SIGNS 4
from 22.10 to 8.11
Exhibition curated by Francesco Dondina
10:30 – 19:45ADI Design Museum SIGNS, contemporary Italian graphics is an authorial exhibition that proposes from time to time a selection of Italian graphic designers, different for registries, culture, training, languages.A dialogue between different worlds that reflect on the many souls of the graphic arts profession, where differences are to be considered a cultural value. The authors /studies selected for this 2026 edition are: Atto, Chiara Zhu, Dario Carta, eee studio, Elia Barbieri, esc design, Federica Ricci, FIRM, Giga Design Studio, Giorgia Cadeddu, Giulia Boccarossa, pop-eye studio. The exhibition will be open until 8.11.2026 during the opening hours of ADI Design Museum.
BOOKSHOCK
from 22.10 to 8.11
Exhibition curated by Susanna Vallebona
10:30 – 19:45ADI Design Museum The BOOKSHOCK exhibition project is part of the research path developed by Oggetto Libro during five editions and seventeen exhibitions held nationally, in which the dialogue between two now complementary worlds was explored: that of design and that of art. Within this context, the book is assumed as a critical and design device, whose nature exceeds the editorial dimension to configure itself as a complex form of expression. The exhibition proposes artist's books that represent a surprising example of how the book can transform, taking on unexpected forms. Made with heterogeneous materials and techniques, these works are real artifacts, suspended between object and sculpture. Design books, which testify to the persistent centrality of the book as a tool for communication, design and cultural transmission; and a section of hybrid books, created through the use of technique — in all its possible variations — in which artistic and design issues converge. Works that trace tradition, with a breath of contemporary poetry, works that allow new perspectives of experimentation, which respond to the desire for innovation of the new generations. Finally — in absolute preview — the exhibition proposes, alongside the artifacts and printed copies, a selection of intangible works generated by means of artificial intelligence, capable of surprising and redefining the concept itselfin this context, BOOKSHOCK is configured as a critical device: a place where the book, in its multiple declensions, allows us to examine the conditions of contemporary cultural production and the forms of itsThe transmission The exhibition will be open until 8.11.2026 during the opening hours of ADI Design Museum.
BEST BOOK DESIGN FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD
from 22.10 to 8.11
Exhibition curated by Beautiful Italian Books
10:30 – 19:45ADI Design Museum The selection of Best Book Design from All Over the World arrives in Italy as part of the Biennale Internazionale of Grafica at theADI Design Museum. The exhibition makes visible an international geography of publishing production where the book emerges as the result of a complex chain that contributes to the construction of a design and public object. The exhibition takes on the character of an inaugural moment for the Italian context. Starting thisyear, Italy will join this international network of exchange and recognition for the first time: in fact, in 2026 Beautiful Italian Books was born, which collects and curates aselection of editorial projects that will participate for the first time in Best Book Design from All Over the World in Leipzig. The exhibition is therefore configured as the opening of a new space for observation and comparison, aimed at reading the book in its final and total configuration, in which content and form are mutually supportive and in which conception, editorial project, design, printing and packaging participate in the construction of a unitary entity, the result of a concrete collaboration between different skills and professionalism. The exhibition will be open until 8.11.2026 during the opening hours of ADI Design Museum.
