patterns , Bracken, London 1988. 6. Isherwood, A., An Introduction to the Kelmscott Press , V&A Museum, London 1986. 7. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 163-165. 8. Morris, W., New from Nowhere or an Epoch of Rest (1892) Paul, London 1970. 9. Peterson, W. S. (edited by), The Ideal Book. Essays and Lectures on the Arts of the Book , University of California Press, Berkley Los Angeles London 1982. 10. Peterson, W. S. (edited by), The Kelmscott Press: A History of William Morriss Typographical Adventure, Oxford University University of California, Oxford Berkeley 1991. 11. Robinson, D., William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and The Kelmscott Chaucer, Gordon Fraser, London 1982. 12. Sparling, H. H., The Kelmscott Press and William Morris, Master Craftman , Macmillan, London 1924.

A versatile decorator and a proto-designer, Morris is a symbolic figure in the history of design. He is a theology student at Oxford, when his friend Edward Burne-Jones puts him in contact with John Ruskin and other Pre-raphaelite painters. It marks a turning point in Morris career, and encourages him to drop his studies and start dedicating time to applied arts. His only painting, which he left incomplete, is La Belle Iseult (1858) using his wife Jane Burden as a model. He prefers artistic craftsmanship, and designs the furniture of his house, the famous Red House, designed by his friend and architect Philip Webb (1859). In 1861 he founds the company Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. together with Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, Burne-Jones, Peter Paul Marshall and Charles Faulkner to design custom furniture, cloth and mural decorations of excellent quality and prestige; he eventually becomes the sole owner of the firm, which changes its name to Morris & Co. In 1887 he starts the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society, in order to promote handicrafts through the organisation of exhibitions of applied arts. In 1890 he founds Kelmscott Press, a printing house that takes care of the printing and binding of high quality books. Moreover, he designs typefaces and writes utopian novels like the well-known News from Nowhere (1891). During the six intense years spent working at Kelmscott Press, Morris produces a limited amount of rare works, distinguished by sophisticated taste and exceptional quality. Among these, is the renowned The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1896). His style draws inspiration from antique codes and an unshakable idea of Medieval revival lingers throughout his work. Keeping this outlook in mind, he designs typefaces, like Golden Type (1890), Troy (1892) and Chaucer (1896). In addition he designs three logotypes for Kelmscott Press which work both as a decoration and as an information pack. The first of the three, has text located inside a rectangle, and is usually used for small formats, making its debut in a couple of different pages of Poems by the Way, the second book published by Kelmscott. The second logotype, is conceived for being used on bigger formats, and can be distinguished by the floral texture behind the word Morris. The third and last logotype was designed exclusively for The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Each model adapts itself organically to the typefaces, borders and initials.

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- The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Page, 1896 - The Well at the World's End, Title page, 1896 - Medway, Textile design, 1883-84

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VICTOR MOSCOSO
Oleiros, 1936

Victor Moscosos psychedelic posters were the most refined examples of this style, and his style was copied everywhere with different variations. Lewis Blackwell

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 160, 161. 2. Barnicoat, J., Posters. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1998 (1972), pp. 60, 61, 66. 3. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 205, 261. 4. Friedl, F., Ott, N., Stein, B., When Who How , Knemann, Cologne 1998, pp. 393, 394. 5. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, p. 182. 6. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 269, 317, 320. 7. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), p, 404. 8. Moscoso, V., Sex, Rock & Optical Illusions , Fantagraphics, Seattle-Washington 2006. 9. Phoenix Gallery, The new Comix , Phoenix Gallery, Berkey 1969. 10. Russo, D., Schizzofluido. Ondulazioni del design , in Aa. Vv., galma. Seduzione o Rauch Culture?, Meltemi, Rome 2006, pp. 113-119 (n. 12).

Moscoso is without a doubt a leading figure among psychedelic poster artists. He studies art at the Cooper Union School in New York, and later attends Yale, where he meets Josef Albers, who has a great influence on his work. In 1959 he attends the San Francisco Art Institute in California. After graduating he specialises in lithographic techniques, and subsequently teaches them. In 1966 he commences his career as a graphic designer, drawing posters for the Family Dog concerts at the Avalon Ballroom, the Neon Rose posters for the Matrix and concert posters for the Fillmore West. In 1967 he displays his work at the The Joint Show exhibition, organised at the Moore Gallery in San Francisco, together with the other Big Five poster artists of the San Francisco scene: Wes Wilson, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley and Rick Griffin. During the Seventies he collaborates in the production of the underground comic book Zap Comix by Robert Crumb, while drawing CD covers for CBS and Round Records, like the ones for Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Herbie Hancock and David Grisman. Furthermore, he collaborates with various radio networks, designing T-shirts, advertisements and animated commercials, for which he receives two Clio Awards for Creative excellence in advertising and design. In 2002 the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco organises an exhibition of his work. Psychedelic graphic design reflects the culture and the student protests of the Sixties and Seventies by experimenting new, hardly legible, typefaces, and by using dazzling colours and flaking images which mix in blurry artworks. Moscosos works are a link between underground comics, rock music and psychedelic graphic design. All of them are characterised by broken up images and vivid colours which make the whole composition vibrate, strengthening the messages they convey. The artist resorts to a grotesque and paradoxical style, drawing inspiration from the world of comics. For example, in the posters designed for the Avalon Ballroom, every detail is treated meticulously, in a stunning mix of typography and images. Another example is Neptunes Notion (1967), created for a concert of the psychedelic rock band Moby Grape, where Moscoso reinterprets the famous painting by Dominique Ingres, Jupiter and Thetis (1811): in a marine scenario, Jupiter is substituted by a pink Neptune whose drape is replaced by a large yellow fish with the title of the event hidden among its scales.

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- Neptunes Notion, Poster, 1967 - Zap Comix n4, Cover, 1971 - Sphinx Dance, Poster, 1967

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KOLOMAN MOSER
Vienna, 1868 1918

First among many, Kolo Moser has repeatedly gone back to creating ambivalent images, composed with continuous line drawing. Daniele Baroni

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 8, 32-35. 2. Baroni, D., DAuria, A., Kolo Moser. Graphic Artist and Designer , Rizzoli, New York 1986. 3. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 31, 51, 59-64. 4. Di Benedetto, N., Koloman (Kolo) Moser, in C. Biasini, N. Di Benedetto, L. Eller, S. Liberati, Gustav Klimt e la Secessione viennese 1897-1997 , Barbieri, Manduria (TA) 1997, pp. 66-74. 5. Di Stefano, E., Secessione viennese da Klimt a Wagner, Giunti, Florence 1999, pp. 16, 18, 19, 21, 30, 31, 35. 6. Fenz, W., Koloman Moser. Grafik , Kunstgewerbe, Malerei, Residenz, Slazburg Vienna 1984. 7. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 140, 141. 8. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 26-29. 9. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 130-132, 136. 10. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 214, 215-219. 11. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. La storia, i protagonisti e i temi dallOttocento ai giorni nostri , Electa, Milan 2006, pp. 124-127. 12. Rennhofer, M., Koloman Moser. Master of Viennese Modernism, London, Thames & Hudson 2002.

A representative of the Vienna Secession, Moser is one of the most interesting artists of the first half of the 20th century. In 1892 he attends the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna, where he subsequently starts teaching in 1899. In the meantime he collaborates with some publishing houses, Schreiber and Martin Gerlach. He founds the Siebener Club, which becomes part of the Knstlerhaus, one of Austrias most important artists associations. In 1897 he joins the Vienna Secession, an artistic movement that rejects academic art, founded by Gustav Klimt, together with Josef Hoffmann e Joseph Maria Olbrich. The following year he starts the Secession movements journal Ver Sacrum, for which he takes care of illustrations and front covers. In 1893 he starts collaborating with the porcelain factory Bch, creating household goods, jewellery, stained glass windows, furniture, fabrics, book covers etc. In the first years of the 20th century he is involved in theatre design and takes care of mosaic and stained glass window projects for the Beethoven exposition in the Secession Hall (1902) and for the Kirche am Steinhof (also called Church of St. Leopold) in Vienna (1906-1907). In 1903, with Hoffmann, he starts the Werksttte (Vienna Workshops), producing artworks of a very high aesthetic standard, and displaying them on the journal Hohe Warte until 1907, when he leaves the company due to artistic differences with his partner. At first, Moser follows the artistic and figurative traditions of his times, and his work is characterised by elegant and powerful strokes, drawn with Indian ink. In 1985, for example, he carries out some allegoric illustrations for Martin Gerlach drawing inspiration from the symbolist artists. His style eventually matures during the Vienna Secession period, thanks to the work accomplished for Ver Sacrum. His drawings become sharper and more meticulous, the symbolic meanings more refined, and redundancies are eliminated. Above all, inspired by the symbolic and geometric elements of Japanese art and culture and by the revolutionary design of the The Four (a Scottish group lead by Charles Rennie Mackintosh), he develops surprising graphic solutions thanks to a positive-negative approach. More precisely, he carries out a research on Gestalt psychology, based on what the art historian Ernst Gombrich defines as the positive-negative counter-trade, or rather the reversible perception that causes some images to be perceived in an ambiguous way within a pattern or a repetitive sequence. All things considered, this is his distinguishing detail and his most captivating graphic invention.

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Ornamental pattern, 1900 13th Secession exhibition, Poster, 1902 Fromme calendar, Poster, 1899 Ver Sacrum, Illustration, 1898

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ALPHONSE MUCHA
Ivanice, 1860 Prague, 1939

With Mucha, Art Nouveau reaches incredible levels of virtuosity, becoming an inescapable model for international modernism. Beba Marsano

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit , 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 41, 67, 107, 138, 308. 2. Arwas, V., Brabcova-Orlikova, J., Dvorak, A., Alphonse Mucha. The Spirit of Art Nouveau , Yale, New Haven 1998. 3. Arwas, V., Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau. St. Martins Press, New York 1985. 4. Bridges, A., Alphonse Mucha. The Complete Graphic Works, Harmony, New York 1980. 5. Ellridge, A., Mucha. The Triumph of Art Nouveau , Terrail, Paris 1992. 6. Husslein-Arco, A., Alphonse Mucha, Prestel, New York 2009. 7. Kern, D. M. H., The Art Nouveau Style Book of Alphonse Mucha, Dover, New York 1980. 8. Mucha, J., Alphonse Mucha. His Life and Art (1966), St. Martins Press, New York 1975. 9. Mucha, J., Alphonse Mucha. The Master of Art Nouveau , Artia, Prague 1966. 10. Mucha, S., Mucha, Frances Lincoln, London 2005. 11. Rennert, J., Alphonse Mucha. The Complete Posters and Panels, Hall, Boston 1984. 12. Sunshine, L. (introduzione di), The Posters of Alphonse Mucha, Harmony Books, New York 1975.

Alfons Maria Mucha, known in French as Alphonse Mucha, is a painter and decorator of stage scenery and one of the most famous affichistes of the turn of the 19th century. In 1879 he moves to Vienna to design stage sets. In 1881 he works as a decorator and a portrait painter in Moravia. The count Karl Khuen Belasi of Mikulov notices him and commissions him a series of frescoes for his houses in Emmahof and Gandegg. In 1884 he designs the poster Gismonda, a portrait of the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt, for a play by Victor Sardou, an equally famous French dramatist. The debut of this artwork is so successful that the actress makes Mucha her personal portrait painter for the following six years. In 1885 he attends the Akademie der Bildenden Knste in Munich. In 1887 he moves to Paris where he studies at the Acadmie Julian and later at the Acadmie Colarossi. In 1897 he displays his work at the Bodinire and at the Salon des Cent in Paris. From 1906 to 1910 he travels around the United States and eventually moves to Prague. In 1918, when Czechoslovakia gains independence, he is asked to design postage stamps, banknotes and other symbols of the new European country. Drawing from Art Nouveau, which between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century developed in all the fields of art and design, Mucha creates some particularly attractive and sophisticated posters. They are characterised by a highly decorative approach that prevails over both legibility and directness of the message, which is always mitigated and conveyed from a symbolic point of view. The subjects of his posters are dreamy creatures, usually prominent and richly adorned; most of the time they are young girls, similar to goddesses, with exceptionally long hair and flowing gowns, surrounded by lush foliage, blades of grass, trees and flowers. These supple and idealised figures are often enclosed in interwoven geometric patterns which result in a decorative texture (containing references to precious Byzantine mosaics and Moravian folk art). An example is the 1896 poster for Job cigarettes, where the advertised product a lit up cigarette is not noticed right away, but is introduced at the centre of the elegant composition. In the same way, the name Job, characterised by an ornamental outline, becomes blended in the young girl's thick hair.

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- Job cigarettes, Poster, 1896 - Cycles Perfecta, Poster, 1897 - Biscuit Lefvre -Utile, Poster, 1896

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JOSEF MLLERBROCKMANN
Rapperswil-Jona, 1914 Unterengstringen, 1996

Josef Mller-Brockmann managed to bend the restrictive rules of the International style achieving a dramatic beauty. Lewis Blackwell

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 97, 100, 122, 124, 125, 140, 196, 234. 2. Hollis, R., Swiss Graphic Design. The Origins and Growth o fan International Style. 1920-1965 , Laurence King, London 2006, pp. 6, 7, 17, 124, 143, 155, 164-66, 168, 169, 170, 171, 178, 193, 205, 206, 226, 245, 246, 210, 211, 249, 252-254. 3. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 326-331. 4. Mller-Brockmann, J., A History of Visual Communication , Niggli Tiranti, Niederteufen London 1971 (English-Deutsche-French). 5. Mller-Brockmann, J., Graphic Design in IBM. Typography, Photography, Illustration, IBM Europe, Paris 1988. 6. Mller-Brockmann, J., Grid Systems in Graphic Design. A visual Communication Manual for Graphic Designers, Typographers and Three-Dimensional Designers , Niggli, Niederteufen 1981 (English-Deutsche). 7. Mller-Brockmann, J., Josef Mller-Brockmann, Designer: Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design, Lars Mller, Baden 1995. 8. Mller-Brockmann, J., Mein Leben. Spielerischer Ernst und ernsthaftes Spiel , Lars Mller, Baden 1994. 9. Mller-Brockmann, J., Mller-Brockmann, S., History of the Poster, ABC, Zurich 1971 (English-Deutsche-French). 10. Mller-Brockmann, J., The Graphic Artist and His Design Problems Niggli, Teufen 2003 (1961) (English-Deutsche-French). 11. Mller-Brockmann, J., Wobmann, K., Fotoplakate: von den Anfngen bis zur Gegenwart, AT, Aarau Stuttgart 1989. 12. Russo, D., Free Graphics. La grafica fuori delle regole nellera digitale, Lupetti, Milan 2006, pp. 7-9.

A leading figure of the Swiss Style, Mller-Brockmann firmly believes in the importance of simplicity and rationality in the successful completion of a graphic project. He finishes his artistic studies at the Universitt and the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich and in 1936 he opens a studio of design and photography. In 1939 he designs the arrangement of the Swiss National Exhibition and is in charge of the stage sets of various plays in Zurich, Munich and Copenhagen. From 1957 to 1960 he teaches at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich and takes part in the International Design Conference in Aspen and the World Design Conference in Tokyo. In 1958 he founds the magazine Neue Grafik, together with Richard Paul Lohse, Hans Neuburg and Carlo Vivarelli. In addition he designs posters for various social campaigns: the most relevant ones being on road safety in 1953, Protgez lenfant (Protect the child), and against noise pollution in 1960, Weniger Lrm (Stop noise pollution). In 1961 he publishes a book called The Graphic Artist and His Design Problems. In 1963 he teaches at the Hochschule fr Gestaltung in Ulm, while working as a consultant for IBM. During the final years of the Seventies, he designs the sign systems for Zurich airport and the Swiss railways. The topics dealt with on the magazine Neue Grafik, eighteen issues published between 1958 and 1965, mainly concern the Swiss School (International Typographic Style or Objective-Functional Typography) and the principles of graphic design of the time. The graphic layout of the magazine undoubtedly reflects these clear and minimal ideals. The new graphic design, not only expresses the Swiss School manifesto in a theoretical way, but also through the meticulous composition of its front cover. Besides the purely typographic structure, all the most relevant characteristics of that informative and pure design concept are present: geometric grid, asymmetric arrangement, a single typeface (sansserif), few letter sizes (only two, clearly distinguishable), columns of text perfectly aligned to the left. Likewise, the pages inside the magazine are based on an asymmetric layout, enhanced by the empty spaces on the page, which actively balance out with the full ones, black and white photographs that faithfully depict reality. And again, as on the front cover, everything on the pages of the magazine is organised according to a typographic grid, which ensures rhythm and motion through suitably sized distances and units.

