Typeface design education from Cooper Union
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Franco Grignani: Graphic and Typographic Freedom
with Greg D’Onofrio

Graphic designer, architect, artist and photographer Franco Grignani (1908–1999) was a pioneering figure of mid 20th century Italian design. This talk will focus on his expressive and experimental use of type and graphics in advertising design from the late 1940s thru the 1970s. His work for companies such as Dompé Farmaceutici, Pure Virgin Wool, Pirelli, Pubblicità in Italia and the significant Milan printer Alfieri & Lacroix, is a bold and conscious effort to reject Swiss Constructivism, what he referred to as a “typographical straightjacket” in favor of a more artistic, experimental approach to typography, visual forms and the rules of perception. His distinctive graphic language explores speed, technology and modernity using fragmented and distorted type, optical effects, tension, altered geometry and abstract photography – a visual treat featuring a collection of rarely seen work.

Registration is now closed

When:
Mon, March 7, 2016

Where:
The Rose Auditorium at Cooper Union
41 Cooper Square (at East 7th Street)
New York, NY 10003


The Herb Lubalin Lectures are recorded and made available here and on Vimeo with the generous support of Hoefler&Co.


About Greg D’Onofrio

Greg
Greg D’Onofrio is a designer, writer, educator, and co-founder of Display, Graphic Design Collection. Greg has curated, lectured, and written about topics ranging from Bruno Munari and Lester Beall to Elaine Lustig Cohen and Morton and Millie Goldsholl. Greg teaches Graphic Design History at the School of Visual Arts and Cooper Union in New York City. He is co-author of The Moderns: Midcentury American Graphic Design and Italian Types: Graphic Designers from Italy in America.