Conversations on Design
a project by Laboratorio AnimazioneDesign - Alghero
* illustrations by Bruno Munari
Conversations on Design
a project by Laboratorio AnimazioneDesign - Alghero
* illustrations by Bruno Munari
Two stories of how visual language can help define the world
June 2026
Two stories of how visual language can help define the world, reinforcing its values, helping us navigate it, and contributing to reading its nuances.
Alghero
Santa Chiara Complex - Sciola Hall
16:30 h
Graphic designer, researcher and university lecturer based in Vienna, he graduated from ISIA Urbino and completed a master's at Werkplaats Typografie (Netherlands). Since 2008 he has regularly taught typography and information design at various academic institutions in Austria.
From 2015 to 2024 he was Professor of Graphic and Information Design; he currently holds the role of Senior Artist at the Department of Visual Communication of the University of the Arts in Linz.
Attilio Baghino is a graphic and interaction designer who collaborates with software houses, publishing companies and advertising agencies in Italy and abroad. Senior member of AIAP (Italian Association of Visual Communication Designers) and Architecta (Italian Society of Information Architecture), he is a contract lecturer in Multimedia Publishing at the University of Cagliari.
He has also taught at the Luiss School of Government and the University of Sassari.
He has worked on projects including: tourism communication for the Sardinia Region (2016–2024); icons for the signage of the Paris 2024 and Milan metros; brand design and editorial projects for clients such as Einaudi, Mondadori, Olivetti, PwC and LUISS Data Lab. Author of several publications, including Sardegna Dingbats (2024) and The Peace Memorials Project (2023), he combines information design, visual identity and academic activity.
Two viewpoints on design
November 2024
A reference to a legendary 1990s TV commercial – which launched Stefano Accorsi's career – for a meeting with two designer/teachers from the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano.
Alghero
Santa Chiara Complex - Nivola Hall
16:00 h
Designer and Associate Professor of Design at Politecnico di Milano, where he coordinates the Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Product Design and the Master's in Integrated Product Design.
He founded and coordinates the XDA Experience Design Academy of POLI.design, which offers the User Experience Design course.
He is co-director of the Master's in UX Psychology. He founded Narvalo-air of change, a Polimi spin-off start-up in collaboration with BLS Group.
Selected for the Red Dot Award, his projects have been included several times in the ADI Design Index, while in 2018 with the Punto Design Trentino Innovation Factory project, he received an Honourable Mention at the XXV edition of the ADI Compasso d'Oro.
Architect, PhD in Industrial Design and Multimedia Communication, he works in Design, with particular attention to the anthropological aspects of the discipline.
Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano where he is the Rector's Delegate for International Relations with India, he belongs to the Design Department where he coordinates the activities of the LABIRINT Research Atelier.
Honourable Mention at the Compasso d'Oro with the GRACE_lab project. He coordinates a research platform on Active Ageing and participates in the Design Clinic of the Nosedo Off Campus.
Text and images for communicating identity and territory
May 2024
The text/image relationship for communicating identity and territory. A dialogue between historical cases and contemporary design experiences in visual communication, typography and identity design.
Alghero
Santa Chiara Complex - Nivola Hall
18:00 h
Italian designer, curator, lecturer and researcher in the field of visual communication.
After completing his bachelor's and master's degrees at ISIA Urbino, he worked for several years with international agencies and clients such as Armando Testa, Heads Collective, La Biennale di Venezia and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Group.
Since 2013, he has worked as a researcher and lecturer in graphic design at the Faculty of Design and Art of the Free University of Bolzano. In parallel, he completed his PhD in typography and communication design at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.
From 2017 to 2023 he was co-director of Progetto grafico, an international graphic design magazine. He combines teaching with practice, encompassing both design criticism and research.
Visual communication designer and contract university lecturer
He graduated in 2007 in Communication Design from the Design Faculty of Politecnico di Milano, and worked in the Density Design research group at Politecnico di Milano until 2014, while in parallel carrying out teaching activities as teaching assistant and then as lecturer in the same Faculty.
He worked for La Gazzetta dello Sport before joining the Milan studio Zetalab, where he followed clients such as Moleskine, Smemoranda, Pedrali, etc. Since 2012, alongside teaching, he started freelance work for Corriere della Sera, Il Sole 24 Ore and La Stampa. From 2014 to 2017 he was a Researcher at the Free University of Bolzano, where since 2017 he has been a contract lecturer. Today, in addition to Unibz, he teaches at NABA and Raffles Milano.