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- Less noise, Poster, 1960 - Protgez lenfant, Poster, 1953 - Akari, Poster, 1975

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BRUNO MUNARI
Milan, 1907 1998

Simplifying is a difficult job and requires a lot of creativity. Complicating is much easier, you just have to add everything that comes to mind. Bruno Munari

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 85, 126, 127, 196. 2. Finessi, B. (edited by), Su Munari. 104 testimonianze. 152 inediti di Bruno Munari , Abitare Segesta Cataloghi, Editrice Abitare Segesta, Milan 1999. 3. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia , Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 9, 10, 43-45, 54, 55, 75, 78, 80, 92, 98, 99, 104, 110, 112, 116, 117, 121-123, 139, 148, 201, 202, 205. 4. Maffei, G., Munari. I libri , Sylvestre Bonnard, Milan 2007 (2002). 5. Meneguzzo, M., Bruno Munari, Laterza, Rome-Bari 1993. 6. Munari, B., Da cosa nasce cosa. Appunti per una metodologia progettuale , Laterza, Rome-Bari 2010 (1981). 7. Munari, B., Design as Art , Penguin, London 2008 (1971). 8. Munari, B., Design e comunicazione visiva. Contributo a una metodologia didattica, Laterza, Rome-Bari 1991 (1968). 9. Munari, B., Fantasia , Laterza, Rome-Bari 2000 (1977). 10. Munari, B., Libro illeggibile MN1 , Corraini, Mantova, 1984. 11. Munari, B., What Id like to be, The Harvil Press, London 1945. 12. Tanchis, A., Bruno Munari. From Futurim to PostIndustrial Design , Lund Humphries, London 1987.

Munari is among the leading characters of the history of 20th century design, besides being well-known as an artist, a theoretician, a philosopher, a poet, a development psychologist and many other professions. In the late Twenties he joins the Futurist movement (1927), taking part in various collective exhibitions. In 1930 he founds the graphic design studio R+M with Riccardo Ricas Castagnedi. In 1933 he meets Andr Breton and Louis Aragon. From 1935 to 1992 he completes several projects as a freelance graphic designer for clients such as Danese. During the Second World War he works as a graphic designer for Mondadori and as an art director for the magazine Tempo, while drawing astonishing books for children. In 1955 he organises the Museo immaginario delle isole Eolie (The imaginary museum of the Aeolian islands). In 1958 he draws Forchette parlanti (Talking forks), an extraordinary sign language developed by simply deforming fork prongs. During the Sixties, he frequently travels around the world, often visiting Japan, a country whose philosophy and culture he much appreciates. In 1962 he organises the exhibition Programmed Art at the Olivetti show room in Milan. In 1967 he teaches visual communication at Harvard. In 1977 he creates a laboratory-game room at the Pinacoteca di Brera. According to Munari, an artist and a designer can coexist creating a single profession, going beyond the preconception which states that art and design are incompatible, from both a theoretical and methodological point of view. As a matter of fact, Munari often rewrites the rules of visual communication, as the 1964 Campari poster proves. Drawn on the occasion of the opening of the Milan underground, Munari, decides not to design a brand new logotype, but just collects all the former Campari logotypes in one, perfectly balanced composition. Taking a keen interest in children's education, he designs the collection of Prelibri (Prebooks) in 1980, a series of game-books aimed at stimulating a child's senses and curiosity. It is formed by 12 small books arranged in a display rack. Each one of them is handmade in a variety of different materials paper, cardboard, wood, cloth, sponge, vilene, plastic each with its own binding technique, some with twine, some with metal rings. The books have no words but only illustrations and colourful shapes, and for this reason can be flipped through from both sides.

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Campari, Poster, 1964 Una lezione di Design, Cover, 1992 Personal logo project, 1968 Pennellessa, 1976 Suole Coria Pirelli, Adv, 1953

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OTTO NEURATH
Vienna, 1882 Oxford, 1945

Signs should be clear in themselves, without the help of words: they have to be talking signs. Otto Neurath

1. Anceschi, G., Neurath, Isotype e la terza competenza , Progetto grafico, 3, December 2003, pp. 20-29. 2. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 18, 51, 127, 174. 3. Kindel E., Walker, S., Isotype Revisited , Progetto grafico, 18, September 2010, pp. 48-57. 4. Lupton, H., Reading Isotype , in Victor Margolin (edited by), Design Discourse , The University of Chicago, Chicago 1989, pp. 145-147. 5. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 292, 293. 6. Neurath, M., Kinross, R., The Transformer. Principles of Making Isotype Charts , Hyphen, London 2009. 7. Neurath, O., From Hieroglyphics to Isotype. A Visual Autobiography, Hyphen, London 2010. 8. Neurath, O., International Picture Language. The First Rules of Isotyp e, Basic English Publishing, London 1936. 9. Neurath, O., Neurath, Marie Reidemeister, International Picture Language, Paul, London 1936. 10. Pasca, V., Russo, D., Corporate Image. Un secolo dimmagine coordinata dallAEG alla Nike , Lupetti, Milan 2005, pp. 27-29, 80. 11. Zaruba, A., Il mondo dimenticato della moderna comunicazione visuale , Progetto grafico, 3, December 2003, pp. 1-17.

Neurath will go down in history for having invented the Isotype, a system aimed at simplifying the reading of statistical data through pictorial means. His educational path starts in Vienna and Heidelberg where he studies economic and social sciences. In 1906 he graduates in sociology in Berlin. In 1924 he starts Wiener Kreis (The Vienna Circle), from which the neopositivist movement sparks. In 1925 he founds and directs the Gesellschafts und Wirtschaftsmuseum, with the idea of spreading statistical data among the people of Vienna. Together with the German artist and graphic designer Gert Arntz and Marie Reidemeister Neurath, he develops the Wiener Methode der Bildstatistik, later renamed Isotype (International System of Typographic Picture Education), a way for visualising statistical data in pictorial forms which encode units of measure which can easily be grasped through the key. Without the use of words and digits, information in conveyed through images which are comprehensible to everyone and can be repeated to indicate different amounts, while colours are used to favour a more immediate identification. Having completed this international communication system, Neurath takes care of various publications and statistic and informative expositions from 1929 to 1939. In 1931 Neurath establishes the Izostat, the Soviet institute for pictorial statistics, where the Wiener Methode der Bildstatistik (Viennese method of pictorial statistics) is carefully studied, an approach he invented himself, which will later be renamed Isotype. To better understand how it works, one of the charts displayed in his publications and exhibitions can be analysed: the one entitled Crches (nests), published on The Second Five-Year Plan in Construction (1934), which shows the growth of the number of spaces in rural and urban nursery schools between 1932 and 1937 in the Soviet five-year economic plan. Two of the fundamental elements of the Viennese method can be found on this chart: pictograms, a real graphic standard, and the guiding figure. In this case, the pictogram depicts a child in a clear and synthetic way, lacking any sort of decoration; if one child corresponds to 50,000 places, then two children are equivalent to 100,000 places, three to 150,000, and so on. The guiding figure is an image placed in the top portion of the chart, whose task is to convey the topic, which in this case is nursery schools, with the same incisive style of the pictograms. Lastly, the colours help to explain the type of school, green for rural and red for urban.

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Nurseries, Infographic, 1934 From Hieroglyphics to Isotype: workers in U.d.S.S.R. 1929, Page, 1946 Die bunte Welt, 1929 From Hieroglyphics to Isotype: railways 1926, Page, 1946 Signs for 5 groups of men, 1936

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BOB NOORDA
Amsterdam, 1927 Milan, 2010

It is a hidden and rational order that superintends and explains Noordas graphical clarity, his need to work for systems or for functions. Mario Piazza

1. Baroni, D., Il manuale del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 1999, pp. 98-100, 107, 158, 270, 310-316. 2. Conradi, J., Unimark International. The Design of Business and the Business of Design , Lars Mller, Baden 2009. 3. Dondina, F., Bob Noorda. Una vita nel segno della grafica , San R., Milan 2009. 4. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia , Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 11, 13, 78, 110, 112, 122, 126, 136-139, 142, 202, 205. 5. Giovannoli, R., Pezzini, I., La rete profonda , Rassegna, 6, April 1981, pp. 76-83. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Coincise History , Thames & Hudoson, London 1994, pp. 138-146. 7. Noorda, B., Sambonet, R., Tovaglia, P., Ricerca e progettazione di un simbolo , Zanichelli, Bologna 1986. 8. Noorda, B., Scheiwiller, V. (edited by), 1872-1972. Cento anni di comunicazione visiva Pirelli, Scheiwiller, Milan 1990. 9. Pansera, A., La storia di un percorso , in AA. VV., Visual design. Cinquantanni di produzione in Italia , Idealibri, Milan 1984, pp. 15-24. 10. Piazza, M., Bob Noorda. La misura dei segni, Progetto grafico, 17, April 2010, pp. 110-125. 11. Piazza, M., Lo stile milanese: Bob Noorda. Un incontro con sorprese, in Progetto graficon. 8, June 2006, pp. 98-107. 12. Ventura, N. (edited by), Bob Noorda Design (catalogue), MusArc, Ferrara 2005.

A naturalised Italian Dutch-born citizen, Noorda is a true innovator of graphic design, father of corporate identity systems and numerous famous logos. Particularly attracted to the Bauhaus and to historic avante-garde movements, mostly Constructivism, he attends the Ivkno (Instituut voor Kunstnijverheidsonderwijs), better known as Academie Gerrit Rietveld. In 1957 he moves to Milan and meets important Italian graphic designers of the time, such as Bruno Munari and Albe Steiner. In 1961 he works as an art director for Pirelli, and as an artistic consultant for La Rinascente. From 1962 to 1965 he teaches graphic design at the Scuola del libro at the Societ Umanitaria in Milan. He also hold classes at the ISIA (Higher Institute for Artistic Industries) in Urbino and at the IED (European Institute of Design) in Milan. Also in 1965 he founds Unimark International in Chicago together with Ralph Eckerstrom, Massimo Vignelli, James Fogelman, Wally Gutches, Larry Klein, Robert Moldafsky (becoming the companys vice president). In addition, he receives many awards such as various Compasso DOro, won thanks to projects such as the Milanese underground signage system (1964) and the corporate identities of Regione Lombardia (1975) and Agip (1979); he receives an honorary degree in Design from the Milan Polytechnic in 2005 and is an honorary member of ADI (Association for Industrial Design) from 2001. According to Noorda, graphic design is a tool for managing corporate identity systems and a wonderful way for delivering commercial messages. Noorda elaborates remarkable graphic projects for some of the most important Italian companies like Feltrinelli, Mondadori, Vallecchi and Touring Club Italiano (in the field of editorial design), Eni, Pirelli and Barilla, and for large scale retail stores such as Coop, La Rinascente, Upim and Agip. Other noteworthy projects are the sign systems conceived for the Milan underground, along with those of New York and Sao Paulo. His approach to graphic design often involves using the clearest and most synthetic solution, achieved through few dynamic and balanced elements. A perfect example of his work is the poster designed for Pirelli for Rolle tyres in 1959, where the name Rolle is shown in grey, evident on the upper part of the page in block capitals, while the tyre below is formed by a thick black outer casing and by a colourful rim formed by the rotating Pirelli logo. This overlapping of the logotype effect and the uneven outline of the tyre catch the viewers' attention, conveying a feeling of speed and grip of the tread.

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Pirelli: Pneumatico Rolle, Cover, 1959 Milan underground, Logo, 1963 Eni, Logo, 1972 Coop, Logo, 1985 Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Logo, 1969

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ALDO NOVARESE
Pontestura, 1920 Turin, 1995

The works of Aldo Novarese constitute an extraordinary contribution of Italian planning intelligence to the world of rigorous aesthetic rigidity that comprises letter design. Sergio Polano
1. Baroni, D., Il manuale del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 1999, pp. 14, 42, 43. 2. Blackwell, L., 20-Century Types , Laurence King, London 2000 (1998). 3. Castellacci, C., Sanvitale, P., Il tipografo mestiere darte , il Saggiatore, Milan 2004, pp. 209-212. 4. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia, Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 112, 124, 125, 194, 202, 205. 5. Novarese, A., Alfa-Beta. Lo studio e il disegno del carattere, Progresso grafico, Turin 1983 (1964). 6. Novarese, A., Il segno alfabetico, Progresso grafico, Turin 1998 (1971). 7. Novarese, A., Raffaello Bertieri. Artista del carattere , Graphicus, 5, May 1965, pp. 5-9. 8. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Abecedario. La grafica del Novecento , Electa, Milan 2003 (2002), pp. 156-167. 9. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Aldo Novarese: Letters are Things , Emigre, 26, Spring 1993, pp. 30-37. 10. Ratin, M., Ricci, M., Questioni di carattere. La tipografia in Italia dallUnit nazionale agli anni Settanta , Stampa alternativa Graffiti, Rome 1997, pp. 53-57, 61-63, 65, 88, 97-100, 102-108, 140, 143.

An excellent type designer, Novareses career is marked by the long collaboration with the Nebiolo type foundry. He begins his studies in 1931 at the Scuola per Artieri Stampatori and continues from 1933 to 1936 at the Scuola Tipografica e di Arti Affini Giuseppe Vigliardi Paravia, both in Turin. Two years later, he is invited to work for Nebiolo by his teacher, Alessandro Butti, also art director of the type foundry, a successful collaboration which goes on for a long time. In 1952 he becomes the art director of Nebiolo, designing countless typefaces, such as Egizio (1953), Ritmo (1955), Garaldus (1956), Slogan (1957), Recta (1958), Eurostile (1962), Magister (1962) and Metropol (1967). In 1956 he concieves a system to classify typeface styles into ten families, in a system which still remains authoritative today. To counter the fame of the Swiss typeface Helvetica, in 1966 he designs an Italian version of it: Forma. In 1978 he opens his own studio and provides consulting services to important companies all around the world. Among his publications are Alfabeta. Lo studio e il disegno del carattere (1964) and Il segno alfabetico (1971). Devoted to the designing of typefaces, Novarese creates them in remarkable quantities, about thirty just for the Nebiolo type foundry. One of the last is the extraordinary Stop, completed in 1970. It was conceived only in the upper case version and is introduced as a new alphabet sign for the creation of new graphic layouts. It is a typeface which is more suitable for the designing of logotypes rather than the composition of texts, and every single letter could be a logo of its own. Its characteristics give it a modern and rather technical touch: it is a kind of stylised stencil type, sans-serif, geometric, which alternates right angles with curved lines. Some of its letters are deliberately incomplete or even cut: for example vertical stems are missing in letters B, K, R, both vertical and horizontal stems are incomplete in letters D, E, F, H, J, P, T, and letters G and Y are missing their spurs. These aspects make this typeface unique, intriguing and very recognisable. Stop is particularly suitable for creating astonishing perceptive effects, to such an extent that it can be considered a real masterpiece of Optical art.

