Design as Art: Bruno Munari (Penguin Modern Classics)

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A poem only communicates if read slowly: only then does it have time to create a state of mind in which the images can form and be transformed." (68) the proliferation of quotations: 'Concern yourself with things before they come into existence.’ (Tao Te-ching); ‘The greatest freedom comes from the greatest strictness.’ (Paul Valery); ‘To understand means to be capable of doing.’ (Goethe) Today it has become necessary to demolish the myth of the ‘star’ artist who only produces masterpieces for a small group of ultra-intelligent people. It must be understood that as long as art stands aside from the problems of life it will only interest a very few people. Culture today is becoming a mass affair, and the artist must step down from his pedestal and be prepared to make a sign for a butcher’s shop (if he knows how to do it). The artist must cast off the last rags of romanticism and become active as a man among men, well up in present-day techniques, materials and working methods. Without losing his innate aesthetic sense he must be able to respond with humility and competence to the demands his neighbors may make of him.

Bruno Munari (24 October 1907 in Milan – 29 September 1998 in Milan) was "one of the greatest actors of 20th-century art, design and graphics". [1] He was an Italian artist, designer, and inventor who contributed fundamentals to many fields of visual arts ( painting, sculpture, film, industrial design, graphic design) in modernism, futurism, and concrete art, and in non-visual arts ( literature, poetry) with his research on games, didactic method, movement, tactile learning, kinesthetic learning, and creativity. On the utility of art, Munari once said, "Art shall not be separated from life: things that are good to look at, and bad to be used, should not exist". [2] Bruno Munari photographed by Federico Patellani (1950) Early life [ edit ] The essays in the book are part of social commentary, part musing and part criticism about the world of design, filled with “abused objects” and the tone of them sets the book apart from most other research tomes that otherwise dominate the world of design thinking. It is filled with observations and thoughtful reflections of the material world, which is one of the most powerful tools a designer can have. I will limit myself to saying that Bruno Munari is one of the most important designers of the last century, a figure who defined the role of the designer, both with his professional experiences and with his thoughts.Any rational concept of the function of Industrial Design must begin be rejecting the all too common production of objects that are absolutely useless to man. (…) One such object is the rose. The object is very widely produced, and this production often becomes really chaotic in circumstances when the economics of production have been given no serious study at all. The object is formally coherent and pleasantly coloured. It comes in a wide variety of colours, all of them warm. The distribution channels for the sap are well worked out and arranged with great precision; indeed, with excessive precision in the case of those parts which are hidden from view. The petals are elegantly curved, reminding one of a Pininfarina sports car design”. Francesco Franco, Bruno Munari. Dalla copertina alla coperta, fino al riciclaggio del ciclo, in "BTA – Bollettino Telematico dell’Arte", 21/3/2007, n. 451, [3]. Bruno Munari (October 24, 1907, Milan – September 30, 1998, Milan) was an Italian artist, designer, and inventor who contributed fundamentals to many fields of visual arts (painting, sculpture, film, industrial design, graphic design) in modernism, futurism, and concrete art, and in non visual arts (literature, poetry) with his research on games, didactic method, movement, tactile learning, kinesthetic learning, and creativity. For example, we call upon graphic designers to make posters for events — and not the artist. This is because the artist is comfortable only with the easel, but the designer is much more competent for this case of visual communication. With all the knowledge of printing, and paper types and technicalities, the designer almost seems like a genius. He works keeping in mind the printing techniques right from the start, he designs work that fits the psychological functions, and this makes him so much more valuable. After all, the form follows the function.

In 1948, Munari, Gillo Dorfles, Gianni Monnet and Atanasio Soldati, founded Movimento Arte Concreta[1] (MAC), the Italian movement for concrete art. During the 1940s and 1950s, Munari produced many objects for the Italian design industry, including light fixtures, ash trays, televisions, espresso machines, and toys among other objects.[2] Another interesting insight in the book is how Bruno Munari thinks about Japanese design. He begins by pointing out how the word for art in Japanese, Asobi, also means game and reveals that is how he processes to design as if playing a game, trying different strategies to see what works. He goes on to talk in praise about the simplicity lightness and adaptability of a traditional Japanese home. Image source: https://www.iconeye.com/images/news_december2008_images/DSC_0014.jpgIn the preface to his 1966 classic Design as Art ( public library) — one of the most important and influential design books ever published — legendary Italian graphic designer Bruno Munari, once described by Picasso as “the new Leonardo,” makes a passionate case for democratizing art and making design the lubricant between romanticism and pragmatism. Bruno Munari joined the 'Second' Italian Futurist movement in Italy led by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in the late 1920s. During this period, Munari contributed collages to Italian magazines, some of them highly propagandist, and created sculptural works which would unfold in the coming decades including his useless machines, and his abstract-geometrical works. [4] After World War II Munari disassociated himself with Italian Futurism because of its proto-Fascist connotations. [5] Later life [ edit ] Bruno Munari: Square, Circle, Triangle, Princeton Architectural Press, 2016. ( ISBN 978-1616894122) One of the most influential designers of the twentieth century ... Munari has encouraged people to go beyond formal conventions and stereotypes by showing them how to widen their perceptual awareness'