Since 2017 he founded Studio Eremo, an art direction and brand design studio, with which he has worked on various communication design and art direction projects for clients such as Musei Nazionali di Bologna, Zucchi, Bassetti, Edizioni Settecolori, etc.
Design for rethinking territories
May 2024
New DesignDuo appointment: conversations on design topics. Starting from (at least) two different viewpoints and ways of thinking about design to rethink and promote territories.
Alghero
Santa Chiara Complex – Nivola Hall
16:30 h
Full Professor of Industrial Design, he is Dean of the School of Design at Politecnico di Milano. His research interests focus on strategic, systemic and creative themes of design, in consideration of the sustainability of impacts on innovation, business and human development.
He is a member of the scientific committee of the Design Thinking for Business Observatory (Polimi and ADI Index) which selects innovative Italian products and services for the Compasso d'Oro. He is scientific director of the Executive Master in Design Strategy and System Innovation and co-director of the Master's in Strategic Design and the Master's in Furniture Design at POLI.design.
He is co-curator of the exhibitions "Italia Geniale" (ADI and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2023–24) and "Identitalia" (Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy).
Architect and designer, she graduated from Politecnico di Milano and from IED, and works in her own studio in Biella. She has worked both as an architect and in design as art director for furniture companies.
She has given lectures in Italy and abroad, has been a visiting professor at universities and design schools, and her writings are published in many trade magazines.
She participates in important international juries and design promotion events around the world. She was National President of ADI – Association for Industrial Design. Vice President of PoliDesign, member of the Italian Design Council (Ministry of Cultural Heritage), CNACC and CIDIC. She is currently Senator of the World Design Organization.
With the project "Ilumina Arnioni in Piazza" she received ADI-Index recognition in 2021 and in 2023 won the Golden Award of GDA Australia with the project "Design Alabastro 22".
The forms of exhibiting
April 2024
DesignDuo reaches its seventh edition, this time dedicated to the potential of Exhibit design and the forms of exhibiting.
Event organized as part of the Triennale in Design and the PhD in Architecture and Environment.
Alghero
Santa Chiara Complex – Nivola Hall
16:00 h
Architect with a professional studio in Milan, he studied at Politecnico of the same city and at FAUP in Porto.
In 2009 he designed the layout of the XIX Sardinian Craftsmanship Biennale DOMO (awarded the Compasso d'Oro). Since 2015 he has collaborated with the Nivola Foundation, for which he designed the layout of the Museum's permanent collection and numerous temporary exhibitions, including those for recent exhibitions at the Tavolara Pavilion in Sassari.
Two of his most recent exhibition design works (realized in Luxembourg in collaboration with Tokonoma) have been included in the latest ADI Design Index.
Architect, PhD in Interior Architecture and Exhibition Design, Associate Professor at the School of Architecture Urban Planning Construction Engineering/Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering of Politecnico di Milano, where he is a member of the Doctoral Board of the PhD in Architectural, Urban and Interior Design.
He teaches at the IDEA Exhibition Design Master's – Architecture of Exhibiting (PoliDesign). He mainly works on contemporary exhibition design in terms of museography and new narrative models for the enhancement of material and immaterial cultural heritage.
On these topics he has published numerous essays and monographs including: La continuità dell'esporre. Allestimenti ai Musei Civici di Verona 2004-2023 (2023) and Digital practices for generating interaction: exhibits and museums as phygital environments (2022)
Experiences from Chile
November 2023
After many years… we're back with Design Duo meetings. This time within the framework of the new design study programme, to explore some experiences in enhancing local Latin American craftsmanship.
The goal is to discover how enhancing craftsmanship to ensure its economic future and foster its important role as a cultural witness is possible: for example in Chile.
Alghero
Santa Chiara Complex – Sciola Hall
15:00 h
Geographer, specialized in Local Development, Chilean Popular Culture and Cultural Heritage Management, Saúl Pérez Inostroza is the National Head of Craftsmanship at INDAP, the Agricultural Development Institute of the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture.
Saúl is Vice President of the Board of Directors of Fundación Artesanías de Chile.
Anthropologist, Master in Communication, and specialization in cities and creative entrepreneurship, cultural management and public policies.
Bárbara Velasco is Director of Plataforma Cultural, cultural centre of the University of Chile, and President, for the Latin American Delegation, of the World Crafts Council.
