[ recap ]

Last week we looked at Saul Bass’ pitch to Bell Systems (1983) and the "Quickborner Team" revolutionising office spaces in post-war Germany: "Bürolandschaft."

[ thoughts ]

I keep coming back to post-war Italian design and advertisements. I think there’s something beautiful about the aesthetics.

I feel like it’s something we’ve lost.

Post-war Italy moved through what became known as the "economic miracle", especially between the late 1950s and early 1960s, with rapid industrial growth and a shift from rural society into a more urban, industrial and consumer one.

Advertising played a huge role in the economy. It was attached to new habits: buying packaged food, travelling, driving, using office machines, watching television, reading magazines, imagining a more modern life.

I’m looking at four people who helped shape that visual language: Armando Testa, Bruno Munari, Marcello Nizzoli, Erberto Carboni.

[ creativity ]

Armando Testa: Graphic designer, illustrator, and advertising creative from Turin.

Bruno Munari: Artist, designer, writer, and educator from Milan. He moved across graphic design, industrial design, books, objects, teaching, and visual experiments.

Marcello Nizzoli: Artist, architect, industrial designer, and graphic designer closely associated with Olivetti.

Erberto Carboni: Graphic designer, poster designer, illustrator, and architect from Parma.

[ making ]

Walter Benjamin argued that mechanical reproduction changes how we experience objects. When something can be reproduced easily, it loses what he called its "aura" — its presence, its specificity, the sense that it exists in one place and one time.

He was writing about photography and film, but the problem feels more appropriate now.

Images, layouts, product shots, posters, brand systems, captions, mockups, and visual references can all be generated or remixed almost instantly.

That might be why the post-war Italian design speaks to me. Testa, Munari, Nizzoli, and Carboni were helping to make contemporary Italian culture.

[ sign off ]

A couple of things to note:

I'm expecting some good news next week. There might be a bit of a wait for [ thirty-one ].

I’m changing Palpable Vision to Artificial Milieu. The name feels closer to where my work is moving: creativity, technology, media, culture, and the environments that shape how we think and make.

My first project, creativity.sh, is now live. It’s still early, but you can look around and let me know what you think.

Thanks for sticking around.

Try and see you next week, anonymous reader behind the screen.