INDEX

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- - - - -

Stop, Font, 1970 Font style classification, 1956 Fenice, Font, 1980 Recta, Font, 1958-61 Nebiolo type foundry catalogue

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GIOVANNI PINTORI
Tresnuraghes, 1912 Milan, 1999

His best results as a painter and graphic designer are the result of synthesis. Libero Bigiaretti

1. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 134, 201, 213-215, 237. 2. Branzaglia, C. (edited by), Pintori, Museo Arte Nuoro , Nuoro 2003. 3. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia, Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 10, 11, 63, 65, 93-95, 97, 202. 4. Fontanella, R., Di Somma, M., Cesar, M., Come cambiano i marchi. Metamorfosi di 60 marchi italiani, Ikon, Milan 2003, pp. 164-167. 5. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 104, 105. 6. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 257, 260, 335-338. 7. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 363, 364. 8. Pansera, A., La storia di un percorso , in AA. VV., Visual design. Cinquantanni di produzione in Italia , Idealibri, Milan 1984, p. 15-24. 9. Pasca, V., Russo, D., Corporate Image. Un secolo dimmagine coordinata dallAEG alla Nike , Lupetti, Milan 2005, pp. 21-25, 74, 78. 10. Pintori, G., Olivetti. A Designer View by, Print, 3-4, March-April 1961, p. 35-43. 11. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Abecedario. La grafica del Novecento , Electa, Milan 2003 (2002), pp. 168-177. 12. Vinti, C., Gli anni dello stile industriale 1948-1965 , Marsilio, Venice 2007, pp. 39-45.

Famous for having been the art director of the important Italian company Olivetti for more than thirty years, Pintori is one of the most extraordinary Italian graphic designers. From 1930 to 1936 he studies at the ISIA (Higher Institute for Artistic Industries) in Monza. In 1934, with Giuseppe Pagano, he organises the exhibition of the Italian Air Force. In 1936 he starts his long collaboration with Olivetti. During the first years he works in the advertising development office, becoming its art director in 1950, the same year that he wins the Palma dOro award from the Italian Federation of Advertising. His mentor is the poet Leonardo Sinisgalli, together with whom he elaborates the companys campaigns. They win an award together, in 1940, for the mounting of the Graphic Arts exhibition at the VII Triennale. In the Fifties Pintoris work is displayed in some of the most important museums in the world (at the MoMA in New York in 1952 thanks to the exhibition Olivetti: Design in Industry, on the Olivetti company, and at the Louvre in Paris in 1955) and published on prestigious magazines such as Fortune, Graphic Design and Horizon. In 1967 Pintori leaves Olivetti to work as a freelance graphic designer; among his clients are Pirelli, Ambrosetti and Gabbianelli. In his later years he dedicates himself mainly to painting. A retrospective exhibition is held in his honour in Nuoro in 2003. With his brilliant and elegant work Pintori holds the reins of Olivettis promotion and communication departments, creating an efficient corporate identity system. Imagination, poetry and method are fundamental elements of his work: this allows him to create effective pieces of corporate advertising. His style can be recognised at a glance and is, in fact, inimitable. Among other projects, he redesigns the Olivetti logotype, designs the layout of numerous of its showrooms, typefaces for its typewriters, calendars and mostly a great amount of advertising posters, admirable both in iconography and composition. He carefully elaborates the elements on the page and the harmony between colours, and perfectly integrates text and images, drawing inspiration from the avantgarde movements. An example is the famous 1949 Olivetti poster a cutting edge poster with a neo-expressionist touch where the commercial sector is implicit and the logotype is set in the middle of a thick texture of numbers. The structure, which just seems random, is actually perfectly balanced, in the arrangement of the numbers and the choice of their colours, in an alternation of warm, cold and neutral temperatures.

INDEX

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- Numbers, Poster, 1949 - Lettera 22, Poster, 1954 - Diaspron 82, Poster, ca. 1958

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PAUL RAND
New York, 1914 Norwalk, 1996

The scent of the Chanel logo is exactly like the perfume it represents. Hence it is the synthesis of form and content. Paul Rand

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 96, 97, 106-109, 140. 2. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 16, 17, 94, 95, 100-103, 116, 117, 154, 155, 172, 173. 3. Heller, S., Paul Rand, Phaidon, London 1999 (1995). 4. Kamakura, Y. (edited by), Paul Rand: His Work from 1946-1958, Knopf, New York 1959. 5. Kroeger, M., Paul Rand. Conversations with Students , Princeton Architectural Press, New York 2008. 6. Nunoo-Quarcoo, F., Paul Rand. A Modernist Design , Fine Arts Gallery University of Maryland, Baltimore 2003. 7. Pasca, V., Russo, D., Corporate Image. Un secolo dimmagine coordinata dallAEG alla Nike , Lupetti, Milan 2005, pp. 38-42, 89-91. 8. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Abecedario. La grafica del Novecento , Electa, Milan 2003 (2002), pp. 122, 128-131. 9. Rand, P., Design Form and Chaos , Yale, New Haven London 1993. 10. Rand, P., From Lascaux to Brooklyn , Yale University Press, New Haven 1996. 11. Rand, P., Paul Rand. A Designers Art , Yale, New Haven London 1985. 12. Rand, P., Thoughts on Design (1947), Studio Vista Van Nostrand Reinhold, London New York 1970.

Known for his versatile production as a designer, Paul Rand, whose real name is Peretz Rosenbaum, is a specialist in corporate identities (and much more) and one of the most astonishing American graphic designers of the 20th century. From 1930 to 1932 he studies at the Pratt Institute and at the Parsons School of Design in New York. In 1933 he attends art classes at the Art Students League with Georg Grosz. From 1936 to 1941 he works as an art director for the magazines Apparel Arts and Esquire. From 1938 to 1945 he designs front covers for the magazine Direction. In 1941 Lszl Moholy-Nagy, charmed by his work, publishes an article about him. He then works as an art director until 1955 for William H. Weintraub, an important advertising agency based in New York. In 1947 he publishes Thoughts on Design, a book about graphic design and a model for many designers worldwide. During the Fifties he works for IBM, Westinghouse Electric Company, Cummins, Ups, ABC Television, NeXT and Ussb, designing logos and corporate identity systems. In addition he designs various memorable posters for Olivetti. During the following forty years he continues his admirable career as a graphic designer, while teaching at Yale and other prestigious universities. One of Rands most famous works is the logotype designed for IBM (International Business Machine), arguably one of the most recognisable of all time. It is a simple and intriguing project, capable of expressing IBMs main values: quality, reliability and technology. In 1956 Rand recovers the old IBM logotypeacronym and makes some changes. First thing he replaces the original typeface, Beton Bold, with the more solid, compact and strictly geometric City medium (these features can be noticed in the square-shaped counter of the letter B). He then converts the logotype into four versions; one full and three outlined by strokes of different thickness, in consideration of the different conditions of the logos visibility (its size and the material it is printed on). In 1962 he decides to redesign the logotype again, marking it with a series of horizontal lines to suggest speed and dynamism. Visually, stripes superimposed on a cluster of letters tend to tie them together, he explains. In 1981 Rand comes up with the extraordinary rebus-poster where the IBM logotype is translated both visually and phonetically: the eye stands for the letter I, the bee for the letter B while the letter M stays unchanged, guaranteeing the recognition of the logotype.

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Rebus IBM, Poster, 1981 Direction, Cover, April 1940 Dada, Cover, 1951 Thoughts on Design, Cover, 1946 Tokyo and Osaka Communication Arts, Poster, 1991

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JAMIE REID
Croydon, 1947

Revisiting the cut-out and collage techniques, Punk graphic design requires modest resources to generate a creative, loud and disturbing product. Roxane Jubert

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 198, 199. 2. Blackwell, L., 20-Century Types , Laurence King, London 2000 (1998). 3. Friedl, F., Ott, N., Stein, B., When Who How , Knemann, Cologne 1998, pp. 443, 444. 4. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 162, 163. 5. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 374, 375, 386. 6. Livingston, A., Livingston, I., Graphic Design and Designer s, Thames & Hudson, London 1992, p. 166. 7. Poynor, R., No More Rules. Graphic Design and Postmodernism , Laurence King, London 2003, pp. 38-40, 159. 8. Raimes, J., Bhaskaran, L., Retro Graphics Cookbook. Recreate 100 Years of Graphic Design , Ilex, Lewes 2007, pp. 164, 165. 9. Reid, J., Chaos in Cancerland, Hamiltons Gallery, London 1986. 10. Reid, J., Savage, John, Up They Rise: The Incomplete Works of Jamie Reid , Faber and Faber, London 1987. 11. Reid, J., Up they Rise , Faber & Faber, London 1987. 12. Russo, D., Free Graphics. La grafica fuori delle regole nellera digitale, Lupetti, Milan 2006, pp. 8, 9.

Considered one of the most anarchic figures of the British Punk style, Reid is an unpredictable and inventive designer. In 1962 he attends the Wimbledon Art School. From 1964 to 1968 he studies at the Croydon School of Art in England together with Punk promoter Malcolm McLaren and, while still studying, he founds Suburban Press and the homonymous newspaper (1970-1975). He starts to establish himself by working for different independent record labels designing fanzines, concert flyers and gummed stickers: This Store Welcomes Shoplifters, Never Trust a Hippie, A Brick will do the Trick and Save Petrol, Burn Cars. He later imposes himself in the world of graphic design through the promotional material created for the famous band Sex Pistols (from 1976) and for the band Dead Kennedys (from 1978). In 1980 he supervises the layout of the Vivienne Westwood Fashion Store in London. In 1983 the writer John Savage defines his style the art of plunder, since it is characterised by reuse and a combination of graphic materials. In 1987 Up They Rise: the Incomplete Works of Jamie Reid is published. In 1991 an exhibition of his work is held in Liverpool with the title Jamie Reid: The Rise of the Phoenix Celtic Surveyor IV. Punk visual art strongly links political topics and graphic design. It comes just before the digital evolution and so it is not a CAD (Computer Aided Design). In England, during the second half of the Seventies (a negative period, characterised by major political issues and high unemployment) Punk style shakes the stereotypes of graphic design, marking a revolutionary transition. When Malcolm McLaren, the manager of the Punk Rock band Sex Pistols, and a promoter of this genre, asks Reid to draw the bands t-shirts and all its promotional material, like album covers and posters, Reid gladly accepts. He starts off by putting halftone screens, newspaper cut letters, highlighters, fluorescent ink, typewritten or hand written texts into play. The first cover of the single Anarchy in the UK (1976) immediately generates visual shock, through a torn and pierced Union Jack kept together by safety pins; stapled newspaper cutouts spell out the title and the name of the band, a typeface per letter. The most emblematic symbol of British culture is mutilated by a rough and merciless operation which could be described as being sacrilegious.

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Anarchy in the U.K., Record Cover, 1976 God save the Queen, Record Cover, 1977 Fuck forever (1986), Poster, 1997 Fuck the banks, Collage, 2011

2.

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PAUL RENNER
Wernigerode, 1878 Hdingen, 1956

Only Futura by Paul Renner is still topical. Jost Hochuli

1. Burke, C., Paul Renner. The Art of Typography , Hyphen, London 1998. 2. Castellacci, C., Sanvotale, P., Il tipografo mestiere darte , il Saggiatore, Milan 2004, pp. 212-215. 3. Hochuli, J., Il particolare nella progettazione grafica. Lettere, spaziature fra le lettere, parole, spaziature fra le parole, linee, interlineatura, colonne , Computergraphic, Wilmington MA 1988, pp. 13, 44-46. 4. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 54, 66, 67, 171. 5. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 9, 140, 212, 246, 248, 250, 258, 275. 6. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 224, 229, 291. 7. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Abecedario. La grafica del Novecento , Electa, Milan 2003 (2002), pp. 122-127, 205. 8. Ratin, M., Ricci, M., Questioni di carattere. La tipografia in Italia dallUnit nazionale agli anni Settanta , Stampa alternativa Graffiti, Rome 1997, pp. 50, 139-141, 143. 9. Renner, P., The Art of Typography (1939), Hyphen, London 1998. 10. Renner, P., Mechanisierte Grafik , Reckendorf, Berlin 1931. 11. Renner, P., Color. Orfer and Harmony. A color Theory for Artists and Craftsmen , Studio Vista, London 1964. 12. Willberg, H. P., Schrift im Bauhaus Die Futura van Paul Renner , Wolfgang Tiessen, Neu-Isenburg 1969.

Amongst the most important type designers of the century, Renner studies painting at the Kunstakademie in Berlin and later at the Academy of Karlsruhe and Munich, where he works as a painter for Muller Verlag (1907-1917). In the same year he joins the Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation), showing great enthusiasm in every field. From 1925 to 1926 he works at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Frankfurt and starts designing the typeface Futura (which he develops in 1928). In 1926, back in Munich, he becomes the director of the Grafische Berufsschulen, a school of graphic design. In 1933 he takes care of the Deutscher Werkbund at the V Triennale in Milan, a project that is widely appreciated. In the same year he is expelled from the school by the Nazis, but the totalitarian regime does not stop him from continuing his work as a graphic designer and publishing Mechanisierte Grafik. Schrift, Typo, Foto, Film, Farbe (1931) and Die Kunst der Typografie (1940). Besides Futura (his masterpiece) other noteworthy typefaces are: Plak (1928), Futura Black (1929), Futura Licht (1932), Futura Schlagzeile (1932), Ballade (1937), Renner Antiqua (1939) and Steile Futura (1952). In 1928 the Bauer foundry releases the first version of the typeface Futura, followed by the production, by popular demand, of the rest of the family. This geometrical Sans-serif is widely appreciated and still used today, like all the experimental typefaces of those years, starting from Herbert Bayers Universal of 1925 and other Bauhaus productions. In the original project, the lower case letters have extremely revolutionary characteristics; in fact, Renner decides to set them aside, as they are not clear enough. The upper case letters refer to earlier models, but this does not prevent Renner from designing the most representative typeface of the new typographic trends. Its success is guaranteed by the geometric simplification of each letter and a rich series of optical corrections, which make it proportioned and elegant. This is evident when overlapping letters c and a with their mirrored image. From 1933 to 1934, Edoardo Persico, director of Casabella, chooses Futura for the new version of the magazine. And many years later it still remains influential and a source of inspiration for numerous successful typographic projects, such as Herbert Lubalins Avant Garde (1970).

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159

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- Futura, Font, 1928 - Futura, Font Adv, 1930

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ALEKSANDR RODCHENKO
Saint Petersburg, 1891 Moscow, 1956

The work of the Russian Aleksandr Rodchenko stands out for its vigour and dynamism. Jeremy Aynsley

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 10, 58, 59, 74, 122, 175, 222. 2. Elliot, D., Rodchenko and the Arts of Revolutionary Russia , Pantheon, New York 1979. 3. Gassner, H., Dbats constructuvistes, 1924-1928 , Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit, 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 280-289. 4. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 54, 55, 62, 63, 84, 85, 110, 111, 138, 139, 158, 159. 5. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 48-50, 62, 190. 6. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 8, 181, 189, 184, 195, 198, 215-217, 261, 263. 7. Lavrentiev, A., Aleksandr Rodchenko. Photography. 1924-1954, Knickerbocker Press, New York 1996. 8. Lodder, C., Russian Constructivism , Yale, New Haven London 1983. 9. Margolin, V., The Struggle for Utopia. Rodchenko, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy 1917-1946 , University of Chicago, Chicago London 1997. 10. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 262-264, 268, 269. 11. Milner, J., Alexander Rodchenko Design , Antique Collectors Club, Woodbridge 2009. 12. Spencer, H., Pioneers of Modern Typograph y, Lund Humphries, London 1982 (1969), pp. 17, 134-139.

A leading figure of Constructivism, Rodchenko in an eclectic artist who starts off as a painter and then takes interest in photography and graphic design. In 1915 he graduates from the Kazan School of Art. He later moves to Moscow to attend the Stroganov Institute, where he studies graphic design. In 1916 he starts collaborating with Vladimir Tatlin (founder of Productivism) and displays his work at the Magasin exhibition. In 1917 he works at the Caf Pittoresco in Moscow. In 1921 he teaches at the Moscow Vkhutemas (metalworking and woodworking institution). He also carries out graphic design projects, working for theatres and cinemas. He designs numerous propaganda posters, works for a few publishing houses and collaborates in the movie Kino-pravda (1923) by Dziga Vertov. From 1923 to 1925 he works at the graphic layout and the editing of the journal LEF directed by Vladimir Mayakovsky. In 1925 he takes part in the Exposition Universelle in Paris, winning three silver medals. In 1925 he collaborates with the magazine Sovetskoe Kino (Soviet Cinema). He displays his photographs for the first time in 1927, achieving great success. From 1940 he dedicates himself uniquely to painting. Vladimir Tatlin, an influential figure throughout Rodchenkos work, hopes that an improvement of the quality of life may come through social change. The (cultural) Revolution, brought forward by the intellectuals, is intrinsically linked with art. This is why his pupil, Rodchenko, drops painting considered to be an end in itself, and takes up graphic design, photography and photomontage, experimenting continuously. His photographs are characterised by daring perspectives and dramatically skewed axes; these striking angles, highlighted by evocative textures, give great dynamism to the images. One of his masterpieces is the poster Lengiz. Books on all the branches of knowledge (1925). Enclosed in a circle that lies within the drawing of a flag, the main character Lilja Brick is photographed in the act of shouting, as if she were selling goods at a market; her message is to raise awareness among Soviet workers: Knigi! (books). The colours are flat and contrasting and deliver a feeling of energy, while the womans mouth is similar to a weapon shooting out words in block capitals, whose forms burst out as in an explosion.

