100 of these years Vico!
A logo to celebrate one hundred years and a travelling exhibition dedicated to Vico Magistretti, architect and designer, master of simplicity.
The year 2020 marks the centenary of the birth of Vico Magistretti. To celebrate this birthday, the studio and museum Foundation that bears his name asked us to design the logo, which marks not only a date but also several important milestones such as the digitisation of the archive, the 10th anniversary of the Foundation and a major travelling exhibition.
The digital archive, the first large monograph accessible online dedicated to the work of the Milanese architect, has been online since 2020. The archive, the outcome of a long process of cataloguing, filing and digitisation, contains about 400 historical and critical records, the complete register and more than 30,000 materials, including technical drawings, sketches, project reports, cuttings, memos and notes.
The logo
The logo was designed starting with Akzidenz Grotesk. We decided to use this 19th century typeface (the Akzidenz was designed by the Berthold type foundry in 1896) due to its extreme simplicity, which conveys not only rigour but also balance and refinement. The colours and defined lines recall the identity of the Foundation, focusing on immediate and functional communication, the essential elements of the entire works of Vico Magistretti.
The exhibition
The celebration of the centenary of Vico Magistretti and his 60-year career also included creating a major travelling exhibition, designed to be hosted by the Italian Cultural Institutes network worldwide.
The exhibition traces the entire career of the architect and designer Vico Magistretti with drawings, plans and photos.
We aimed to produce digital materials that could be adapted to the different exhibition requirements of the various venues. To set up the exhibition, the individual Italian Cultural Institutes relied on local designers and architects, who made use of the materials available to design tours and interpretations that were always different and original.
Panels, always designed to be printed on A3 modules, were included each time and assembled as part of the individual exhibition projects. The choice to design a modular system, universally adaptable to different spaces and places seemed, to us, to be the best way to celebrate the birthday of Vico, a master of rationalism and simplicity.
In 2020, the exhibition was hosted in Cologne, Stockholm, New York, Strasbourg, Metz, Berlin, Prague, Budapest and Washington.
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