MODERNIST ALPHABETS
from 22.10 to 8.11
Exhibition curated by Luca Lattuga
10:30 – 19:45ADI Design Museum Between the end of the twenties and the forties of the last century, visual culture in Italy definitively broke with decorativism and with the ornamentation of Liberty to aim towards a rational simplification of forms: pure geometries, clear volumes, elementary harmonies. This modernist season is not only witnessed by the well-known graphic artifacts of the protagonists, but is also documented by important peripheral experiences - not for this reason secondary. Compared to the international scene of the time, Italy occupies a marginal position in the production of print fonts. Yet, a more in-depth investigation returns a much more articulated and varied picture: a multitude of alphabets, now forgotten, designed and produced by large foundries as well as by minor companies that, intercepting the innovative thrust of that cultural season, have spread their languages throughout the territory in a capillary way. Modern typography has thus penetrated the productive fabric of the country, reaching even the most provincial realities. "Italian Modernist Alphabets" offers a unique and exhaustive survey of a fragmentary and largely unexplored heritage. The exhibition recomposes and organises this material – wood and metal typefaces produced in Italy between the 1930s and 1940s – to return it to new possibilities of reading, comparison and contemporary interpretation.The exhibition features a careful selection of these materials, many of which are unpublished and in some cases preserved in unique specimens. Movable fonts, samples, prints and period documents bear witness to a vernacular design culture: often local knowledge, which comes from below, developed in small workshops, on the border between industry and craftsmanship. These characters survived in the post-war period and remained in use until the 1970s. The basis of this exhibition is a research begun fifteen years ago by Luca Lettuce, collector of typefaces, founder of Anonima Impressori and author of Italian Modernist Alphabets published by Lazy Dog Press in 2025. The book presents, documents and reproduces in its entirety over 120 alphabets found throughout Italy on a long journey between large centres and extreme provinces - almost all of which belong to his personal archive.Far more than a simple historical reconstruction, the exhibition "Italian Modernist Alphabets" therefore offers a look at a constellation of typographic experiments that, far from the great circuits of the history of design, return the complexity of the visual culture of our country. The exhibition will be open until 8.11.2026 during the opening hours of ADI Design Museum.
ID-ICTIONARY
from 22.10 to 8.11
Exhibition curated by Silvana Amato
10:30 – 19:45ADI Design Museum Id-ictionary presents a selection of 70 posters made by designers who are members of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). The exhibition explores the manifesto as a visual language capable of interpreting and redefining words on the theme of sharing, offering a look at contemporary research in international graphic design. The curatorship of Silvana Amato enhances the dialogue between design cultures, highlighting the communicative and experimental power of author graphics. The exhibition will be open until 8.11.2026 during the opening hours of ADI Design Museum.
25x2=ANOTHER TRIP
from 22.10 to 8.11
Exhibition curated by Matteo Carboni
10:30 – 19:45ADI Design Museum A journey of almost five thousand kilometers through Italy, twenty-six meetings and an irregular map built along the way. A research experience partly designed and partly entrusted to the unexpected, born from the encounter with people who live by design, belonging to different generations, paths and sensitivities. Each conversation took place in a place chosen by the interlocutor: in front of views, around improvised tables, walking, eating together. Because space is never neutral, but enters words, modifies the time of listening and builds relationships. At the centre of the exhibition is the van that accompanied the journey, gradually transforming itself from a means of transport at home, study and silent witness of the meetings. Next to it, the project takes shape through materials, images and traces of conversations collected along the way. A book was born from the trip, published in 2025 by Bug Edizioni + Lupetti Editore, which preserves the spontaneity of speech and the beauty of the imperfect, without transforming conversations into definitive answers. It is not a collection of interviews and it is not an essay on graphic design: it is an open space, made up of questions, doubts, deviations and people. In the first months of 2026, the van left to cross Italy again and take the book on a journey.
MUDDY DANCE, ERIK KESSELS
from 22.10 to 8.11
Exhibition curated by ADCI Art Directors Club Italiano
10:30 – 19:45ADI Design Museum Muddy Dance is an exhibition that celebrates the football movement. The players seem to perform a choreographed dance on a muddy field, tumbling and rolling in search of the ball... or not? This is an exhibition about football for lovers of art and design and, at the same time, an exhibition for all football fans. In Muddy Dance, Erik Kessels proposes a new gesture of re-appropriation of vernacular photography. Move the attention of the images from the ball to the movement: by erasing the ball from each shot, it transforms the game actions into spontaneous choreographies. Muddy Dance by Kessels brings to the fore the beauty of players' movements and transforms this popular sport into a real art form. The exhibition will be open until 8.11.2026 during the opening hours of ADI Design Museum.