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- - - - -

Knigi, Poster, 1925 Dobrolet, Poster, 1923 Better Pacifiers, Poster, 1923 Kinoglaz, Poster, 1924 LEF n1, Cover, 1923

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EMIL RUDER
Zurich, 1914 Basel, 1970

The formal quality of every piece of typography depends on the relationship between the printed and unprinted parts. Emil Ruder

1. Baroni, D., Il manuale del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 1999, pp. 69, 156, 168, 169. 2. Blackwell, L., 20-Century Types , Laurence King, London 2000 (1998). 3. Hochuli, J., Il particolare nella progettazione grafica. Lettere, spaziature fra le lettere, parole, spaziature fra le parole, linee, interlineatura, colonne , Computergraphic, Wilmington (MA) 1988, p. 45. 4. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 130, 199, 200. 5. Hollis, R., Swiss Graphic Design. The Origins and Growth of an International Style. 1920-1965 , Laurence King, London 2006, pp. 139, 149, 160, 178, 180, 190, 197, 198, 215, 218-219, 222, 226, 249, 256, 257. 6. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present, Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 9, 13, 323, 325, 326, 328, 329, 331, 354, 378. 7. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 325-327, 435, 436. 8. Ruder, E., Die Farbe. Kurze Farbenlehrer fr den Buchdruker , Verkauf, Vienna 1948. 9. Ruder, E., Typography. A Manual of Design , Niggli, Teufen 1982 (1967) (English-Deutsche-French). 10. Ruder, E., Letterhead, Europe at Work Association, Basel 1958. 11. Russo, D., Free Graphics. La grafica fuori delle regole nellera digitale, Lupetti, Milan 2006, pp. 8, 15. 12. Weingart, W., My Way to Typography , Lars Mller, Baden 2000 (English-Deutsche), pp. 76, 78, 83, 88, 89, 93, 100, 101, 139, 233, 270, 320.

A pioneer of typographic experimentation, Ruder is a key figure of the Swiss school. From 1929 he studies art as a typesetting apprentice. In 1944 he attends the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, where he is charmed by the experiments carried out at the Bauhaus and by Jan Tschicholds New Typography. In 1942 he teaches typography and printing processes at the AGS (Allgemeine Gewerbeschule) in Basel. In 1947 with Armin Hofmann, he founds the Schule fr Gestaltung (School of Design) in Basel, and together they elaborates a new syllabus, based on the fundamental principles of design; it is also thanks to other professors like Kurt Hauert, Robert Bchler and Wolfgang Weingart, that the school establishes itself as one of the most selective and prestigious in the world. Ruder will teach here for over twenty years. In the meantime, together with typographer Aaron Burns, he founds the International Center for the Typographic Arts in New York in 1962. In 1967 he publishes Typographie. A Manual of Design, where he states the importance of using typographic grids, alignments and sans-serif typefaces, neutral, minimalistic, objective and unequalled devices for the correct delivery of a message. The above-mentioned manual, written in three languages (German, English and French), is an accurate guide, packed with rules of composition and typographic details, innovative at the time. The nineteen chapters, illustrated with black and white pictures, with the addition of primary colours (red, yellow and blue), introduce detailed reflections on the designing of titles, the weight of letters, kerning, line spacing, legibility along with issues regarding texture and colour. In addition, Ruder underlines the importance of unprinted spaces in the page layout and within each text spaces which work synergistically with the printed ones in the general composition and most of all gives a series of hints about the selection of typefaces (obviously sans-serifs), picking and recommending some of the most undisputed and balanced (for both text and titles), in order to achieve a harmonious and dynamic layout, and an overall equilibrium of the elements on the page. Typographie is still an important landmark, a fundamental manual which has become part of the teachings of the most important type and graphic design institutes in the world.

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- - - - -

Typographie. A Manual of Design, Cover, 1967 Berlin, Poster, 1963 Zurcher Maler, Poster, 1956 Neue wirtshausschilder, Poster, 1962 Das Kinderbilderbuch, Poster, 1959

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STEFAN SAGMEISTER
Bregenz, 1962

The design that interests me most is the one that reaches the heart of the beholder. Stefan Sagmeister

1. Fiell, C., Fiell, P., Graphic Design for the 21st Century. 100 of the Worlds Best Graphic Designers , Taschen, Kln 2003, pp. 488-493. 2. Hall, P., Sagmeister. Made You Look , Booth-Clibborn, London 2004 (2001). 3. Hansen, B., Sagmeister, S., Visible Music. Cd Jacket Graphics, Gingko, Corte Madera (CA) 2000. 4. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 172, 173, 198-203. 5. Heller, S., Ilic , M., The Anathomy of Design. Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design, Rockport, Gloucester (MA) 2007, pp. 17, 24, 26, 27, 33, 38, 47. 6. Russo, D., Free Graphics. La grafica fuori delle regole nellera digitale, Lupetti, Milan 2006, pp. 62-67, 146-151. 7. Russo, D., Grafica multimodale , in Aa. Vv., Gli spazi e le arti, Enciclopedia del XXI Secolo, vol. IV, Treccani Terzo Millennio, Turin 2010, pp. 579-587. 8. Sagmeister, S., F-Stop Catalog #1 , FSI FontShop International, Berlin 2002. 9. Sagmeister, S., Prodhom, C., Woodtli, M., Sagmeister: Another Book about Promotion & Sales Material , Schmidt, Mainz 2011. 10. Sagmeister, S., Shaughnessy, A., How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul, Princeton Architectural Press, Princeton 2005. 11. Sagmeister, S., What Does Typography Mean to me , IDEA, 275, June 1999, pp. 92-96.

Known for his shocking ideas, Sagmeister is currently one of the most sparkling designers around. From 1981 to 1985 he studies at the Universitt fr Angewandte Kunst in Vienna. He later obtains an important job at the Leo Burnett agency in Hong Kong, where he can express his talent and originality. In 1993, back from the Asian experience, and after having worked for Tibor Kalmans M&Co., he opens his own studio in New York: Sagmeister Inc. Here, music plays a key role opening up a lot of opportunities. Thanks to a series of astonishing works done for less famous bands, Sagmeister starts designing album covers for bigger clients such as The Rolling Stones, Lou Reed and Talking Heads through which he wins some international graphic design awards. He is defined a disco graphic designer in tune with MTV, mostly for his ability to mix various graphic elements, like a DJ does with musical tracks. In 2001 his work is collected in a book by Peter Hall, a sort of manual of optical effects of surprising simplicity, which gives him great visibility: Sagmeister. Made You Look. In 2004 he teaches in Berlin, and in New York at the School of Visual Art and at the Cooper Union School of Art. In 2008 Sagmeister releases Things I Have Learned in my Life so Far, a collection of aphorisms and daring graphic experiments, which prove how his non-style always results in mind-blowing solutions capable of capturing the viewers. Sagmeisters approach is very similar to artistic experimentation, sparked by the question Is it possible to touch somebodys heart with graphic design? - an attempt to transfer to the field of graphic design the ability art has of rousing and moving. In 1999 he designs a poster for an AIGA lecture in Detroit. The text of the poster is entirely carved into his torso, a typographic composition never seen before, which powerfully expresses the fundamental characteristics of his work: subversive mentality, a constant quest for aesthetic shock and an ironic aloofness; all summed up in the formula Style = Fart, yet another provocation which highlights the (widely spread) risk of privileging the aesthetic part of a work, rather than its content. On the contrary, Sagmeister is gratified by the idea of changing style in every project, an intriguing and outrageous approach.

INDEX

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- Style = Fart, Poster AIGA, 1999 - Set the Twilight Reeling di Lou Reed, Poster, 1996 - Chaumont, Poster, 2004

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RAYMOND SAVIGNAC
Paris, 1907 Trouville-sur-Mer, 2002

A poster is like a visual rape. Raymond Savignac

1. Barnicoat, J., Posters. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1998 (1972), pp. 131, 168, 211, 214. 2. Choko, M. H., Jones, Paul, Raymond Savignac, Pyramyd, Paris 2005. 3. Citra, F., Savignac en vrac. Muse de Troville , Cahiers du temps, Cabourg 1998. 4. Fukuda, S., Cochon by Raymond Savignac, in Aa. Vv., Area, Phaidon, London 2005, p. 412. 5. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 13, 136, 143, 148. 6. Huet, M., Savignac , Linea grafica, 3, May-June 1974, pp. 126-130. 7. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 9, 220, 341, 342, 344. 8. Leilieur, A.-C., Bachollet, Rayomnd, Savignac. Affichiste , Bibliothque Forney, Paris 2001. 9. Marsano, B., Manifesti , Electa, Milan 2003, pp. 74, 80, 81, 143, 294. 10. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. La storia, i protagonisti e i temi dallOttocento ai giorni nostri , Electa, Milan 2006, pp. 28, 99, 118, 119. 11. Savignac, R., Affichiste , Laffont, Paris 1975. 12. Wlassikoff, M., Histoire du Graphisme en France , Les Arts Decoratifs, Paris 2008, pp. 172, 173.

Without a doubt, Savignac is one of the most talented French affichistes and a widely appreciated cartoonist. He initially attends the cole Lavoisier in Paris but drops out in 1922 to become an artist. He starts off drawing cartoons for movies and advertisements, while working for the Compagnie des Transports Parisiens. In the meantime he attends evening classes to study industrial design. In 1928 he receives various commissions from the companies Miramar, Hachard and Mtropole Publicit. In 1935, tired of his lack of success, he meets up with Cassandre to ask an opinion on his work; Cassandre is enthusiastic and the two collaborate until 1938. He then enlists in the army and moves to Dijon. In 1940 he moves back to Paris where he works for important brands such as LOral and Monsavon. In 1954 he opens his own atelier and works for Il Giorno and for Times two years later (1956). Within a few years his major clients are Cinzano, Air Wick, Dunlop, Perrier, Danone, Monsavon, Locatelli and the Monte Carlo circus. He creates advertisements for various cigarette brands such as Parisiennes (1951) and Collie (1952). In 1979 he moves to Normandy, where he continues working on posters, producing around 600 throughout his career. Savignacs posters have a brand of humour that characterises the advertisement message in an intriguing way. The images are descriptive and dominated by characters, men, women, animals, both happy and sad, in the act of eating chocolate, drinking wine, dreaming, smiling, driving Vespas which in general convey a feeling of joy, much appreciated in the years following the Second World War. His style is delicate and influenced by his days as a cartoonist. The colours Savignac prefers are lively and bright and usually primary, especially in the larger, and more visible, areas. He often uses silhouettes, in the style of Cassandre, his mentor and continuous source of inspiration. In 1948, with Bernard Villemont, a famous graphic designer, he supervises some exhibitions and the advertising campaign for Monsavon, which makes him famous overnight. The Monsavon poster of 1949 is a perfect example of his synthetic and ironic approach and the result is brilliant: a black and pink cow whose udders pour out milk, which forms a bar of soap. Savignac himself claims that he often combines two images in one, in this case a cow for milk and a bar of soap for the brand Monsavon.

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- Monsavon au lait, Poster, 1949 - Path, Poster, 1958 - Air France, Poster, 1951

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XANTI SCHAWINSKY
Basel, 1904 Locarno, 1979

His experience at the Bauhaus put him in a condition to intellectually dominate graphic tasks with coloristic and visual intensity. Antonio Boggeri

1. Aa. Vv., Xanti Shawinsky, Bauhaus Archiv , Berlin 1986. 2. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 84, 85. 3. Boggeri, A., Una B rossa fra due punti. Colloquio con Antonio Boggeri, Rassegna, 6, April 1981, pp. 20, 21. 4. Fagone, V., Xanti Schawinsky. La fotografia: dal Bauhaus al Black Mountain , Flaviana, Locarno 1981. 5. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia , Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 10, 56, 71, 77, 92, 94, 104, 108, 202. 6. Fontanella, R., Di Somma, M., Cesar, M., Come cambiano i marchi. Metamorfosi di 60 marchi italiani, Ikon, Milan 2003, pp. 140, 141, 164-167. 7. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History, Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 66, 67, 101, 104, 129, 138, 139, 173, 215. 8. Holz, H. H., Xanti Schawinsky. Bewegung im Raum, Bewegung des Raums , ABC, Zurich 1981. 9. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 255, 257, 258, 260, 265, 270. 10. Pasca, V., Russo, D., Corporate Image. Un secolo dimmagine coordinata dallAEG alla Nike , Lupetti, Milan 2005, pp. 21-25, 74-77. 11. Scim, G. (edited by), Bauhaus e razionalismo nelle fotografie di Lux Feininger, Franco Grignani, Xanti Schawinsky, Luigi Veronesi (catalogue), Mazzotta, Milan 1993. 12. Solmi, F., Xanti Schawinsky, Grafis Industrie, Bologna 1975.

A versatile artist and graphic designer, Schawinsky is well-known (in Italy) for the work carried out at Studio Boggeri, particularly for Olivetti. From 1921 to 1923 he is an apprentice at the Merrill architect studio. From 1923 to 1924 he attends the Kunstgewerbeschule in Berlin and, from 1924 to 1929, the Bauhaus (in Weimar and Dessau), gaining knowledge about scenography, photography and typography. In 1933 he moves to Milan where he starts working for Studio Boggeri, bringing Bauhaus teachings to Italy. He produces artworks for the Cervo Hat Factory in Biella and for Cinzano in 1933, for Olivetti, Tudor and Illy Caff in 1934. In 1936 he moves to New York where he continues his activity as a graphic designer, while teaching, from 1943 to 1945, at the City College of New York and at New York University. From 1948 to 1960, in addition to graphic design, Schawinsky becomes an eager sculptor and painter, while in 1962, in Basel, he gets a chance to work for the sets of The Stone Flower, a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev. In 1963 he returns to Italy and opens a studio in Oggebbio. His works are displayed more than once at the MoMA and other important museums all over the world. Schawinskys approach is essential and very creative. One of his most amazing projects is the second logotype drawn for Olivetti, in 1934, whose letters resemble those of a typewriter, instantly suggesting the main product of the company; in addition, all the letters are lower case, according to the teaching of the Bauhaus, particularly of Herbert Bayer and Lszl Moholy-Nagy, who were strict followers of mono-alphabets. Another exemplary work of his is the poster for MP1, the first Olivetti portable typewriter: a simple, light and elegant object of a fiery red colour to shine out amidst the grey office objects, but also ideal in the house, with its pleasant form. In Schawinskys poster, the product is depicted next to a girl with a wide brim hat and bright red lips; a certain similarity between the typewriter type bars and the girls lips can be noticed. It is interesting to observe how the original Olivetti testimonial, the poet Dante, in Teodoro Wolf Ferraris poster for the M1 (Olivettis first typewriter), has been replaced with a more Hollywood-like figure, a sign of how the figurative culture has started blending with fashion, movies and new medias in general.

