Italian graphic design explores the emergence and articulation of graphic design practice in Italy from the interwar period to the 1960s. It offers a much-needed critical and historical analysis of the role that graphic design has played in Italian design culture. As such, it contributes to a more diverse, inclusive and contextualised understanding of Italian design and visual culture. Drawing attention to everyday design practices, education, networks, organisational strategies, mediating channels and discourses on modernism, the book addresses the struggle for graphic designers to define their practice and its adaptation to shifting political and cultural environments, as well as changing design discourses. It traces the lineage of graphic design back to typography, tackles its problematic relation with advertising and addresses graphic designers' efforts to negotiate their professional identity with industrial designers. It problematises and shows new evidence on Italian design during and following fascism, addressing the grey area between alignment and resistance. A series of case studies brings to light neglected actors of Italian design: the vocational schools Scuola del Libro and Cooperativa Rinascita, and the professional body Aiap. They also offer new perspectives on protagonists of the historiographical canon: the Studio Boggeri, the Milan Triennale and the industrial design organisation ADI.

This book will serve as a standard reference for students from undergraduate level upwards, as well as scholars working on Italian design and cultural history and those interested in the development of graphic design internationally.