AIAP COMMUNITY
22.10
Talk by AIAP
10:30 – 18:30ADI Design Museum AIAP Community is an event promoted by AIAP open to its members to present their visual communication projects and increase the sense of community (collective growth, exchange, reflection, experimentation) of communication design. The selected designers will present their work in 15 minutes each, highlighting contents and motivations, but also the background made of ferment and impulses, dialogue with the client, intuitions and unexpected evolutions.
FESTIVAL NETWORK
22.10
Talk promoted by AIAP with BIG, Desina and Graphic days
10:30ADI Design Museum The Network of Festivals was born from an idea of Graphic Days and AIAP with the aim of relating the Italian realities that promote the culture of communication design and visual cultures, favouring the exchange of experiences, skills, projects and opportunities. The public presentation of the informal memorandum of understanding brings together for the first time a series of festivals and initiatives from different Italian cities, united by the desire to contribute to the dissemination of design culture and the enhancement of young talents and Italian visual culture, in Italy and abroad. The talk will also be an opportunity to learn about the realities that have chosen to join the network and share experiences, operating methods and future perspectives: from the circuitry of exhibitions and guests to the sharing of skills and networks, up to the development of new projects and the search for common financing opportunities.
IN PROGRESS _THE PROJECT JOURNEY
22.10
Talk by ISIA Roma
14:30ADI Design Museum ISIA Roma Design's Systemic Communication. The path of the design project resembles the preparation of a trip: the most suitable tools are carefully chosen, the objectives are shared with the travel companions and we open ourselves, with curiosity, to the encounter with what we do not yet know.Like any trip, the project takes shape in expectation, develops in experience and continues to live in memory. In the ISIA Roma courses, students develop projects capable of imagining unexplored worlds, giving life to experimental narratives and artifacts with an innovative and visionary character. The research extends from the tangible dimension of reality and the most intimate dimension of consciousness, in a process in which form and content build on each other. ISIA Roma, founded in 1973, is the first public university institute of design in Italy, awarded in 1979 with the Compasso d 'Oro for its educational model.
BARILLA "BEHIND THE SCENES"
22.10
Updating information
15:30ADI Design Museum Page being updated. More information about the event will be communicated soon.
THE VALUE OF COLOUR IN GRAPHIC DESIGN
22.10
Talk by Fedrigoni with Dario Carta
16:30ADI Design Museum Color is not a simple aesthetic choice, but a true tool of the project. In this talk we will explore how colour influences the perception, communication and effectiveness of the message, with a specific focus on paper.
Touch it for believe.
22.10
Talk by Packaging Première
17:30ADI Design Museum Designing sensory accessibility in premium packaging Premium packaging speaks for codes: glossy surfaces, tone-on-tone, subtle characters, minimal texts. They are choices that build perceived value but risk becoming barriers. Legibility is not just a matter of typeface, but of font, color, finishes, contrast, material. This meeting goes through the packaging design process from the first physical element to the last informative detail: the material and surfaces (glossy or opaque films, transparencies, metallizations, flow packs, deformability), color and contrast as tools of recognizability, the ennoblements read as a potential functional and tactile language, up to typography and label design applied to the world of wine & spirits. The goal is not to oppose accessibility and desirability, but to show that they can coincide: a readable, tactile, inclusive desirability is today a new form of quality and responsibility for brands.
ERIK KESSELS
22.10
Talk with Erik Kessels
18:30ADI Design Museum Page being updated. More information about the event will be communicated soon. This event will be held in English.
