A widespread festival dedicated to graphic design will come to Milan in 2022

A new large mural over 57 meters long was recently created on a project by the graphic design studio CamuffoLab in Via Varesina in Milan, on the external wall of the La Forgiatura corporate campus ; it was strongly desired by SIGNS, the permanent observatory on visual design that involves more than one hundred Italian designers and graphic studios with the aim of conveying a message of rebirth and urban regeneration, in the sign of visual design, in a neighborhood, the Certosa District, which is being transformed from a manufacturing hub into an innovation district.

The unveiling of the mural also announces the first edition of the Milano Graphic Festival (MGF), a widespread festival dedicated to graphic design, illustration and visual cultures, designed by SIGNS and h+, curated by Francesco Dondina, which will take place from February 11 to 13, 2022 and will bring a rich calendar of events throughout the city, starting from the two main hubs, namely the Certosa District and BASE Milano, and in Milan’s main cultural institutions. The Certosa District is the neighborhood in the northwest area of Milan currently at the center of a vibrant renaissance that, after years of neglect, is re-emerging as a commercial hub thanks to creative industries and innovative companies; here graphic design becomes a tool for change and representation of the city in transformation.

The mural is titled When the city changes you look at its colors: the Venetian studio CamuffoLab chose to graphically represent some architectural elements of the neighborhood and images of the city in motion. Different shapes and bold colors compose a “tessera” narrative juxtaposed to each other, to bring the city inside these spaces and reflect on the meaning of the neighborhood, for a Milan that is increasingly inclusive and close to its inhabitants.

The goal is to make this area a reference point for graphic and visual design: that is why it was decided to bring one of the two main hubs of Milano Graphic Festival to this district with the birth of Certosa Graphic Village, a 3,000-square-meter temporary performance and creative space dedicated to contemporary creativity, where designers under 30 will be able to design and create during the Festival, working on a special urban graphic project. Certosa Graphic Village will also be the place dedicated to meetings, experiences and research: talks with Italian and international designers, project rooms, thematic lectures, performances and workshops will animate the Village in a very rich three-day program dedicated to professionals, students and people of all ages who love visual design.

The second hub of the Festival will be BASE Milano: here twenty-five Italian graphic design studios will be the protagonists of the exhibition SIGNS II. Contemporary Italian Graphics, the second installment of the exhibition of the same name that was held in late 2016 at the former Ansaldo.

Spread throughout the city, the Festival will also kick off exhibitions and events at Milan’s most important institutions dedicated to the languages of visual communication, art and design: among them, the Triennale, ADI Design Museum Compasso d’Oro, Castello Sforzesco, Società Umanitaria, Mudec - Museo delle Culture, MUBA-Museo dei Bambini Milano, and Casa degli Artisti. The Festival will involve schools and universities, associations, art galleries, private studios, bookstores and publishing houses that will promote special projects and in some cases open for the first time to the public for meetings with graphic designers, art directors, illustrators, publishers and professors who will talk about their projects and the role of visual design today.

For info: www.milanographicfestival.com

Image: When the city changes you look at its colors (2021, via Varesina 162 Milan). On a project by CamuffoLab with SIGNS in partnership with Certosa District.

A widespread festival dedicated to graphic design will come to Milan in 2022

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