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- Olivetti: MP1, Calendar Cover, 1935 - Princeps, Poster, 1934 - Olivetti M40, Cover, 1934

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PAULA SCHER
Washington, 1948

I like to build words. Typography is form, and forms bring meanings with them, influencing them. In this way, a typographic choice can seem cheerful, serious, angry. Paula Scher
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Aa. Vv., Paula Scher, Pyramyd, Paris 2008. Bos, B., Bos, E., Graphic Design. Since 1950 , Thames & Hudson, London 2007. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 46, 47, 115, 116, 158, 159, 168, 169. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, p. 188. Pasca, V., Russo, D., Corporate Image. Un secolo dimmagine coordinata dallAEG alla Nike , Lupetti, Milan 2005, p. 111. 6. Poynor, R., No More Rules. Graphic Design and Postmodernism , Laurence King, London 2003, pp. 60, 78, 80-82, 90, 135. 7. Scher, P., Make it Bigger, Princepton Architectural Press, New York 2002. 8. Scher, P., Maps, Princeton Architectural Press, New York 2011. 9. Scher, P., Progetti grafici di grande carattere , Carlo Branzaglia interview, Artlab, 21, October 2006, p. 23. 10. Scher, P., The Graphic Design Portfolio. How to Make a Good One, Watson-Guptill, New York 1992. 11. Scher, P., The Honeymoon Boo k, Evans, New York 1981. 12. Stoltze, C. (introduction by), Digital Type , Rockport (MA) 1997, pp. 7, 24, 25.

Graphic designer, illustrator, painter and professor, Scher is the first woman to become part of Pentagram in 1991. She studies at the Tyler School of Art in Pennsylvania, where she graduates in Fine Arts in 1970. She later moves to New York, where she works as a graphic designer for Random House, in the childrens book division. In the Seventies, she works as an art director for Atlantic and CBS Records, designing a variety of album artworks. Working for the music industry, she has the chance to experiment new languages, drawing inspiration from Futurism, Constructivism and Dadaism; she is also affected by the work of Seymour Chwast and the Push Pin Studios. In 1984 she starts the Koppel & Scher studio with Terry Koppel. In 1991, having joined Pentagram, she carries out projects of corporate identity and designs promotional material, packaging and environmental graphics. In 1994 she designs the corporate identity for the Public Theater in New York, while working on the advertising campaign for the New York Shakespeare Festival. In addition, she works for the MoMA, the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Ballet. She teaches at the School of Visual Art in New York, at Yale and at the Tyler School of Art. She is a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale). Numerous exhibitions of her work have been organised in the worlds major museums, like the MoMA, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the Centre Pompidou. In 1984 the Swatch Watch company USA asks Koppel & Scher to come up with an advertising campaign for a modern product, directed towards the younger generations. According to popular belief the brand Swatch stands for colour, imagination and creativity, all ingredients of the famous light and very coloured watches. What the company wants to communicate is that every individual can pick the model that suits his style best, acquiring a sense of dynamism and a genuine feeling of joy from the colour combinations, textures and changing graphic solutions. In the 1985 Swatch poster, energy, competitiveness and the fundamental values of the Swiss company are linked to the world of sports. They merge in a powerful quote, a cult image, Herbert Matters famous Swiss tourism poster of 1934, obtained through contrasting proportions and combinations of photos (in black and white), graphic symbols and coloured areas. Scher represents aspects of postmodern graphic design (making the poster a typical example of the current): the quote, but most of all the overlapping of graphic elements which break up into a series of interpenetrated and wonderfully blended levels.

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- Swatch, Poster, 1985 - The Public Theater: Da funk, Poster, 1996 - Best of jazz, Poster, 1979

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JOOST SCHMIDT
Wunstorf, 1893 Nuremberg, 1948

His typographic works and his researches on colour are among the most important things that have emerged on these topics, and at his time. Hans M. Wingler

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 61, 62. 2. Blackwell, L., 20-Century Types , Laurence King, London 2000 (1998). 3. Fiedler, J., Feierabend, P. (edited by), Bauhaus , Knemann, Cologne 2007 (1999). 4. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 53, 54, 63, 102. 5. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 374, 375, 386. 6. Loew, H., Nonne-Schmidt, H., Joost Schmidt. Lehre und Arbeit am Bauhaus 1919-1932, Marzona, Dsseldorf 1984. 7. Neumann, E., Bauhaus and Bauhaus People. Personal Opinions and Recollections of Former Bauhaus Members and their Contemporaries, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York 1993. 8. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Abecedario. La grafica del Novecento , Electa, Milan 2003 (2002), pp. 112, 205. 9. Spencer, H., Pioneers of Modern Typography , Lund Humphries, London 1982 (1969), p. 39. 10. Wingler, H. M., The Bauhaus. Weimar, Dessau, Berlin, Chicago (1962), MIT Press, Chicago 1969.

An important figure of the Bauhaus, Schmidt excels in the field of typography. In 1910 he attends the Groherzoglich Schsische Hochschule fr Bildende Kunst in Weimar, and receives his diploma in painting in 1914. After having taken part in the First World War, he attends the Bauhaus in 1919, where he stands out in Johannes Itten and Oskar Schlemmers workshop on wood carving. From 1923 he carries out his first typographical projects, each one meticulous and flawless from the very beginning. From 1925 to 1932 he teaches at the Bauhaus, in charge of the sculpture workshop until 1930 and the advertising workshop from 1928; he also teaches lettering from 1925 and drawing from 1929. He later opens a studio in Berlin and also works as an illustrator of maps for a publishing house but he is soon accused by the Nazis of being a cultural Bolshevik and is kept from practising his profession. In 1934 he helps Walter Gropius organise the exhibition German people German work in Berlin. From 1935 he teaches at the Reimann Schule, and after the Second World War, at the Hochschule fr bildende Kunst in Berlin, upon Max Tauts invitation. In 1946 he helps designing the exhibition Berlin plant/Erster Bericht, and other exhibitions at the USA Exhibition Center from 1947. In 1922 the German government asks the (State) Bauhaus in Weimar to organise an exhibition in order to verify the work undertaken up to then and decide whether to continue supporting the school economically. This exhibition, which takes place in 1923, is a chance for the school to promote itself. In general, what can be observed in the displayed projects is the marked influence of movements like De Stijl and Russian Constructivism. In addition, the symptoms of a new, widely spreading, functionalist sensibility are clear. In particular, a new typography is glorified, made of linear typefaces, and a lack of symmetry throughout the page in favour of a perfectly asymmetrical balance, developed by lines and geometrical figures. The poster Schmidt designs for the exhibition is exemplary. The message is concentrated in a single image composed by geometrical figures, words (written in sans-serif typefaces), various symbols and incorporating the second Bauhaus logo (designed by Oskar Schlemmer) a flying plane, constructed on a dynamic diagonal axis, as seen in the work of El Lissitzky and Russian Constructivism in general.

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- Bauhaus exhibition, Poster, 1923 - Bauhaus produced chessboard by Josef Hartwig, Adv, 1923

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KURT SCHWITTERS
Hannover, 1887 Kendal, 1948

The impersonality of print is better than the personal style of the artist. Kurt Schwitters

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit, 1890-1990 (catalogue), George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 50-52, 104, 238, 243-269, 290, 291, 293, 298. 2. Broos, K., Helfting, P., Dutch Graphic Design , Phaidon, London 1993, pp. 58, 61, 63, 76, 78, 91, 172. 3. Dietrich, D., The Collages of Kurt Schwitters. Tradition and Innovation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1993. 4. Elderfield, J., Kurt Schwitters, Thames & Hudson, London 1985. 5. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 56, 57, 64, 66, 68, 69, 71, 72, 166, 200. 6. Hollis, R., Swiss Graphic Design. The Origins and Growth o fan International Style. 1920-1965 , Laurence King, London 2006, pp. 10, 25, 36, 40, 42, 44, 56, 60, 259. 7. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 9, 169, 17, 181, 192, 196-198, 205, 207-210, 212-214, 231, 246, 350, 317, 353, 393. 8. Lemoine, S. (edited by), Kurt Schwitters , (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1994. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 239-241, 273, 276, 277. 10. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Abecedario. La grafica del Novecento , Electa, Milan 2003 (2002), pp. 100-109. 11. Spencer, H., Pioneers of Modern Typography , Lund Humphries, London 1982 (1969), pp. 21, 27, 33, 48, 60, 67, 80, 81, 92-99. 12. Webster, G., Kurt Merz Schwitters, University of Wales Press, Cardiff 1997.

One of the major Dada exponents in Germany, Schwitters gives an important contribution to typography. From 1908 he attends the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hanover and then moves to the Akademie der Bildenden Knste in Dresden, specialising in painting, with professors of the likes of Carl Bantzer, Gotthardt Kuhl and Emanuel Hegenbarth. In addition, he is fond of literature, charmed by the lectures of Oskar Walzel. In 1917 he joins the avant-garde movements, and writes his first poems. In 1918 he displays his work at the Der Sturm gallery in Berlin, while collaborating with the homonymous magazine, for which he writes articles and poems. In 1920 Schwitters displays his works in New York at the Socit Anonyme, founded by Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. In 1923 he leads the Dada campaign in Holland with Theo van Doesburg, and releases the first issue of the famous magazine Merz, which he directs until 1932. In the same year he starts developing the Merzbau, his most characteristic work, where he collects, and assembles, various objects. In 1924 he founds the advertising agency Merz Werbezentrale. He joins the groups Cercle et Carr, Abstraction-Cration and is co-founder of the Ring group. During the Thirties and Forties, his works are displayed at the MoMA, at the touring exhibition Entartete Kunst and at Londons Modern Art Gallery. For Schwitters, the word Merz is a true artistic purpose that derives from the surrounding world. He aspires to an art which is free from hierarchies and boundaries between its different expressions and can, on the contrary, contain them all. This is why he recycles typographic compositions and advertising posters in his collages, or does the opposite collage-like posters since art lies at the bottom of everything. The influence of the historic avant-garde movements, Constructivism for one, is clear in his work to such an extent that some of it can be compared to the work of El Lissitzky. Traces of Futurism can be found too, as can be noted in the enigmatic title of the 1920 poster KIF/ MIC/HAI, that clearly draws inspiration from Marinettis words-in-freedom. In the first years of the Thirties though, Schwitterss work starts adopting a more moderate and essential appearance. An example is the clear and synthetic poster drawn for the opera house and theatre in Hanover. Another example is the 1927 poster designed for the Rheinhutte workshops in Biebrich entitled Transportable Motorpumpen, where Schwitters uses photography and photomontage in the most objective way.

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- Merz n 11, Cover, 1924 - Merz n 1, Cover, 1923 - Merz n 2, Cover, 1923

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ALBE STEINER
Milan, 1913 Raffadali, 1974

A graphic designer must be more and more scientifically oriented, he is not a bluff. His is a real specialisation. Albe Steiner

1. Aa. Vv., Albe Steiner. Comunicazione visiva (catalogue), Alinari, Florence, 1977. 2. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 136, 139, 181, 192, 193, 201, 218, 234, 236, 237, 272, 278. 3. Dorfles, G., Albe Steiner. Intervista di Anna Steiner, Progetto grafico, 1, July 2001, pp. 52-58. 4. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia , Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 10, 11, 71, 78, 88, 104, 106, 107 122, 138, 142, 144, 174, 179, 203, 205. 5. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 257, 260, 298, 337, 338, 340. 6. Polano, S., Oggi gi domani. Albe Steiner in Messico , Casabella, 750, 751, December-January 2006-2007, pp. 21-26. 7. Polano, S., Tassinari, P., Sussidiario. Grafica e caratteri moderni, Electa, Milan 2010, pp. 94-103. 8. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. Segni, simboli e segnali, Electa, Milan 2005, pp. 44, 62, 63, 76, 122, 123. 9. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. La storia, i protagonisti e i temi dallOttocento ai giorni nostri , Electa, Milan 2006, pp. 71, 80, 81, 85-87, 102, 186. 10. Steiner, A., Il mestiere del grafico , Einaudi, Turin 1978. 11. Steiner, A., Dorfles, Gillo, Comunicazioni visive , Stagni, Ozzano dellEmilia (BO) 1964. 12. Steiner, A., e altri, Due dimensioni , Editype, Milan 1964. 13. Steiner, A., Albe Steiner, Corraini, Mantova 2006.

Marked by the assassination of his uncle Giacomo Matteotti and by the AntiFascist Resistance, Steiner conveys his civil commitment through graphic design. He graduates in accounting, but soon grows fond of graphic design, making his debut in 1933 with the brochure for the Atala motorcycle 175. He then collaborates with Studio Boggeri, where he takes an interest in painting and photography and learns the teachings of the Bauhaus and of Russian Constructivism. In 1939 he starts, together with his wife Lica, the LAS studio (Lica Albe Steiner). In 1940 he displays his work at the Milan Triennale. After World War Two, he works as a graphic designer for the magazine Il Politecnico, directed by Elio Vittorini. In 1946 he moves to Mexico for two years. Once back in Italy, he resumes his work as a designer, and dedicates himself to education, running the Scuola del Libro in Milan in 1959, teaching at the Scuola Rinascita and in various art institutes throughout Italy (Urbino, Parma, Rome and Florence). Moreover, he works for important firms like Einaudi, Feltrinelli and Zanichelli, and with the magazines Stile Industria, Casabella, Domus, Edilizia moderna and Tempi moderni. Besides numerous quality projects, Steiner is also the father of some widely known and appreciated logos. One of these is certainly the one he drew for the Compasso dOro award in 1954. This prestigious acknowledgment was an idea of Gi Ponti and the objective was to reward the best projects in the field of Italian graphic design, which at the time was just starting to establish itself. The logo initially belongs to La Rinascente (for whom Steiner works in 1950 as an art director taking care of their window displays). As always Steiners work is essential, synthetic, geometric and lacking any sort of decoration. In this case, the structural elements of the silhouette of the compass are not perfectly defined, and the shape reminds us more of 19th century compasses rather than the modern thumbscrew ones. Steiner bases both versions of the logo on the Golden Section, proof of his extreme rigour and his great precision. The original version also the includes a logotype of La Rinascente (conceived by Max Huber in 1950), close to the left arm of the compass. The latter logotype eventually disappears, when the award is donated to ADI (Associazione per il Disegno Industriale) which still owns it today.

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- - - - -

Compasso dOro, Logo, 1954 Ricostruzione exhibition, Poster, 1945 Stile Industria n 1, Cover, April 1954 Pirelli Cavi Per Usi Industriali, Adv, 1959 14th Triennale di Milano, Poster, 1968

3.

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178

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IKKO TANAKA
Nara, 1930 Tokio, 2002

I think that from the N I have learnt the essence of the beauty of abstraction that can exceed the representation of reality. Tanaka Ikko

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 140, 196, 197. 2. Calza, G. C., Tanaka Ikko. Graphic Master, Phaidon, London 1997. 3. Hilmken, C. M., Tanaka, Ikko, Image for Survival (catalogue), The Shoshin Society, Washington 1985. 4. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 206, 209. 5. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 314, 321, 353, 363. 6. Koike, K., Mitsukuni, Y., Tanaka, I., Japanese Color, Libro Port Chronicle Books, Tokyo San Francisco 1982. 7. Koike, K., Tanaka, I., Japan Design: The Four Seasons in Design , Chronicle Books, San Francisco 1984. 8. Makai, S., Tanaka, I., Transition of Modern Typography. Europa & America 1950s-60s , Ginza Graphic Gallery, Tokyo 1996. 9. Marsano, B., Manifesti. Grafica e pubblicit , Electa, Milan 2005, pp. 93, 102, 167, 205. 10. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 418, 419. 11. Mitsukuni, Y., Sesoko, T., Tanaka, I., The Hybrid Culture: What Happened When East and West Met , Mazda, Hiroshima 1984. 12. Mitsukuni, Y., Tanaka, I. (edited by), Asobi. The Sensibilities at Play, Mezda Motor Corporation, Hiroshima 1987.