THE BRAND AS A LEVER FOR CORPORATE IDENTITY
23.10
Seminar with Gaetano Grizzanti, curated by AIAP
09:00–16:30ADI Design Museum Open to the public and aimed at graphic designers and visual communication professionals*, the course will be dedicated to corporate branding and the development of identity systems for industries and service companies. A practical and critical meeting to deepen the role of the designer in the strategic and identity processes of an organization: from the relationship with the client to the construction of a coherent and effective Corporate Identity. Limited places, to have priority book by writing to aiap@aiap.itCost: € 49, € 9 for AIAP membersA certificate of participation will be issued. All info
URBAN ARCHIGRAPHY
23.10
Talk by Migliore+Servetto
10:30ADI Design Museum Signs, senses and shared identity. Urban archigraphy, understood as a set of signs of function, identity and belonging, is a visual system to be inhabited, which indicates the destinations of arrival and tells what the traveller will find on their journey and why. A cornerstone of urban identity, it defines an inclusive and dynamic language, capable of guiding and, at the same time, generating a sense of community. The intervention opens a reflection on the fundamental role of environmental graphics in shaping the identity of a neighbourhood, behaving as a sort of urban tattoo in the making. What is a neighborhood? An invisible border or a tangle of stories? Where does it start, where does it dissolve, and to what extent does it belong to us?Like the human being, urban archigraphy merges the Kantian intersection between intellect and reason - where the first generates knowledge, while the second meaning - which is accompanied by passion, a fundamental lever to nurture the sense of belonging.
WRITING, EDITING FOR RESEARCH
23.10
Talk by Valeria Bucchetti / Politecnico di Milano
11:30ADI Design Museum A communication design series. For over fifteen years, the series edited by FrancoAngeli has reflected on the paths of research in communication design, focusing on themes and perspectives of the evolution of the discipline. Is there a future for research publishing? Giovanni Baule, Letizia Bollini, Clorinda Galasso, Francesco Guida, Salvatore Zingale discuss ways of disseminating research and its developments.
TYPE DESIGN TALK
23.10
Talk by Peter & Schmidt Group
14:30ADI Design Museum Page being updated. More information about the event will be communicated soon. This event will be held in English.
ART DIRECTORS CLUB ITALIANO
23.10
Talk by ADCI Art Directors Club Italiano
15:30ADI Design Museum Page being updated. More information about the event will be communicated soon.
ALLIANCE GRAPHIQUE INTERNATIONALE
23.10
Talk by AGI Alliance Graphique Internationale
16:30ADI Design Museum Page being updated. More information about the event will be communicated soon.
OWN YOUR AURA!
23.10
Talk by Peter&Schmidt Group
17:30ADI Design Museum The myth factor in brand building – and the destructive power of performance obsession. Today, brand building is expected to be measurable, optimized by algorithms and agents based on artificial intelligence and, consequently, as efficient as possible. Yet, the most valuable asset of a brand cannot be decoded through data: it is the charm it manages to exert on people and the cultural context in which this charm takes shape. Since its foundation in 1972, Peter Schmidt Group has cultivated the aura of brands: a journey that began with Jil Sander, a brand whose strength and luminosity remain unchanged today. The same philosophy guides the agency's current work for clients such as Mercedes-Benz, Deutsche Telekom and Weleda: a design capable of creating myth and aura makes brands distinctive, relevant and, ultimately, more valuable than competitors driven exclusively by the pursuit of performance. This event will be held in English.
THE DESIGNER AS ACTIVIST
23.10
Talk with Patrick Thomas
18:30ADI Design Museum Starting from some projects of his practice, Patrick Thomas will talk about what happens when designers overcome the conventional role of service providers and begin to conceive their work as a form of political and social commitment. This event will be held in English.
BEHIND THE SCENES OF DALTON MAAG 'S RETAIL CATALOGUE
24.10
Talk with Riccardo De Franceschi / Dalton Maag
10:30ADI Design Museum Universality or individuality? Functionality or expression? Convention or innovation? Navigating the digital typeface market requires a constant balance between opposing forces, an exercise that Dalton Maag's retail catalogue has been carrying out for thirty-five years. Riccardo guides us behind the scenes of the studio to tell the story of the work of a team of creatives and developers spread over three continents, retracing challenges and successes through some of the most significant characters of the collection, with the eyes of those who designed them.
NOT ENOUGH BY DESIGN
24.10
Talk by Zetafonts with Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini and Debora Manetti
11:30ADI Design Museum What makes a designer never settle? "Not Enough by Design" explores the creative tension that guides the project beyond form, towards the search for meaning, intention and significance. Design and typography become tools to shape ideas, communicate with greater awareness and leave positive traces for the future. A path between ambition, responsibility and doubts, in which the impostor syndrome is not necessarily a limit, but can turn into a drive to experiment, continually question oneself and look for new possibilities.
