Addendum - Newsletter chairs.ws n.4 April 2008

TO COMMUNICATE THE DESIGN
by Dario Gagliardini


ID: Dario Gagliardini, architect, journalist, committed educator, he deals with communication and design.


Born in  Milan, architect and journalist, after my degree in Architecture at Politecnico in Milan, I began working in the Architecture field, with responsibility over a building yard, being part of the technical staff of an important hotel chain. Later I opened my study, addressing my creativity towards design and furniture world, with the goal of moving to Spain after some years. Therefore I started cooperating mainly with Spanish companies, which I still do today.

At the same time I wrote about design and architecture on several specialized magazines, focusing on communication and design trends; from the articles I upgraded to collaborate as art director in editorial and graphic projects.

Together with the research of history and contemporary expression of design I have been committed educator in the prestigious Architecture University Bovisa in Milan. In this period, while working on marketing and company communication development, I felt the importance of evolution in the products’ eloquence and press communication impact, which all derive from the changed visual media languages and means.



The future sceneries and the possible perspectives in the furnishing language evolution lead me to some interesting aspects peculiar to our connection to everyday life artifacts.

As in the words of Daniele Basso, "the functional aspect is one of the tesseras of the mosaic composing a successful product. It is undoubtedly a strong motivation to purchase, but not necessarily the most important factor. The more you are oriented towards excellence, the more you take for granted the product’s functionality as a minimum attribute. New and different aspects of project and communication become highlighted (shape, colour, finishes, feel)…".




In other words, we live with objects continuously evolving, always inventing new needs and quickly modifying our life habits. When we have a choice among various objects which are functionally equivalent, these objects must differ and spring out from anonymity.  The individual characteristics defining an object must be therefore determined to reach this goal. The connection is one of the most intriguing aspects of my "information designer" role (this definition comes from Joshua Porter, a man I like very much because he identifies with certainty my work).

It is necessary to question about the project ethics and the designer's responsibilities in creating a world continuously remodeling, in catching the fundamental elements suitable to evolve and the ones that should stay unaltered. Some items innovate, some others rediscover lost memories, some more are reassuring for they remain unchanged and become timeless.

They all have one thing in common: they communicate.



Therefore I feel I am a communicator designer for the objects outlined by creators with the growing interest in giving personality to their projects, or at least in giving them that connective value able to speak to the global market, to share an emotion with a wider and wider audience. An effective communication must go through emotion. The designer acts on different levers which compose the product: shape, colour, finishes, function, sound… and I act on the "image" lever.


We chose objects for what they tell us or for what we want to state through them. Therefore the key aspect is the image value bound to the product. The manufacturers want to express their identity and their values through the items they produce. In the foundations of a successful product there is always an accurate communication strategy...


An effective connection is a blend of science and art, on the whole the same as in industrial design.


Even in the information and communication field to innovate means to breach into conceptions and rules, thus innovation would also mean playing with the media until they are able to express unexpectedly an universal, emotional content.


This is what I practice as information designer in the three magazines I presently lead.




architect
magazine editor: STYLE, PLACES, ArteRegalo
published by: Fiera Milano Editore SpA

Contacts:

Via Salvatore Rosa, 14
20156 Milano (MI) Italy
Tel. +39 02 366092 270

dario.gagliardini@fieramilanoeditore.it