Tanaka is without a doubt one of the most interesting Japanese graphic designers. He graduates from the Kyoto City College of Fine Arts in 1950. From 1950 to 1952 he works as a textile designer for Kanegafuchi Spinning Mills and, from 1952 to 1957, at the Sankei Press in Osaka. In 1954 he starts working as a graphic designer, making his debut with an astonishing poster for the Kanze Noh theatre of Osaka. From 1960 to 1963 he works as an art director for the Nippon Design Centre in Tokyo. In 1963 he starts his own studio. In 1964 he works for the Tokyo Olympics. In 1966 he becomes a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale). In 1970 he designs the historic Japanese pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka. In 1981 he becomes a member of the JDPC (Japan Day Preparation Committee), a committee that takes care of organising Japan Day, an event held in Holland. In 1982 he takes care of the publication of the book Japanese Coloring with Kazuko Koike. In the same year he draws a series of posters for an environmental campaign supported by the Asahi Journal. He later collaborates with the stylists Hanae Mori, Kenzo and Issey Miyake. In addition he organises various exhibitions all over the world while both the MoMA in New York and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam host a permanent collection of his work. The work of Tanaka is very original and often evocative, an effective example of how tradition and innovation can be successfully combined. Tanaka, after having absorbed the Bauhaus lessons, interprets the typical expressive languages of his native art and the techniques of Western graphic design to perfection. Some of his most spectacular projects consist of abstract portraits developed through colourful shapes (some warm, some cold) organised in grids (of Swiss origin), to form the likeness of a face. One of these is Nihon Buyo, designed in 1981, in occasion of the American tour of the Asian Performing Art Institute. The poster depicts a geisha: as in a tangram, Tanaka assembles the geometric figures, squares and rectangles, some cut diagonally, to reconstruct the face, the shoulders and the hair of the woman; the circle is used to soften the figure and make the shape of the mouth and the eyes a bit less angular besides enhancing the geishas hairstyle. The mouth, formed by a red circle, and the face, rice-powder white are a reference to the Japanese flag.

INDEX

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- Nihon Buyo (Japanese dances), Poster, 1981 - 10th anniversary of the magazine Tategumi Yokogumi, Poster, 1993 - 20th anniversary of Shakaru, Poster, 1994

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ARMANDO TESTA
Turin, 1917 1992

To be a good advertiser today, first of all you need a profound culture, and you must be updated on narrating techniques, with an unobjectionable capacity to synthesise. Armando Testa
1. Aa. Vv., Armando Testa. Il segno e la pubblicit (catalogue), Mazzotta, Milan 1985. 2. Aa. Vv., The Art of Advertising. The Greatest Campains of Twentieth Century , Lupetti, Milan 1995 (English-Italian). 3. Aa. Vv., Armando Testa , Charta, Milan 2001. 4. Celant, G., Dorfles, G. (edited by), Armando Testa. Una retrospettiva, Electa, Milan 1993. 5. De Angelis Testa, G., Verzotti, G. (edited by), Armando Testa. Il design delle idee (catalogue), Silvana, Cinisello Balsamo (MI) 2010. 6. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia , Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 10, 61, 118, 203. 7. Heller, S., Ilic , M., The Amthomy of Design. Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design , Rockport, Gloucester (MA) 2007, p. 14. 8. Marsano, B., Manifesti, Electa, Milan 2003, pp. 88-92. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 390, 391. 10. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. La storia, i protagonisti e i temi dallOttocento ai giorni nostri , Electa, Milan 2006, pp. 92, 119. 11. Testa, A., Armando Testa: 40 Years of Intalian Creative Design , Allemandi, Turin 1987. 12. Testa, A., La parola immaginata , Pratiche, Parma 1988.

An imaginative creator of posters, Testa is responsible for some of the most famous advertising campaigns in Italy. He attends the Scuola tipografica Vigliardi Paravia, under the guidance of the abstract painter Ezio DErrico, who introduces him to the world of contemporary art. In 1937 he wins his first award at the poster contest sponsored by the ICI typographical colours company. In the years following the war he works for brands like Martini & Rossi, Carpano, Borsalino and Pirelli, he does illustrations for various editorial projects and founds Studio Testa in 1956. He develops many print and TV advertising campaigns, enhancing the prestige of companies like Lavazza, Olio Sasso, Carpano, Simmenthal and Lines. In addition, he wins both contests (1958-1959) for the drawing of the official poster of the 1960 Olympics in Rome. From 1965 to 1971 he teaches design and print composition at the Turin Polytechnic. In 1978 Studio Testa becomes Armando Testa S.p.A. based in Milan and Rome. In the Eighties he gets involved in social work, drawing posters for Amnesty International and for the Italian Red Cross. Testa receives prestigious awards even in this field, like the gold medal from the Italian Ministry of Public Education in 1968 and the gold medal from the Italian Advertising Federation in 1975. His posters are a milestone in the history of Italian graphic design. The characteristic which makes his work immediately recognisable is his remarkable ability to summarise concepts, resulting in unfettered creativity. Testa is not satisfied by rigid schematic or geometric rules; he develops an idea and translates it into graphical form, through symbolic representations, sharp strokes and few but very enticing colours. In this way he conveys a message in an effective way, often playing with literary devices, such as metonymy and synecdoche, dropping hints and allusions and leaving the interpretation of the poster to the viewers imagination. A good example of an artwork created in this way is the Punt e mes poster, designed in 1960: Testa gives a metaphoric interpretation of the name of the product, filling it in red to bring to mind the colour of the drink, the Italian vermouth made by Carpano. The white background contains two elements, a sphere and a half sphere, both slightly shaded, ironically and semantically recalling the name of the brand (Punt e mes means a point and a half) which is displayed in black on the lower part of the poster.

INDEX

181

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- Punt e Mes, Poster, 1960 - Pirelli: Atlante tyres, Poster, 1955 - Torino world cup, Poster, 1990

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HENRYK TOMASZEWSKI
Warsaw, 1914 2005

We imposed a style that no one accepted. Henryk Tomaszewski

1. Aa. Vv., 6 Chapters in Design. Saul Bass, Ivan Chermayeff, Milton Glaser, Paul Rand, Ikko Tanaka, Henryk Tomaszewsky, Chronicle Books, San Francisco 1997. 2. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 142, 143, 166, 170, 234. 3. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 172, 173, 196. 4. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 307, 333-335, 391. 5. Lenica, J., Poster Art in Post-War Polan d, Graphis, n. 24, 1948, pp. 358-362. 6. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 390, 391, 408. 7. Rauch, A., Graphic Design. La storia, i protagonisti e i temi dallOttocento ai giorni nostri , Electa, Milan 2006, pp. 122, 141. 8. Sarfis, T., Maruszewska, E. (edited by), Henryk Tomaszewski. Graphisme et pdagogie, Somogy, Paris 1995. 9. Tomaszewski, H., Henryk Tomaszewski (catalogue), Ginza Graphic Gallery, Tokyo 1992. 10. Tomaszewsky, H., Plakat, Institut fr Auskandsbeziehungen, Berlin 1993. 11. Torri, G., Notazioni polacche , Progetto grafico, 14-15, June 2009, p. 212. 12. Vittori, G., Non esiste uns Scuola polacca. Un incontro con Henrik Tomaszewski , Progetto grafico, 7, January 2006, pp. 56-61.

Tomaszewski is considered to be the most influential Polish poster designer. From 1934 to 1939 he attends the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. After having graduated in painting, he starts drawing caricatures for the Polish magazine Szpilka influenced by the work of Georg Grosz and John Heartfield. In 1944, under Nazi occupation, he publishes some drawings for the satirical magazine Stan czyk, most of which will be forever lost during the Warsaw Uprising. In 1945 he moves to dz and resumes the collaboration with Szpilka. In 1950 he goes back to Warsaw, where he is hired to design movie posters for Centrala Wynajmu Filmow. During the same year he is in charge of the sets of the Syrena theatre. From 1952 to 1985 he teaches at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. He wins various awards and acknowledgments all over Europe: in 1948, five first prizes at the International Film Poster Exhibition in Vienna, publications in magazines such as Przeglad Kulturalny and Literatura and in 1961, a collection of his works in Ksiazka zazalen / A Book of Complaints. Moreover, he is granted the title of Honorary Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts in London and becomes a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) in 1957. Polish posters are generally quite different from the ones marked by the Social Realist style typical of the Soviet Union and from those created throughout Eastern Europe. They also differ from Western posters, often too watered down, more inclined to a consumerist advertising culture. Polish graphic designers rather cynical, skeptical and mostly uninterested in political issues create very personalised posters, which sometimes prove to be nostalgic and surreal being both sophisticated and very colourful. Tomaszewski makes his debut amongst these designers by the end of the Thirties, and contributes to establishing a visual style capable of conveying energy, freedom and emancipation. An example is the poster Love. Created on the occasion of a retrospective of his works organised by the Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam in 1991, Tomaszewski concisely represents an ideal and, in particular, the love for his job in a very subtle manner. His dry, but at the same time lively, style is concentrated in a few strokes using an almost pictorial technique. In the middle of the poster is the word love, divided on two lines, in black paint strokes, with two additional elements: a red detail on the letter o, to symbolise a heart, alluding to passion, and a hairy detail on the letter v, evoking a vagina, therefore sex.

INDEX

183

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- Love, Poster, 1991 - Hadrian VII, Poster, 1969 - International Jazz Festival, Poster, 1971

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HENRI DE TOULOUSE LAUTREC

Albi, 1864 Saint-Andr-du-Bois, 1901

We admire Toulouse Lautrec. He is one of the few artists who understands what a poster is and should be. The Beggarstaffs

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit, 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 38, 39, 41, 42, 112-133, 138, 243, 308. 2. Castelman, R., Wittrock, W., Henry de Toulouse-Lautrec, MoMA, New York 1985. 3. Cooper, D., Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Thames & Hudson, London 1988. 4. Gtz, A., Toulouse-Lautrec: The complete Graphic Works , Thames & Hudson, London New York 1988. 5. Grazioli, E., Arte e pubblicit , Mondadori, Milan 2001, pp. 13, 14, 16-18, 21, 24, fig. I. 6. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 8, 109, 114, 117, 118-120, 122, 139, 216. 7. Julien, E., Les affiches de Toulouse-Lautrec, Sauret, Monte Carlo 1966 (1950). 8. Lorquin, B., Toulouse-Lautrec. Lart de laffiche , Gallimard, Paris 2002. 9. Lucie-Smith, E., Toulouse-Lautrec, Phaidon , London 1977. 10. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 190-193. 11. Ramkalawon, J., Toulouse-Lautrec, British Museum Press, London 2007. 12. Searle, R., Hommage Toulouse-Lautrec, dition empreinte, Paris 1969.

Famous artist of the Belle Epoque and laudable chronicler of the French bohemian lifestyle of the late 19th century, Toulouse-Lautrec is well-known as a painter, an illustrator and a lithographer. In 1872 he attends the Lyce Fontanes in Paris. After a long series of adversities, he devotes himself completely to drawing and painting. He fractures his thigh bone at the age of fourteen, and just a year later fractures the other one. In addition, he is affected by pyknodysostosis, which prevents his limbs from growing normally, and hence he is unable to participate in any sports or social activities. In 1881 he graduates and meets the painter Ren Princeatu. From 1882 he enters various studios, including those of painters Lon Bonnat and Fernard Cormon, where he meets Vincent Van Gogh. Between 1883 and 1892 he takes part in numerous exhibitions, like the Les Vingt (The Twenty) exhibition in Brussels in 1888, and takes an interest in lithography, designing posters for various clubs. His illustrations are also published on famous magazines of the time like Revue blanche and Figaro Illustr. In 1893 he is placed in a sanatorium for a few months. From 1898 his work slowly decreases due to syphilis and alcholism. Nevertheless he is able to join the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. The clear and very sharp lines of Toulouse-Lautrecs style are, to some extent, unseen before and the framing of the scenes is astonishing: the foreground images are much larger then the ones in the background, which are often formed by blending silhouettes. His artworks portray situations of everyday life, mostly involving Paris nightclubs, in a caricature-like yet dramatic way: Toulouse-Lautrec is like a chronicler who, with a cynical eye and a sense of humour, is not embarrassed to flaunt an extramarital affair, like in Reine de joie (1892) or reveal the petticoats of cancan dancers in La troupe de mademoiselle Aglantine (1896). Another example is the famous Au Moulin Rouge (1891) in which Toulouse-Lautrec portrays the famous dancer la Goulue, performing her show in front of some spectators depicted in the background as static and simple black silhouettes. In the foreground instead is a celebrity of the time, Valentin le Dsoss (the Boneless), who seems to accompany the dancers performance with the movements of his flexible body. The poster, moreover, has a photographic touch, for it conveys the scene as in a snapshot, with a point of view which is not conventional in paintings; a feeling which is confirmed by the use of saturated colours and sharp outlines.

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- Au Moulin rouge, Poster, 1891 - Ambassadeurs: Aristide Bruant, Poster, 1892 - Reine de joie, Poster, 1892

2.

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JAN TSCHICHOLD
Leipzig, 1902 Locarno, 1974

The New Typography is distinguished from the old by the fact that its first objective is to develop its visible form out of the functions of the text. Jan Tschichold

1. Aa. Vv., Jan Tschichold. Master Typographer. His Life, Work & Legacy, Thames & Hudson, London 2008. 2. Burke, C., Active Literature. Jan Tschichold and New Typography , Hyphen, London 2007. 3. Doubleday, R. B., Jan Tschichold. The Penguin Years , Lund Humphries, London 2006. 4. McLean, R., Jan Tschichold. A Life in Typography , Lund Humphries, London 1997. 5. McLean, R., Jan Tschichold. Typographe r, Lund Humphries, London 1975. 6. Schmoller, H., Two Titans: Mardersteig and Tschichold , The Typophiles, New York 1990. 7. Spencer, H., Pioneers of Modern Typography , Lund Humphries, London 1982 (1969), pp. 9, 52, 58, 59, 67, 150-158. 8. Tschichold, J., An Illustrated History of Writing and Lettering , Zwemmer, London 1946. 9. Tschichold, J., The Form of the Book. Essay on the Morality of Good Design, Lund Humphries, London 1975. 10. Tschichold, J., Asymmetric Typography (1935), Faber & Faber Reinhold Publishing Corporation Cooper & Betty, London New York Toronto 1967. 11. Tschichold, J., The New Typography. A Handbook for Modern Designers (1928), University of Californiea Press, Barkeley Los Angeles London 2006 (1995). 12. Tschichold, J., Treasury of Alphabets and Letterin g (1966), Omega Books, Ware 1985.

An extraordinary typeface designer, Tschichold is also one of the main theoreticians of modern typography. He studies drawing and painting at the Akademie fr Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. Soon after he starts working for the Fisher & Wittig printing house and for Insel Verlag, while working as an art teacher. In 1923 he attends a Bauhaus exhibition, drawing important lessons, and in 1925 he publishes a small supplement to the magazine Typographische Mitteilungen which he entitles Elementare Typographie, a testimony of the first typographic changes brought about by the avantgarde movements. A year later he moves to Munich and publishes Die Neue Typographie (1928), one of the most esteemed essays on typography, still widely used today. The Nazis accuse him of jeopardising the principles of German culture through his work and as a consequence he moves to Basel. He works in Switzerland and for a brief period in London, where from 1947 to 1949 he is in charge of redesigning the corporate identity of Penguin books through a series of Composition Rules. In 1942 he obtains Swiss citizenship. In the meantime he creates numerous important typefaces like Transit (1931), Zeus (1931), Saskia (1931-1932) and Sabon (1966-1967), in honour of Jacques Sabon. Charmed by the Bauhaus exhibition of 1923, Tschichold starts developing an interest for typography which will bring him to become one of its most authoritative theoreticians. He publishes a series of critical essays, like The New Typography (1928), which can be considered a sort of manifesto of modern typography. Tschicholds new typography, which features asymmetric compositions, is far away from any form of decoration, for its only objective is the immediate delivery of the message. It does not, therefore, have an iconic nature which strives to influence the viewers, to attract them, but rather it develops through the use of essential and immediately comprehensible elements. Tschichold states the superiority of sans-serif type, which he considers more legible than both antique and modern Roman characters, explaining how weight and size should be suitably chosen to guarantee the most efficient delivery of the message. In addition he supports the streamlining of printing processes, which is to be obtained through the standardisation of formats. Subsequently, however, Tschichold reconsiders the principles of The New Typography, defining them extreme, and close to the German ideas of reduction and dictatorial uniformity. He therefore distances himself from his former ideals, until he eventually becomes a sustainer of serif typefaces.