DESIGNING TYPE REVIVALS: ALFABETI MODERNISTI
24.10
Talk a cura di CAST Foundry
12:30ADI Design Museum Alfabeti Modernisti è un progetto di CAST dedicato alla riscoperta e digitalizzazione di 25 caratteri tipografici italiani disegnati tra il 1920 e il 1940, originariamente realizzati in legno e piombo e raccolti da Luca Lattuga. Il revival non si è limitato alla trasposizione degli originali: ogni carattere è stato interpretato e adattato al mezzo digitale, intervenendo su imperfezioni e incongruenze e ampliandone i set di glifi per rispondere alle esigenze contemporanee. Il talkripercorrerà questo processo, dalla selezione e digitalizzazione dei caratteri fino alla loro comunicazione e diffusione.
MODERNIST ALPHABETS
24.10
Talk with Carlo Vinti, Luca Lattuga
14:30ADI Design Museum What does it mean today to deal with the ancient craft of movable type printing? The first obstacle is to build a laboratory. Unless we are children of art, recovering tools, materials and characters related to a technique that has almost disappeared requires skills that go far beyond the graphic arts: becoming designers, typographers, compositors, researchers, merchants of discarded materials, movers and, sometimes, even mechanics.In fifteen years of research and adventures, chasing materials from old printers on sale in every corner of Italy, I have built an important archive. The extraordinary variety of alphabets found — many of them without name, author or documentation — has opened a question: how much do we really know about the Italian typographic culture of the twentieth century? Italian Modernist Alphabets, a research project dedicated to the production of movable type between the 1930s and 1940s, is my answer to an intuition born from my field investigation. A research to reconstruct the historical, aesthetic and manufacturing context, registering the production of original Italian alphabets, relating it to the international scene and, at the same time, deepening its territorial specificities.What emerges is a much more complex, rich and varied heritage than hitherto known.
REASON AND FEELING
24.10
Workshop curated by Zetafonts, with Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini
15:00–17:00ADI Design Museum "Reason & Sentiment" is a workshop that aims to guide participants on a fascinating journey between the geometric rigor of shapes and the warm naturalness of handwriting, showing how even seemingly simple characters can reveal surprising emotional nuances. The art of letter drawing has always moved halfway between a rational and geometric dimension, and a more expressive one, linked to calligraphic gestures.By examining some classics of sans serif drawing – from Paul Renner's Futura to Eric Gill's Gill Sans – the workshop will allow you to learn to distinguish between geometric sans and humanist sans. A subtle but essential distinction to consciously use typographical fonts, in order to influence not only the aesthetic appearance, but also the emotional perception of a text. How to register for the workshop will be communicated soon.
BEAUTIFUL ITALIAN BOOKS
24.10
Talk by Federica Ricci, Emilio Macchia
15:30ADI Design Museum The talk presents Beautiful Italian Books as a cultural project under construction, starting from its birth and development within a community of reference that supports its installation and guides its perspectives. The intervention crosses the constituent elements of the project – the jury, the exhibition, the catalogue – which will be narrated by placing Beautiful Italian Books in dialogue with the historical and reference partner awards, as devices through which to read different approaches to the selection, evaluation and return of contemporary editorial production and its design and material conditions. The talk focuses on the relationship with the international circuit Best Book Design from All Over the World, which brings together 34 countries already active in the field of national awards dedicated to book design and to which Italy joins. In the Italian context, where the specificities of cultural policies directly affect the quality of editorial production, international comparison becomes a necessary space for reading and verification, in which to cross practices, skills, production systems and different economic models, and read the book as the result of complex material and design conditions.
STUDY DIA
24.10
Updating information
16:30ADI Design Museum Page being updated. More information about the event will be communicated soon.