Design and reuse practices
June 2018
This time our encounter will be about reuse practices. When Design starts from what's already there - transforming what has been already produced, the scrap, the waste - into a new resource.
A Milanese designer-artist who has been practicing for years a poetic self-production revolving around the idea of turning waste and production leftovers into resources, combining an experimental and crafty attitude with the careful understanding of materials and production methods.
Massimiliano trained at the Institute of Art in Monza and at the Polytechnic of Milan; he debuted in 1998 with the exhibition "Il fantasma del design" (The Ghost of Design), taking part in various competitions and exhibitions, until his successful show at Milan’s 2005 Salone Satellite.
Since then, his objects have been exhibited at major design galleries, including Moss in New York, Philip de Pury in London, Rossana Orlandi in Milan, Ottobarradieci in Bergamo.
He has designed for companies such as Cappellini, Meritalia, Molteni Imbottiti, Refin Ceramiche, Serralunga, Zerodisegno and has created special projects for Alcantara, Fendi / DesignMiami Group and Poltrona Frau.
Following the "Magma Fossile" 2009 exhibition at the Milan Triennale, his “Fossili Moderni” (Modern Fossils) have been included in Milan’s Design Museum permanent collection.
A reserved designer, far from fashions, whose projects are not only "objects", but starters for processes of ethical refoundation, active participation and social construction.
Curro studied at Barcelona's Elisava - the city where he lives - and at Central St. Martins in London.
Since 1998 he has worked as a designer of objects and installations: for his family, friends, for the city of Barcelona and the Catalan Generalitat, for some small and medium-sized companies and a few larger companies (Camper).
He has taught at Elisava and other international schools, and collaborates with the Catalan Design Association (FAD).
His objects-projects have been presented in various exhibition spaces, and have received various awards, prizes, publications (bla bla bla ... as he labels it).
a contemporary vision on graphic design
June 2017
DesignDuo is back with a new appointment on June the 27 th: Jonathan Barnbrook and Isidro Ferrer will join us in Alghero for an informal conversation on contemporary visual design.
Moderated by Nicolò Ceccarelli.
An internationally acclaimed graphic designer, Jonathan Barnbrook has made his original design wit available to many high-profile figures in the arts and in music.
Collaborating with contemporary artist Damien Hirst, contributing to Bansky’s iconic Dismaland theme park with a provocative exhibit – working with David Bowie, for whom Jonathan has designed a series of memorable music record covers (until Bowie last Black Star record’s cover, which was recently awarded with a Grammy).
Among Jonathan’s work highlights is his capacity to invent visual grammars made of elementary open elements. Elements which ,once made available to the public through open collaborative platforms such as Creative Commons, have ignited chains of re-interpretations and re-developments, producing unexpected participatory processes on social networks.
More connected with book and cover design and with the combination of graphics design and photography Isidro Ferrer’s work is a contemporary re-interpretation of the designs of some of classic’s graphic history noblesse – Saul Steinberg, Milton Glaser e Jirí Trnka among many others – that, through the assembly and experimental composition of pictures, objects and different techniques, brought poster and book cover design to very high standards of visual storytelling, producing emblematic and timeless work.
Isidro literally ‘builds’ his graphic work playing with bricolage, craftsmanship and ready-made, creating visual devices of beautiful simple sophistication.
Re-thinking design, production and consumption
June 2014
You can do it too; a simple formula for re-thinking on design and on production and consumption practices: to talk about the active participation in constructing objects and, while suggesting the possibility – or the need, or utopia? – of participated and shared design.
This is the theme of this third round of DesignDuo: conversations on design. Starting from (at least) two different points of view and ways of thinking.
Alghero, Complesso di Santa Chiara, piazza Santa Croce
19:00 h
interviews
Zoran Minic
Davide Rampanelli
An international design collective based in Milan, Recession Design was established in 2008, as the global economic crisis started emerging as a permanent factor.
RD revolves around the key idea of recession being an opportunity,: Through provocative actions in public events (2009 Salone del Mobile Milan, 2010 MAK Museum, Vienna) Recession Design pursues a different way to design in the current economic, social and productive scenario.
Recession Design presents objects-projects that, being thought and developed starting from DIY pre-fabricated kit, exclude complex machining offering instead elementary installation instructions, aim at reducing the distance between the designer and the user. Such Designs can be downloaded from the internet, or found in the book Design DIY, by Rizzoli.