INDEX

187

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- Phoebus Palast cinema: Die hose, Poster, 1927 - Penguin Book series, Project, 1948 - Typographie, Cover, 1925

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THEO VAN DOESBURG

Utrecht, 1883 Davos, 1931

In the plastic use of the straight line lies the consciousness of a new culture. Theo van Doesburg

1. Baljeu, J., Theo van Doesburg , Studio Vista Mcmillan, London New York 1974. 2. Broos, K.,Helfting, P., Dutch Graphic Design , Phaidon, London 1993, pp. 23, 58, 60-63, 69, 73, 91. 3. Doig, A., Theo van Doesburg. Painting into Architecture. Theory into Pratice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1986. 4. Fabre, G., Wintgens Htte, D. (edited by), Van Doesburg & the International Avant-Garde. Constructing a New World , Tate Publishing, London 2009. 5. Hoek, E. (edited by), Theo Van Doesburg. vre catalogue , Krller-Mller Museum Central Museum, Utrecht Otterlo 2000. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 57, 59, 68, 69, 73, 75, 102, 194. 7. Hollis, R., Swiss Graphic Design. The Origins and Growth o fan International Style. 1920-1965 , Laurence King, London 2006, pp. 21, 24-26, 28, 36-38, 52, 58, 171. 8. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 8, 10, 181, 183, 185, 190, 191, 195, 198, 200, 206, 208, 209, 211, 231, 275. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 240, 241, 270-274. 10. Overy, P., De Stijl. Art, Architecture, Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2000 (1991). 11. Spencer, H., Pioneers of Modern Typography , Lund Humphries, London 1982 (1969), pp. 8, 21, 27, 33, 34, 36, 38, 40, 41, 60, 86-91. 12. Straaten, E. v., Theo van Doesburg. Constructor of the New Life, Krller-Mller Museum, Otterlo 1994.

A graphic designer, a painter, a poet, a lecturer and much more Christian Emil Marie Kpper is one of the main exponents of De Stijl. The pseudonym Theo Doesburg, to which he adds the prefix van, actually is the name of his stepfather, who is like a natural father to him. He initially studies singing and acting, but eventually dedicates himself to painting. In 1912 he starts writing articles on various magazines to finance his works of art, which during the initial phase, are inspired by Impressionism. In 1917 he starts the magazine De Stijl (The Style), around which the homonymous art movement is born, also known as Neoplasticism. In 1922 he brings the principles of De Stijl to the Bauhaus in Weimar, even though he is not a professor of the school, and writes for the magazine Mcano, together with Kurt Schwitters, Jean Arp e Tristan Tzara. In 1924 he introduces the usage of the diagonal line (a Constructivist feature) throughout De Stijl, and launches his new concept, Elementarism (a word used for the first time on the magazine). In 1927 he works with Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber on the restauration of the Caf de lAubette in Strasbourg. Moreover, he joins the groups Cercle et Carr, Arte Concreta and AbstractionCration. The magazine De Stijl, born in 1917, is followed through by a group of artists of the likes of Van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian, Bart van der Leck, Vilmos Huszar, Jan Wils, Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud, Gerrit Rietveld, Georges Vantorgerloo, Anthony Kok and Gino Severini. Their goal is to create purely visual art, which should be modern and abstract. In fact, articles and posters talk exclusively about the value of straight lines and rectangles as an awareness of a new culture which denies the representative features of art, and pursues basic, right-angled, geometric shapes. The De Stijl movement spreads its principles throughout architecture, interior design, industrial design, graphic design and typography. It is not by chance that Van Doesburg, who supervises the magazine layout, creates the Square Alphabet in 1919: experimental, strictly geometric, all upper case, built on a square-shaped grid, on a unit of five columns and five lines, in which the the shapes of the letters are created through a perfect and consistent use of orthogonal lines. During the Eighties, with the first digital typography experiments, this alphabet seems to return, in the square-shaped pixel grids.

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- - - -

De Stijl, Cover, 1921 Basic alphabet, Font, 1919 Klassiek Barok Modern, Cover, 1920 Basic alphabet, Lettering, 1919

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RUDY VANDERLANS
The Hague, 1955

VanderLans does not adopt typographic models inspired by traditional ones but rather aims at discovering the expressive potential of digital writing. Daniele Baroni, Maurizio Vitta
1. Aa. Vv., Rant. Emigre No. 64 , Princton Architectural Press, New York 2003. 2. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 203, 216, 217. 3. Castellacci, C., Sanvitale, P., Il tipografo mestiere darte , il Saggiatore, Milan 2004, pp. 41-49. 4. Heller, S., Cult of the Ugly, Eye, 9, Summer 1993, pp. 52-57. 5. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 457-459. 6. Poynor, R., No More Rules. Graphic Design and Postmodernism, Laurence King, London 2003, pp. 96-98, 148, 145, 171. 7. Russo, D., Free Graphics. La grafica fuori delle regole nellera digitale, Lupetti, Milan 2006, pp. 24-29, 119-121. 8. Russo, D., Grafica multimodale , in AA. VV., Gli spazi e le arti, Enciclopedia del XXI Secolo, vol. IV, Treccani Terzo Millennio, Turin 2010, pp. 579-587. 9. VanderLans, R., Emigre No.70 The Look Back Issue , Gingko, Berkeley 2009. 10. VanderLans, R., Licko, Z., Gray, M. E., Emigre (The Book). Graphic Design into Digital Realm , John Wiley & Sons, New York Van Rostrand Reinhold 1993. 11. VanderLans, R., Licko, Z., The New Primitives , I.D., 2, March-April 1988, pp. 58-61. 12. VanderLans, R., Supermarket, Ginko, Corte Madera (CA) 2001.

VandeLans is without a doubt one of the most daring experimenters of digital typography. From 1974 to 1979 he studies graphic design at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Amsterdam. Having completed his studies he immediately becomes an apprentice at Wim Crouwels Total Design studio, where he designs the corporate identities of the companies Vorm Vijf and Tel Design. In 1981 he moves to Berkeley to study photography at the University of California. This is where he meets Zuzana Licko, who becomes his wife in 1983. In the same year he designs the covers for the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1984, together with Licko, he starts Emigre, a magazine which initially is about art, photography, architecture and poetry, but eventually develops into a sort of experimental lab where new languages and especially new computerised typography is tested. In 1987 he starts the digital type foundry Emigre Fonts (together with Licko), conceived along with the homonymous magazine, which displays the new typefaces. In 1997 the MoMA organises an important retrospective dedicated to Emigre. Emigre n. 70, released in 2009, is unique in its kind: a book entitled The Look Back Issue, with a selection of the most representative pages from all Emigre issues. Ever since the beginning (1984), Emigre plays a crucial role thanks to its revolutionary tone, primarily against the rules of the Swiss school. VanderLans asserts the possibility of a radical change in the composition of a text, in favour of more expressive typography, mostly designed through computers. The magazine becomes a showcase for all those graphic designers who reject the traditional currents and propose new solutions. The look of Emigre is experimental and is surprising, starting from the front cover. The masthead is metamorphic and the format changes according to the content. Issue n. 15, for example, released in the autumn of 1990, focuses on digital type and text legibility with the opinions of Zuzana Licko, Max Kisman, Jeffery Keedy, Karrie Jacobs, Ellen Lupton, J. Abbott Miller, Peter Mertens and Barry Deck, as can be read on the front cover designed by VanderLans. On an acid green background the title Do you read me? is printed in huge lettering using Lickos 1989 digital typeface Triplex; an enigmatic hat can be noticed too, an allusion to the world of private investigations.

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- Emigre n 15, Cover, 1990 (with Triplex font by Licko 1989) - Emigre n 4, Cover, 1986 - Emigre n 10, Cover, 1988

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HENRY VAN DE VELDE

Antwerp, 1863 Zurich, 1957

The daemon of the line did not leave me and as I created my first ornaments, they arose out of the dynamic play of the elemental power of line. Henry van de Velde

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 16, 17. 2. Barnicoat, J., Posters. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1998 (1972), pp. 20, 40, 49-52, 56, 62, 111. 3. Canning, S. M., Henry van de Velde (1863-1957). Paintings and Drawings (catalogue), Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Rijksmuseum Krller-Mller, Antwerpen Otterlo 1987. 4. Hammacher, A. M., Le monde de Henry van de Velde , dition Fonds Mercator Hachette, Anvers Paris 1967. 5. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 25, 26, 29. 6. Hollis, R., Swiss Graphic Design. The Origins and Growth o fan International Style. 1920-1965 , Laurence King, London 2006, pp. 15-17, 20, 47, 152-155. 7. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 8, 111,124, 125, 129, 133, 143, 199, 232. 8. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 193, 200-202, 227. 9. Scheffler, K., Henri van de Velde , Insel, Leipzig 1913. 10. Sembach, K.-J., Henry van de Velde , Thames & Hudson, London 1989. 11. Velde, H. Van De, The Art Nouveau, Nijhoff, The Hague 1951. 12. Velde, H. Van De, Dblaiement dart (1984), Monnom Archives darchitecture moderne, Bruxelles 1995 (1979).

An eclectic artist, van de Velde is one of the leading figures of Art Nouveau. From 1881 to 1885 he studies painting at the Acadmie des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp and Paris. In 1889 he joins the avant-garde group known as Les Vingt (The Twenty) and is influenced by the work of Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Signac and Georges Seurat. From 1893 he does illustrations for the magazine Van Nu en Straks and dedicates himself to applied arts. He designs his own home in Uccle (1895), conceived as a Gesamtkunstwerk, an all-round work of art, taking painstaking care of every aspect, from the architecture to the interior design, leaving out not a single detail. In 1901 he designs the interior of the Folkwang Museum in Hagen, Westphalia, and moves to Weimar, where he works as an artistic consultant for the Grand Duke William Ernest and designs the Kunstgewerbeschule in Weimar, which he runs from 1906 to 1914. In 1907 he participates in the foundation of the German Werkbund, supporting the principle of free creativity of artists and artisans. In 1914 he designs the theatre for the Werkbund Exhibition in Cologne, characterised by an Expressionist touch. In 1917 he moves to Switzerland and later to Brussels, where he founds the Institut Suprieur dArchitecture et des Arts Decoratifs in 1925. He also designs the Belgian pavilion at the 1937 Exposition Universelle in Paris. In 1947 he writes his autobiography Die Geschichte meines Lebens (The Story of my Life). In the essay named Dblaiement dart (Clearing up of Art) (1894), van de Velde urges artists to follow the exempla virtutis of decorative and applied arts of the past, emulating their principles and adapting them to contemporary styles. It is not a coincidence that the poster Tropon, advertising albumen-based concentrated food (1899), goes down in history for being always up-to-date. This poster, that does not seem to obey the common laws of obsolescence, represents something completely new in the world of advertising. Instead of faithfully portraying the product or resorting to any kind of testimonial, van de Velde plays with a combination of symbols, textures and colours to capture the viewer, fascinating him at once. More precisely, the drawing is characterised by the repetition of an arabesque which suggests the separation of the yolk from the egg-white. The name Tropon appears on top, in a linear hand-drawn lettering, from which a suggestive geometric texture unravels, which reminds us of the Lance Wyman logotype, completed many years later for the Olympic Games in Mexico City (1968). The slogan finally bursts in on the lower part, laliment le plus concentr (the most concentrated nourishment), in a curvy typeface, which adapts to the suppleness of the central artwork.

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- Tropon, Poster, 1899 - Ecce Homo, Pages, 1908

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LUIGI VERONESI
Milan, 1908 1998

A painter tied to abstractionism, Veronesi often treated advertising like the surface of a painting maintaining a sophisticated and abstract pictorial dimension. Antonella Huber
1. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 135, 139, 193. 2. Caramel, L., Cerritelli, C. (edited by), Luigi Veronesi. Razionalismo lirico. 1927-1966 , Mazzotta, Milan 1997. 3. Fioravanti, G., Passarelli, L., Sfigiotti, S., La grafica in Italia , Leonardo Arte, Milan 1997, pp. 56, 74, 75, 78, 92, 100, 101, 104, 203. 4. Galimberti, M., Instantaneo Luigi Veronesi , Constantini Arte Contemporanea, Milan 2002. 5. Huber, A., Il colore diffuso , Linea grafica, 5, September 1989, pp. 44-51. 6. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 259, 336. 7. Passoni, F., Testimonianze su Luigi Veronesi , La nuova Foglio, Pollenza (MC) 1977. 8. Patani, O., Luigi Veronesi. Catalogo generale dellopera grafica, Allemandi, Turin 1983. 9. Scim, G. (edited by), Bauhaus e razionalismo nelle fotografie di Lux Feininger, Franco Grignani, Xanti Schawinsky, Luigi Veronesi , Mazzotta, Milan 1993. 10. Varga, M. N. (edited by), Luigi Veronesi. Legni colorati, Bora, Bologna 1978. 11. Veronesi, L., Pallavera, B., Del fotomontaggio , Campo Grafico, 12, December 1934, p. 278. 12. Veronesi, L., Proposta oer una ricerca su suono e colore , Studio Marconi, Milan 1972.

For the entire length of his career, Veronesi is a keen experimenter of various artistic expressions, ranging from painting to graphic design, from photography to film-making, also including experiences as theatre set designer. He initially undertakes technical studies, training as a textile designer. He eventually chooses to be a painter at the age of twenty. In 1925 he develops his first prints. In 1932 he displays his work at the Galleria del Milione in Milan. Soon after he visits Paris, where he meets Fernand Lger, Georges Vantorgerloo and Robert Delaunay. In 1934 he joins the Abstraction-Cration group and starts his collaboration with Campo Grafico. In the same year his work is displayed again at the the Milione gallery, along with a series of engravings created with Josef Albers. In 1935 he meets Lszl Moholy-Nagy, in Switzerland, and takes part in the first collective abstract art exhibition in Turin. During the Forties he joins the Palcoscenico group, being a theatre enthusiast. From 1939 to 1941 he produces various abstract and experimental colour films. He also works for various magazines such as Domus and Casabella. During the Seventies he teaches at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, while in the Eighties he supervises stage sets for the shows at the Teatro alla Scala. In 1947 Ferrania is born, a magazine belonging to the homonymous film and camera company, enlivened by a group of artists amongst which there is Luigi Veronesi. For Ferrania, Veronesi designs various posters using different styles, depending on the product to be advertised, photographic film or cameras. The posters for the colour film Ferraniacolor, developed from 1956 to 1959, boast geometric compositions, filled strictly with primary colours, or at the most, two complementary colours (green and purple); in other cases the artistic influence is even more marked, like in 1961 lanno del colore (1961 the year of colour), in which the composition is clearly abstract, formed by a series of red, yellow and blue brush strokes. Another emblematic poster is the one advertising the camera Condor I (1947), in which the silhouette of a man, portrayed in the act of taking a picture, is placed against a background of yellow and white lines. The silhouette is black with a texture of thin white lines, except for the hands, which are completely white. The man is holding the product, which is depicted down to its smallest details, in front of his eyes, while strips of film and typography whirl around him.

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- 1961 Anno del colore, Poster, 1961 - Roll Film Ferrania, Poster, 1930 - Cappelli film Ferrania, Poster, 1930

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MASSIMO VIGNELLI
Milan, 1931

There is no design without discipline. There is no discipline without intelligence. Massimo Vignelli

1. Aa. Vv., Design Vignelli New York (catalogue), Die Neue Sammlung, Munich 1992. 2. Ambasz, E., Design: Vignelli, Rizzoli, New York 1981. 3. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico, Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 218, 233, 234, 236, 245, 247, 269-272, 319. 4. Celant, G., e alii, Design Vignelli, Rizzoli, New York 1990. 5. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 108, 109, 148, 49. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 212, 215. 7. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 336, 340, 364, 374, 401, 402, 410. 8. Larrabee, E., Vignelli, M., Knoll Design, Abrams, New York 1981. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 377-379. 10. Vignelli, M., The Vignelli Canon , Lars Mller, Baden 2010. 11. Vignelli, M., Vignelli from A to Z , Images Publishing Group, Mulgrave 2007. 12. Vignelli, L., Vignelli M., Design is One , Images Publishing Group, Mulgrave (VIC) 2004.