LIBRO
24.10
Talk with Leonardo Sonnoli
17:30ADI Design Museum "Everything important
I have ever done could fit
in a small book" (M.D.) The book is one of those ancient inventions that resists over time without changing shape.A series of sheets, stuck on one side. They can vary in some significant details that affect the ideas they contain; and the ideas they contain influence the choice of those details. A presentation of some examples of extraordinary books that contain art and some examples of my attempts to put art inside a book.
BOOK ON BOOKS
24.10
Talk to Irma Boom
18:30ADI Design Museum Page being updated. More information about the event will be communicated soon. This event will be held in English.
Monogramming
25.10
Talk with James Clough, Fabrizio Falcone
11:30ADI Design Museum Monograms are extreme simplifications of alphabetic communication and this book demonstrates how they are more powerful, expressive and meaningful than logos. With hundreds of illustrations, accompanied by the author's comments, anecdotes and stories, Monogrammi is the very first narrative story dedicated to this subject. Part 1 explores the evolution of styles, from the coins of ancient Greece through the centuries to the modernism of the twentieth century – the last movement characterized by a recognizable general style. Part 2 focuses on the multiple approaches to design adopted after World War II, during the rise of consumerism and the consequent need for competitive ideas. Selected monograms of famous and lesser-known designers, and even some students, are analyzed and discussed.
GRAFICA MAGAZINE
25.10
Talk by Grafica Magazine
12:30ADI Design Museum Page being updated. More information about the event will be communicated soon.
TOWARDS A MUSEUM OF GRAPHICS
25.10
Round table promoted by BIG and AIAP CDPG (AIAP Graphic Project Documentation Center)
10:30ADI Design Museum On the occasion of the final day of BiG - Biennale international Grafica 2026, the organizers with AIAP, the Italian Association of Visual Communication Design, promote a round table discussion on the topic of the possible and future establishment of a graphics museum. Milano, a centre recognized internationally as one of the capitals of design, has several institutions that promote the culture of design, but none of them is specifically dedicated to graphic design. Since 2009, AIAP has established a Documentation Center on Graphic Design (AIAP CDPG) that today preserves one of the most important documentary assets with about 125 funds in the name of well-known and lesser-known names of the Italian and international graphic project. A unique heritage, divided into a historical archive and a rich sector library, which allows the Association to curate exhibitions in Italy and abroad, to promote research, to allow scholars and students to consult and to preserve valuable documents and testimonies from dispersion.Since its inception, AIAP CDPG has proposed itself not only as an archive, as a place of conservation, but as a subject oriented towards the dissemination and dissemination of knowledge. In order to strengthen the hypothesis of a future museum dedicated to graphic design and communication design, the round table aims to compare testimonies and experiences between subjects of various kinds and from all over Italy. The objective is to stimulate knowledge among the various realities for the purposes of collaboration and constitution.
THE CHARMING MAG
25.10
Talk by NABA Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti
17:30ADI Design Museum Independent publishing as an educational project. NABA, New Academy of Fine Arts presents This Charming Mag, a meeting dedicated to the role of independent publishing as a tool for research, experimentation and training within the Academy.Through some examples of magazines created in recent years by students of the Specialist Biennium in Visual Design and Integrated Marketing Communication, the event will retrace the evolution of the editorial project in the magazine format, delving into the creative process that accompanies the creation of an independent publication: from the definition of the concept to the art direction, from the construction of content to graphic design.A contemporary narrative design workshop that experiments within the magazine format, trying to "stress" it and interrogate it as a container and expression of content, languages and forms, with the aim of giving space and life to independent cultural projects, a mirror of the research and design vision of the new generations of designers. Among others, Roberto Maria Clemente, Art Director and NABA professor, and Fabio Pelagalli, Course Leader of the Specialist Bienni in Visual Design and Marketing Communication and in User Experience Design of NABA, took part.
FROM THE EYE TO THE HEART
25.10
Talk with Armando Milani
Talk with Armando Milani18:30 ADI Design MuseumPage being updated. More information about the event will be communicated soon.