Founded in Milan in 2003 by a group of friends engaged in an urban regeneration initiative, Controprogetto is a design and experimentation laboratory promoting projects for public spaces, furnishing and custom furniture, made of recycled materials, through a shared construction practice. Here, waste material is seen as a lively positive resource, a repository the signs written about things by time, and of stories to be rediscovered . "By working it, we have found out that under the upper layer of the wood grayed by time wood wood remains protected, and that the history engraved in the material is what makes it unique is and not a defect - recall the members of the group - but elements of nature" .
This is an open invitation by the controprogetto team to understanding, touching, playing with things, to look for "new uses, directions, and combinations in every bit of matter”. With no fear or getting your hands dirty.
(At least) two ways to the business: today, in Italy.
June 2014
Our second appointment will offer (at least) two different perspectives on how to be a designer today, in Italy
Matteo Ragni and Lorenzo Palmieri will share with us their vision and professional experience
Alghero, Complesso di Santa Chiara, piazza Santa Croce
19:00 h
interviews
Matteo Ragni
Lorenzo Palmieri
Matteo Ragni. After graduating in Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, in 2001 Matteo Ragni was awarded (with Giulio Iacchetti) the Compasso d’Oro for the disposable biogradable spork “Moscardino”, now part of the permanent design collection at NY MOMA.
He won the Wallpaper Design Award ’08 with Leti, a table lamp/book, (Danese). In 2008 he founded TobeUs: wooden toy cars brand. Recently he published for italian design publisher Corraini) a book on Camparisoda and “Wallpaper celebrations”.
In 2012 with W-eye he won the National Award for Innovation “Prize of Prizes”. In 2013 the Italian Cultural Institute of Toronto hosted an exhibition about his work entitled “Matteo Ragni: Almost 20 Years of Design”. Matteo Ragni combines his activity as an industrial designer with architecture, art direction, and teaching.
Lorenzo Palmeri, architect, industrial designer, art director, and lecturer. Also musician and music producer. Early work experience include figures such as Bruno Munari and Isao Hosoe.
He has designed houses, guitars, lamps, tables…as a consultant he has taken care of art directing companies as well as of designing chocolate pralines. Among his clients: Milanosoundesign (with Giulio Iacchetti); Invicta, Lefel; DesignRe (with Giovanni Pelloso); Arthemagroup; Stone italiana. From 1997 he lectures in international universities. He haspresented his work in important design exhibitions and has won numerous international prizes, such as ADI Design Index and Good Design Award.
Lorenzo writes music for theatrical performances, films and specific events. After his 2009 first pop album “preparativi per la pioggia”, he about to release a new album.
Reflections on craftsmanship and anonymous design
April 2014
Il ciclo DesignDuo parte il 16 Aprile 2014, con l’incontro: Design senza Designers: riflessioni su artigianato e design anonimo con Alberto Bassi e Roberta Morittu
modera Nicolò Ceccarelli
Alberto Bassi is Associate professor of design at IUAV Venice and directs the design course of study of the University of S. Marino/IUAV.
A Design historian and critic, he is part of the editorial board of “Casabella”. Among his many books on Design: Design anonimo in Italia. Oggetti comuni e progetto incognito, Electa, Milano 2007; a study on anonymous design in Italy.
A designer with a background on traditional craftsmanship, Roberta’s work is mainly focused on research on traditional weaving and natural basketry.
Co-founder of design firm Imago Mundi she has curated many events on Sardinian and Mediterranean craftsmanship, including Domo - XIX Biennale dell’Artigiananto Sardo-that was awarded a Compasso d’Oro. From 2013 she teaches at the Alghero School of Design.
The Alghero Architecture Design and Planning Department continues its path in Design education in Sardinia.
To strengthen this effort with ideas, contacts, and cultural insights, we have organized a series of seminars on some key issues on design and about our vision: re-thinking local knowledge as a major asset and using design as the vehicle to combine tradition with innovation.
This idea lead to DesignDuo, a series of sessions based on the format of open conversations. Any DesignDuo session will bring to Alghero two design experts to start a conversation on a specific theme, approach, design direction. Starting form (at least) two ways of thinking and of seeing things..
DesignDuo is a project by Nicolò Ceccarelli e Marco Sironi
For those who couldn't make it, here are some short interviews with our guest speakers.
