ICI London is thrilled to welcome the author Chiara Barbieri (ECAL/HES-SO) in conversation with Professor Cat Rossi (UCA Canterbury) to present the book “Italian graphic design: Culture and practice in Milan, 1930s-60s”, published by Manchester University Press (2024).
The book explores the emergence and articulation of Italian graphic design practice from the interwar period to the 1960s, offering a critical and historical analysis of the role that graphic design has played in Italy.
The book questions how graphic designers learned their trade and investigates the ways in which they organised their practice visible while negotiating their collective identity with neighbouring activities such as typography, advertising and industrial design. Presenting new evidence on Italian design during and following Fascism, it addresses the grey area between alignment and resistance. A series of case studies brings to light neglected actors in the vocational schools Scuola del Libro and Cooperativa Rinascita and the professional body Aiap, while also offering news perspectives on Studio Boggeri, the Milan Triennale and the industrial design organisation ADI.
“Italian graphic design” combines design history with cultural history and social sciences to afford a new reading of everyday practice, professionalisation, vocational training and modernism.
Book HERE
Chiara Barbieri is a design historian, Researcher in Design History at ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne (HES-SO).
Cat Rossi is a design historian, Professor of Architecture and Research Lead in the UCA Canterbury School of Architecture and Design.