Archivio Osvaldo Borsani
Visual Identity - 2018

Working with the master.

The Osvaldo Borsani exhibition, the first retrospective about the Master of Design, held at the Milan Triennale in 2018, was curated by Norman Foster and Tommaso Fantoni. Everything concerning the graphics of the exhibition was the subject of our project. In front of the exhibition structure, on which the objects designed by Borsani stood out from the dawn of his design activity to the peak of Tecno. We set up the graphic design of a 110-meter long wall, divided into sections corresponding to the designer-entrepreneur's decades of activity, with drawings, archival photos, works of art and vintage graphics, selecting this precious material from the Osvaldo Borsani Archive.

View more on Osvaldo Borsani Official

The promotion project.

The exhibition was introduced by a powerful advertising campaign which we took care of all the graphic aspect, starting from the project of the logo of the Osvaldo Borsani archive, the vision and the photographic direction. The shots were made by photographer Federico Villa and were reproduced in various formats, from invitations to advertising posters and large urban billboards. We also designed the digital and paper artefacts necessary for the promotion of all events related to the exhibition, such as the opening of the Villa Borsani in Varedo, the publication of the Monograph published by Skira, the events for printing and vernissages.

Scripta manent.

The guide of the exhibition, an 84-page black and white booklet, distributed free of charge at the entrance, was a graphic project in which we reproduced the views of the exhibition by providing captions for each object, photo or drawing on display. However the most significant project in the publishing field was the official catalogue of the exhibition, 190 pages, published by Skira. We were responsible for the graphics of all the artifact which looks like a journey through the master's work, and proposes the same path that is experienced in the exhibition, through photographic images, drawings and artifacts. Skira has also edited the monograph, in which we participated in the design of the red canvas cover.

Memorabilia.

The project also extended to the part of the experience after visiting the exhibition. Before leaving, the visitor could remove, from four large blocks of paper, a poster with one of the subjects chosen by the promotional campaign. On the back of the poster there is a matrix with colour photos of the 195 objects on display and the related caption. For the bookshop we designed the notebooks and pencils, and the canvas bag in which to store the entire set of catalogues and accessories.

One Mario Sirtori

One Mario Sirtori