Franco Grignani’s approach to graphics and advertising took the path of experimentation, the desire to express the drive of communication with the dynamism of the page and writing, with photographic manipulation and perceptive research. These were unique qualities and already expressed during his presence in the ranks of the second phase of Italian Futurism. But perhaps the culmination of these tests of skill lay in his works for Dompé and above all for Alfieri & Lacroix, in which he invented an innovative form of the corporate image. With many institutional announcements, he generated an unmistakable image through his pioneering experimental work, in which artistic research was merged with graphic design. On display in the exhibition are his original advertisements developed for Alfieri & Lacroix, for Dompé and for the magazine Bellezza d’Italia, as well as his wonderful silkscreen prints in the Archive of the m.a.x. museo.

Franco Grignani was born in 1908, at Pieve Porto Morone near Pavia. After studying at the Politecnico di Torino (Faculty of Architecture, following an initial experience at the Faculty of Mathematics in Pavia), Grignani moved to Milan, where he devoted himself to designing exhibition spaces and graphics. He worked, among others, for Fiat, Editoriale Domus and Borletti. During World War II he was a lecturer in an aerial sighting course, an experience that influenced his research into visual perception. In 1942 he married Jeanne Michot, who would work alongside him in the creation of major advertising campaigns for Pirelli, Montecatini, Zignago, Necchi and many others. In addition to his artistic experiments, enriched by his experience of photography, he worked as a graphic designer, which proved the fundamental source of income for financing his research.
In the 1950s he began his very long collaboration with Alfieri & Lacroix, and became art director of the magazine Bellezza d’Italia, Dompé’s house organ, for which he was also the author of communication. He was a selector, layout artist and author of the covers of Pubblicità in Italia. At the height of Italy’s economic development, Grignani worked as a graphic designer on major commissions. For clients such as Pirelli, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Fiat and Ermenegildo Zegna, he designed the logos (including Camiceria Cinquini in Bergamo, Chemi, Galleria Peccolo in Livorno, Montesud, Solo Seta Sempre Seta, Aerhotel, Breda Nardi, Ceramiche Falcinelli, Centro Cultura Giancarlo Puecher, Galleria S. Fedele), and directed advertising campaigns. He created hundreds of advertisements and communications on the theme of the art of printing, which remain among the masterpieces of Italian graphic design. At the same time, he continued to design exhibition stands, such as the ACNA Pavilion at the Milan fair in 1955. In the second half of the Sixties, with Giulio Confalonieri, Silvio Coppola, Bruno Munari and Pino Tovaglia, he was part of Exhibition Design, a pioneering research group for Italian industrial design, for which he styled products and mass-produced objects. They ranged from Cilsa ceramics to the first design objects from Alessi and fabrics for Driade and Tessitura Mompiano. In 1975 he realizes an exhibition in the spaces of the Rotonda della Besana: more than 150 works were exhibited.
The very high visual quality of his works is confirmed by numerous international awards and extensive recognition. His works are present in the collections of the MoMA in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Franco Grignani died in Milan on 20 February 1999.

Works by the author in institutional collections: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; MoMA Archive, New York, CSAC Archive, Parma, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, AIAP Archive, Milan, MUFOCO Museo della Fotografia Contemporanea, Cinisello Balsamo, Centro Internazionale d’Arte e Grafica CIAG, Chiasso.