Variazioni sul tema del viso umano

"In how many ways and with what  techniques can variations be made to a human face seen from the front?"

With "Variazioni sul tema del viso umano" (variations on the theme of the human face) Bruno Munari constructs countless faces with well-defined and very different characteristics by means of different types of signs. An opportunity to play at breaking down and recomposing faces with ever-changing eyes, mouths, noses - and after all, play is a very serious activity, as he defines it - but also an example of good design.

In fact, Bruno Munari wrote in "Arte come Mestiere" (ed. Laterza, 1966) from which the drawings collected in this poster are taken: "This exercise serves, for a graphic designer, to find the most coherent image for a given theme, every image and every technique has precise attributes and transmits a given message. A graphic symbol for a cosmetics product cannot be the same as one for coal. Normally the graphic designer makes hundreds of small designs and then chooses one".