A representative of Italian design in New York, Vignelli combines the strictness of European graphic design with the technical abilities of American design. From 1950 to 1953 he studies at the Accademia di Brera in Milan and at the Facolt di Architettura in Venice, where he graduates in 1957. The following year he teaches design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. During the Sixties, he starts making a name for himself throughout the international design scene: he designs the posters for the 31st and the 32nd Venice Biennale, book covers for Biblioteca Sansoni (1963) and renovates the corporate identity of Milans Piccolo Theatre (1964). In 1965 he takes part in the foundation of ADI (Italian Association of Industrial Design) and from 1961 to 1965 becomes a member of the study group of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design. In the same years he co-founds Unimark International Corporation and is head of its New York-based offices. In 1972, together with his wife Lella, he founds the Vignelli Associates in New York. His work is world famous and displayed in permanent exhibitions in important museums like the MoMA and the Metropolitan in New York. Vignelli works for various important European and American companies and institutions. He is responsible prevalently of their corporate identity, taking care of their interior design, their editorial publications and their packaging. Besides the American Airlines identity (1967), the New York Subway sign system and map (1966) and the signage system for the Washington DC metro (1968), a noteworthy project is the corporate identity developed for Knoll in 1966. He designs fundamental elements of company communication, such as business cards, brochures, flyers, stickers and advertisements (published on magazines the likes of Vogue and Fortune). His work can be recognised by the presence of quality typefaces (an example is the legendary Helvetica) and by its streamlined and rigorous geometric style. In this way Vignelli develops memorable and efficient projects, like the famous poster designed for Knoll in 1967, where blue, magenta and yellow transparent block capitals overlap forming the company name; in addition, the entire Knoll collection can be appreciated on the background.

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Design Knoll, New York, 1966 -1978 Knoll, Poster, 1967 Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Poster, 1964 New York underground, Map, 1970

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WOLFGANG WEINGART
Konstanz, 1941

One should know the rules before breaking them. Wolfang Weingart

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century , Beazley, London 2001, pp. 175, 190, 191, 204, 214, 233. 2. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 17-23, 111-117. 3. Henrion, F. H. K., Top Graphic Design , ABC, Zurich 1983, pp. 150, 151. 4. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 24, 199, 200, 211, 212. 5. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 374, 375, 379, 398. 6. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 432, 434-437. 7. Polano, S., Vetta, P., Abecedario. La grafica del Novecento , Electa, Milan 2003 (2002), pp. 132-139. 8. Poynor, R., No More Rules. Graphic Design and Postmodernism , Laurence King, London 2003, pp. 19, 20, 22, 25-27, 34, 35. 9. Russo, D., Free Graphics. La grafica fuori delle regole nellera digitale, Lupetti, Milan 2006, pp. 17-23, 110-117. 10. Weingart, W., How Can One Make Swiss Typography? , Basel 1976 (illustrated lecture self-published). 11. Weingart, W., My Way to Typography , Lars Mller, Baden 2000 (English-Deutsche). 12. Weingart, W., Projkte/Projects. Volume 1, Niggli, Teufen 1979.

An amazing renovator of the Swiss style, Weingart carries out a fruitful typographic revolution. From 1958 he studies graphic design at the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart. From 1960 to 1963 he works as an apprentice in a printing house. He later moves to Switzerland where he continues his apprenticeship as a typographer. In 1964 he attends the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel, with professors of the likes of Emil Ruder and Armin Hofmann. Four years later he succeeds Ruder as a typography teacher (April Greiman and David Friedman are among his students). From 1970 to 1988 he is in charge of the magazine Typographische Monatsbltter. From 1972 he holds various lectures in Europe and the United States, while publishing a series of esteemed articles on important design magazines. From 1974 to 1996 he teaches design at the Yale Summer Program. From 1978 to 1999 he is a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale). In 2000 he publishes My Way to Typography, a book entirely dedicated to his philosophy as a designer, featuring some daring typographic experiments. From 2004 he continues teaching design and typography at the Summer Program in Basel. Moreover, he receives prestigious recognition, like the Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts in 2005. Weingarts intense experimentation is a reaction to the dogmatism of the Swiss school, strict and sterile rules which in time have become an anaemic structure for achieving cleanliness. His objective is to liven up graphic design and make it memorable and attractive. So, for example, he increases the kerning between letters, giving a certain rhythm to his typographic compositions; he arranges letters in circles, abandoning the traditional structure; he repeats a word (or a letter) creating intensely expressive textures. He also develops compositions with overlapping layers and photo mechanic techniques, giving movement to his work: an innovative overlapping of halftone screens, designed ad hoc, which seems to be a preview of the strictly digital processes of the Eighties. An example is the poster Das Schweizer Plakat 1900-1984, designed for the 1984 exhibition on Swiss posters: a rather thick, irregular frame encloses overlapping forms and halftone patterns with peculiar colour gradients, which combine in a multi-faceted and complex image, made of mixed elements; everything is arranged against an indefinite and symbolic background: a Swiss cross and references to Mont Blanc can be noticed.

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- Das Schweizer Plakat exhibition, Poster, 1984 - Kunstkredit, Poster, 1977 - Exhibition, Poster, 1981

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WES WILSON
Sacramento, 1937

Lettering becomes an image, signifying a cultural and generational shift in values. Philip B. Meggs

1. Aynsley, J., A Century of Graphic Design. Graphic Design Pioneers of the 20th Century, Beazley, London 2001, pp. 160, 162. 2. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 260, 261. 3. Garner, P., Sixties Design, Taschen, Cologne, 2003, pp. 60, 83. 4. Grushkin, P., The Art of Rock. Posters from Presley to Punk, Artabras, New York 1987, pp. 70-74. 5. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 8, 9, 12, 13. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, p. 182. 7. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 319, 320. 8. Marsano, B., Manifesti , Electa, Milan 2003, p. 151. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 402-404. 10. Russo, D., Schizzofluido. Ondulazioni del design , in Aa. Vv., galma. Seduzione o Rauch Culture? , Meltemi, Rome 2006, pp. 113-119 (n. 12). 11. Wes, W., Off the Wall, Poster Project Ltd., Aurora (MO) 1995.

Without a doubt, Wilson is one of the most interesting exponents of the 1960s psychedelic poster design in California. He initially attends San Francisco State University, but drops out in 1963. In his first poster Are We Next (1965), the stars on the American flag take the shape of a swastika, a protest against the Vietnam war. He becomes the assistant and eventually the partner of Bob Carr, founder of Contact Printing and a San Francisco jazz expert. He designs the flyer for the first Trips Festival, a very important event for emerging musicians in the country, and a series of posters for the most important musical promoters of his time, like Bill Graham, who organises concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium, or Chet Helms, who runs the Avalon Ballroom. Drawing inspiration from the work of Alphonse Mucha, Vincent Van Gogh, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and mostly of Alfred Roller, in 1966 he designs his first psychedelic poster for a show with the Association at the Fillmore Auditorium; in 1967, he works for Graham for the last time, dedicating himself mostly to the Avalon Ballroom. In 1968 he receives a five thousand dollar award by the National Endowment for the Arts for his contributions to American Art. The word psychedelic was first used in the poster art field to define the artworks created by Wilson for concerts held in San Francisco from 1965 to 1971, which visually recall the sensorial experiences felt by a concertgoer. The term psychedelic, from the Greek psyche (mind) and deloun (make visible or reveal), alludes to the effects caused by hallucinogenic drugs, LSD in particular, taken during these events. An emblematic example is the poster Association, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco of 1966. The text is not immediately comprehensible, but the lack of legibility is the objective Wilson is aiming at. In fact, in response to Graham Wells comment Its nice, but I cant read it, Wilson says Yeah, and thats why people are gonna stop and look at it!. The typography is drawn by hand in order to create a wavy pattern, the effect of a huge flame which almost looks three-dimensional. Everything seems to vibrate: the fluid lines, the light and the lively and clashing colours are the personification of a crowd dancing below a stage. It is noteworthy how the combination of red and green complementary colours actually result in a dynamic and dazzling poster.

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- Bill Graham, Poster, 1966-68

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LANCE WYMAN
Newark, 1937

The project was so effective that the New York Times declared You can be illiterate in all languages and still orient yourself well, but you cannot be colour blind Philip B. Meggs
1. Baroni, D., Il manuale del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 1999, pp. 65, 106. 2. Baroni, D., Vitta, M., Storia del design grafico , Longanesi, Milan 2003, pp. 223, 246, 298. 3. Blackwell, L., 20-Century Types , Laurence King, London 2000 (1998). 4. Bistagnino, E., Vallino, S., Limiti di leggibilit , Linea grafica, 331, January-February 2001, pp. 50-55. 5. Farrauto, L., La citt e la mappa. Storie di trasporti e tradizione, Progetto grafico, 18, September 2010, pp. 66-68. 6. Livingston, A., Livingston, I., Graphic Design and Designers, Thames & Hudson, London 1992, p. 207. 7. Marsano, B., Manifesti , Electa, Milan 2003, pp. 291. 8. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 381-385. 9. Musatti, C., Grafica alle olimpiadi, Linea grafica, 3 May-June 1969, pp. 183-186. 10. Pasca, V., Russo, D., Corporate Image. Un secolo dimmagine coordinata dallAEG alla Nike , Lupetti, Milan 2005, pp. 48-50, 100, 101. 11. Rajlich, J., Le comunicazioni visive di grandi avvenimenti sportivi, Linea grafica, 2, March-April 1979, pp. 65-68.

Wyman is known especially for his work as a graphic designer in the field of corporate identities. In 1956 he attends the Pratt Institute in New York, where he graduates in Industrial Design in 1960. He is then employed by General Motors in Michigan. During the Sixties he develops the graphics for various pavilions, including the American one at the trade fair in Zagreb (1962) and the Chrysler pavilion at the New York Worlds Fair (1963). In 1966 he collaborates with Peter Murdoch. In the same year he wins a design competition for the corporate identity of the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games. From 1968 to 1971 he remains in Mexico to take care of the corporate identity of the Mexico City Metro (1969) and the 1970 World Cup. In 1971 he returns to New York, where he founds Wyman & Cannan, with Bill Cannan, and his own company in 1979, Lance Wyman Ltd. From 1973 he teaches at the Parsons School of Design in New York, and is the creator of various innovative projects for the New York City subway, the National Zoo in Washington (1975), the Jeddah International Airport (1978) and many others. In 1992 he designs the sign system for the Museum of National History in New York. The Mexico 68 logotype, which is the basic element with which the corporate identity of the Mexico City Olympics is generated, develops in a dynamic sequence. The typeface originally is linear and geometric, but the curves that form it give birth to a highly expressive composition, a proper texture with a taste of Optical Art. In its most extreme version, the logotype expands until it completely fills up the surface on which it is applied, generating a striped sequence which is reminiscent of the typical Aztec-Mexican patterns. Together with the logotype, another highlight of the identity system is the series of universally understandable pictograms. Furthermore, the tickets are very simple and can be divided into three portions: the upper one contains the title and a pictogram of the relative sport; the central one indicates the door, ramp, row and seat number; the lower one specifies the time of the competition. The final ingredient apparently an aesthetic device but actually a fundamental detail is the use of colour, with its liveliest shades, typical of the location, again aimed at an immediate, and universally understood, communication.

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Mexico City Olympics, Logo, 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Pictographs, 1968 14th Triennale di Milano, Poster, 1968 Artists for Obama, Poster, 2008

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PIET ZWART
Zaandijk, 1885 Wassenaar, 1977

The more uninteresting the letter, the more useful it is to a typographer. Piet Zwart

1. Aa. Vv., Art & Publicit, 1890-1990 (catalogue), Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1990, pp. 292, 294, 296, 300, 311. 2. Broos, K., Helfting, Paul, Dutch Graphic Design , Phaidon 1993, pp. 10, 13, 58, 66, 67, 76, 78, 79, 82-87, 89, 92, 94, 96, 97, 106, 107, 119, 120, 125, 133, 138, 152, 167, 172, 192. 3. Ex libris, Herbert Bayer, Piet Zwart. Master of Design , Ex Libris, New York 1993. 4. Ex libris, Lissitzky, Schwitters, Tschichold, Werkman, Zwart , Ex Libris, New York 1985. 5. Heller, S., Ilic , M., Icons of Graphic Design , Thames & Hudson, London 2001, pp. 38, 39, 56, 57, 84, 85, 108, 109, 186, 187. 6. Hollis, R., Graphic Design. A Concise History , Thames & Hudson, London 1994, pp. 57, 68, 70, 71, 74, 75, 127, 156, 175, 176, 178, 194, 214, 215. 7. Hollis, R., Swiss Graphic Design. The Origins and Growth o fan International Style. 1920-1965 , Laurence King, London 2006, pp. 30, 74, 182, 183, 236, 244, 256. 8. Jubert, R., Typography and Graphic Design. From Antiquity to the Present , Flammarion, Paris 2006 (2005), pp. 8, 10, 191, 193, 198, 358, 385. 9. Meggs, P. B., A History of Graphic Design , Wiley, New York 1998 (1992), pp. 292-295, 423. 10. Monguzzi, Bruno, Piet Zwart: Lopera tipografica 1923-1933, Rassegna, 30, June 1987, pp. 4-88. 11. Spencer, H., Pioneers of Modern Typography, Lund Humphries, London 1982 (1969), pp. 9, 21, 42, 52, 60, 116-127.

A prolific person in all the fields of design, Zwart is one of Hollands most acclaimed masters. From 1902 to 1907 he studies at the School voor Toegepaste Kunsten in Amsterdam. In 1919 he starts working for the architect Jan Wils, a member of De Stijl, and then moves to the studio of another architect, Hendrik Berlage in 1921. He grows fond of graphic design and dedicates himself to it enthusiastically. During the same years he meets the members of De Stijl, but does not join the movement, rejecting their totalising approach to art. In 1923 he starts working for the cable manufacturer NKF (Nederlandsche Kabel Fabrik) in Delft, for whom he designs a great amount of posters, published on the monthly issues of Tijdschrift voor electro techniek and the bimonthly issues of Sterkstroom. In 1927 his work is displayed with other artists from the Ring group. In 1928 he holds some classes and lectures at the Bauhaus in Dessau. In 1930 he designs a leaflet for Dutch schools, The Book of PTT, to teach children about the postal service. In 1942 he is arrested by the Nazis and is imprisoned until the end of World War II. Subsequently he dedicates himself only to industrial design. What distinguishes Zwarts work is the astonishing combination of Constructivism, Dadaism and De Stijl. With a general tendency to simplify, enlivened by remarkable dynamism, he develops what he defines fields of tension. This can be seen in the advertisements produced in 1928 for the NKF catalogue; here typography and geometric shapes mix in a dynamic spatial relationship. Furthermore, everything is rigorously arranged: lines are positioned at ninety or forty-five degrees and bold text is used to highlight the more important parts of the text, with sans-serif typefaces. Zwart positions graphic elements in such a way that the main message is immediately clear, while the secondary information, though visible, seems almost to blend into the background. Also his use of photomontage techniques is astonishing, thanks to the addition of accurately chosen colours (usually red and blue) which give movement to the composition. The geometric figures and the text stand out and are emphasised thanks to their relationship with the white spaces, which are brilliantly distributed throughout the composition. Amongst Zwarts most concise yet effective projects is the logotoype of his own name: an upper case P followed by a black square, which in Dutch is pronounced zwart.

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- NFK, Adv, 1927 ca. - Personal logo, 1927 - Trio den Haag catalogue, Page, 1931

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AZ PROJECT conceived by Pasquale Volpe

AZ PROJECT GRAPHIC DESIGN a project by Dario Russo and Pasquale Volpe Concept Dario Russo, Pasquale Volpe Texts Clara Giacalone (records 1 - 50) Dario Russo (records 51 - 100) Archive imagines research Clara Giacalone, Liviana Loiudice, Giulia Loperto, Nicoletta Sperati Graphic design Pvolpedesign.com Translations Emanuele Pirro, Esmeralda Pirro For more information info@az-project.org

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