Graphics for the city

In the academic year 1968/1969 the Milanese graphic designer Albe Steiner, together with students from the CSAG in Urbino (Advanced Course in Graphic Arts, now ISIA), developed a coordinated plan for the city that included a new logo, signs for the historic centre and a city bulletin. The project had an important echo and a clear success: that of introducing a design field already practiced internationally in Italy, and identifying it on a local level. However, it is not just a question of scale, but rather the involvement of the communication designer in local decision-making processes. The fiftieth anniversary of Steiner's urban plan for the city offers an opportunity to update this theme in a different context, both in terms of the evolution of the discipline of communication design, and in relation to the complexity of everyday life and, in particular, the emergencies that exist in historic city centres under pressure from diverse and conflicting demands, from conservation to promotion, from promotion to activation.

The various contributions tackle issues related to living in historic centres nowadays and the role that communication design can play, 

in synergy with other experts and operators in the local area. If on the one hand, communication design plays a fundamental role with regard to the readability and usability of places and services, on the other hand, it also has the tools to design policies for cultural development and for activating local communities.

With texts by Ruedi Baur, Jean-Michel Galley, Jean-Pierre Grunfeld, Anna Steiner, Antonio Mugnai, Jonathan Pierini, Marco Tortoioli Ricci.