Hi guys,

We’re back with another Design Rewind — and this time, we’re heading to Italy! 🇮🇹

In this edition, we dive deep into the hallmarks of Italian design — past, present, and future — and explore their lasting influence on today’s new generation of graphic, product, architectural, interior, and fashion design.

Alongside it, we’ve created a video-audio story that takes you on a journey through the works of Italian artists and designers across the realms of graphic, product, and architecture. From the optimism of the post-war Golden Era to the bold experiments of Radical Design, you’ll discover how the visionaries of the 20th century shaped Italy’s creative identity and continue to inspire today.

Take a look!

Italy carries its visual charm steeped in the romance of time, place, art, and culture. Its distinctive mark points to time-honored styles, innovation, performance, and futureproof movements that have (and continue) to impact the world of design.

Spanning between the 1950s and the 1970s, the golden era of Italian design laid the foundation for its emblematic identity. The newfound visual order blurred the lines between art, function, and technological innovation. Elegant corporate identities, modern advertising, branding, and other commercial uses of design soon replaced old projects for radical political groups.

High sensory experiences are not only inherent to the country’s way of life, but they can also be identified in Italy’s graphic design’s golden era—through daring colors, directional layouts, multi-dynamic use of graphics, stylized elements, and an overall unruly attitude in experimentation. The golden age bolstered Italy’s design identity, reaching as far as the Atlantic in a post-war creative exchange with American and German designers.

During the golden age, design became a means to rebuild and redefine Italy’s identity. Classic aesthetics, modernist principles, and post-war optimism brought together generations of local artisans, manufacturers, and designers in the latter half of the 20th century.

Italy’s design practice is expansive. Italian Modernism embraced futurism’s minimalist ethos (clean lines, high-quality craftsmanship, elegant forms). Under the “return to order” ideal, modern design broke away from tradition and, instead, championed simplicity in a muted palette, geometric forms, and minimal ornamentation.

By mid-century, Italian Postmodernism embraced a more playful, eclectic, and fragmented approach to design, paving the way to colorful, curvilinear works. With the idea of multiplicity, the highly-expressive and often misunderstood postmodern era adopted elements from different time periods and cultures, integrating various artistic mediums and techniques that were rich in references and meanings.

As a reaction against functionalism and the status quo, Italian Radical Design, or Anti-design, from the late 1960s promoted experimental, anti-establishment ideas using design as a tool for social critique.

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