Design as Art: Bruno Munari (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Having laid down this crucial understanding, Bruno Munari goes on to explain the intricacies of visual design, through shapes of words, symbols and signs, and colours, of industrial design, through micro-art and spontaneous art forms, of research design, and of machines designed as theoretical reconstructions of totally imaginary objects. If you enjoyed Design as Art, you might like John Berger's Ways of Seeing, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 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) Giocare con l'arte (1988) Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, laboratori permanenti

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.jpgThe problem is that he treats readers as his consumers rather than his peers or pupils. This reads like a sales pitch. This is a book convincing the public that 'design is art', but not a book informing future designers what makes design that is art.

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 ] Naturally, this puts an end to the already tarnished image of the work of art as a rare and even unique thing, independent of what it expresses." (167) Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary OL5323041M Openlibrary_edition The Discovery of the Circle. New York: G. Wittenborn. (English translation by Marcello and Edna Maestro.) 1965. A piece of wonderful fancy, elegant prose mixed with deep humanism and all that written by well-educated, admirable man with an ironic spark in his eye.What has always impressed me about his work and aptitude for research, coupled with a poetic and pragmatic ability in making the complex simple. This is evident in his design projects as well as in his artistic production and writings. Munari is an incomparable communicator who has left us dozens of books aimed at both professionals and children, books imbued with his experience and the desire to reach an audience, which he always does with great agility. Munari, Bruno; Scheiwiller, Giovanni (1963). Good design. Milan: All'insegna del pesce d'oro (later Scheiwiller Editore) Discovery of the Square. New York: George Wittenborn. (English translation by Desmond O'Grady.) 1965.