Design Like/For Kids

Luca Boscardin: the art of minimal playfulness

What’s playful in Boscardin’s designs is not just the output but the whole creative process. The children ability to free their imagination and their way of communicating – based on simple signs – are a constant source of inspiration for his illustrations, and initial input of each project. Animals are a recurring subject of his poetics. He has created different ones in terms of material, context of use, and type of interaction: rocking (Cavalcade), flying (Mobile Birds), decomposed and combinable (Domino of Fantastic Creatures), walkable (Sensory Rug), and even life-size and climbable (Animal Factory). But his imagination also extends to the city and its inhabitants, representing them as ever-changing “visual puzzles,” as in the case of Archiville, Wooden Sculptures, and Totem Creatures.

Pinaffo & Pluvinage: visualizing the unseen

Since 2015 the duo Pinaffo — Pluvinage makes hypnotizing installations addressing complex conceptual topics through playful and ingenious solutions. Working as surprising learning devices, each of their work aims at investigating a certain invisible system, using art and design to reveal its impalpable actualities so as to make their understanding accessible to all. The exhibition has been a wunderkammer of all their projects Jelly Safari, Papier Machine, Château d’eau, Île à gratter, Code set, and many others.

Ola Niepsuj: wonder in ordinary

Combining the lightness of childish doodles with immaculate composition, the polish graphic artist Ola Niepsuj is renowned for her playful and elegant style. The exhibition was the occasion to unveil her finesse and sense of humor, showcasing a collection of many original drawings and collages, as well as entirely new three collections of works. Inspired by the masters of Polish poster design and illustration of the 1960s, Ola Niepsuj combines the analogue techniques of ink drawings, cutouts and pencil typography with digital design.

Angelica Gerosa: the practice of combining

When paper stops being the support to itself become an expressive sign, illustrations turn into geometric compositions or pop up as three-dimensional subjects giving life to colorful animals and playful faces: meet the fascinating world of Angelica Gerosa, Italian illustrator and paper designer with a strongly passion for combining colors and shapes, full and empty spaces. Inspired by the Bauhaus movement (especially Kandinsky), Matisse, Italian Futurism, Picasso, folk culture and ancient cultures, and strongly drawing from Rauschenberg’s Combine-paintings, her creative process is centered on an analog, free and slow experimentation.

Fluo Lit Up Books

Fluo – Lit up Books collected 132 fluorescent books released in different parts of the world over the last ten years, testifying to one of the most recent, interesting and original trends in children’s publishing. The result of in-depth graphic-art and printing research and experimentation, fluorescent features have now become a structural part of the books they are used in. The exhibition looked at the technical side of fluorescent applications, offering visitors an opportunity to discover new innovative tools and new creative avenues.

Curated by Grazia Gotti and Petra Paoli, Accademia Drosselmeier – Centro Studi di Letteratura per Ragazzi.

Illustrated covers: a collection of kids-suited magazines

If children’s books are illustrated by definition, the significant use of illustrations in magazines for children is more recent and is a distinctive feature of many publishing houses. This exhibition gathers a selection of international magazines –  Uppa, Anorak and Dot, Georges and Graou, Revista Kiwi – and wants to highlight the added value of illustration in entertaining children and their parents through reading, playing and creativity.

Dress up your inner child: the power of fashion design

From pattern to dress, Rogers would say, the ability of the designer lies in translating values and messages in visual and material terms, with the peculiarity in fashion design of being able to make use of a living and always different medium: the human body. The result is a generative communication, in which the same garment assumes an almost unique meaning depending on the different forms, colors, and gestures of the body it dresses up. What we wear has a strong impact on how we feel and behave, and therefore on what we communicate. The exhibition displayed the works of LĀU Clothing, Face This and Antoine Peters.