The first edition of Milan Graphic Design Festival slated for March 2022 kickoff

Milan Graphic Design Festival (MGF) is set to launch its first edition all throughout the metropolitan city of Milan from 25 to 27 March 2022. The three-day event, curated by Francesco Dondina and backed by SIGNS, h+ is devoted to promote graphic design, illustration and visual culture through a series of workshops, talks, lectures, studio visits, collaborations with key institutions and Milan-based cultural realities.

“Graphic design has contributed and still contributes to shaping the very culture and identity of a country,” says Francesco Dondina, curator of Milano Graphic Festival. “We are surrounded by graphic design, it is everywhere we turn: in the streets, in public spaces, in houses, in offices, on store shelves, in objects of everyday use and in various forms of communication,” she adds. For this reason the festival aims at chanelling the platform to promote the craft to a wider audience, beyond experts and professionals in the field and reaches out to curious visitors, to the aficionados who can experience the multifaceted realm of visual communication and its increasingly decisive role, from the digital world that has become an extension of our everyday life to graphic design as a vector for change and representation of an ever-changing city.

Over a course of three days, the festival will take over Milan and host a rich calendar of programmes to be held within the event’s main hub at Certosa Graphic Village and BASE Milano. ADI Design Museum Compasso d’Oro, Triennale Milano, Castello Sforzesco, Società Umanitaria, MUBA – Museo dei Bambini Milano, Casa degli Artisti are some of the key institutions devoted to the visual arts that will be showcasing a slew of exhibitions and activities. Another highlight of the festival are the special projects from reputed institutions, art galleries, studios, publishing houses and universities. The project will star graphic designers, art directors, illustrators, editors and professors who will share their stories and vision.

The two important landmarks for Milano Graphic Festival, BASE Milano and Certosa Graphic Village are located in Milan’s storied Tortona neighbourhood and Certosa District respectively. While the Certosa Graphic Village is known for its leading role in cultural cross-pollination and innovation, the Certosa Graphic Village is an upcoming space in the north-west part of Milan, that fosters creativity and hosts creatives from across the town.

Hallmarking regeneration and creativity for Certosa District, in via Varesina 162 is the 57 meters long mural titled 'When the city changes you look at its colors' by graphic studio CamuffoLab. Other upcoming projects include a permanent observatory on visual design in collaboration with 100 Italian designers and graphic studios. They will unveil 'SIGNS II. An exhibition on Contemporary Italian Graphic Design' within the spaces of BASE Milano, SIGNS.

Bringing together promising young talents and revered creatives, carefully selected among 25 Italian graphic studios, SIGNS II offer an in-depth view into the current state of Italian graphics and visual communication and honours its rich historical tradition while keeping up with the international scene. Among the artists on display are Salvatore Gregorietti, Andrea Rauch, Paolo Tassinari, Paola Lenarduzzi, Silvana Amato, La Tigre and Franco Achilli.

The Certosa Graphic Village will also house a performative and creative centre dedicated to contemporary creativity. In its 3000-square meters temporary centre, the ever-evolving exhibition Generation YZ will allow aspiring, young designers under-30 to create and exhibit their creations all throughout the duration of the festival, as they work on a special urban graphics project. The program also includes the very first states general assembly coordinated by Franco Achilli, aimed at fostering dialogue among the main Italian visual design schools, and a number of exhibitions on industry experts such as the one dedicated to the American graphic designer John Alcorn, curated by Marta Sironi and focused on the works he created from the beginnings to the 70s, in America and Italy, and to one dedicated to the Italian designer Albe Steiner, with a selection of the most representative posters of his career curated by Anna Steiner, Franco and Matteo Origoni.

Visitors can trail across The Village which is the festival’s main headquarters for conferences, experiences and research for engaging conferences with Italian and international designers, thematic lectures, performances and workshops art part of the rich program thought up for professionals, students and visual design lovers of all ages.

Founded in 2016 by graphic designer and curator Francesco Dondina alongside communication and production company h+ in order to assess the state of contemporary Italian graphic design with the homonymous exhibition, the first successful chapter of a broader exhibition experience, SIGNS has become a permanent observatory of research and promotion. Aimed at furthering the knowledge and growth of communication design, illustration and Italian visual cultures, SIGNS is also an "archive" of the contemporary, an evolving platform that involves more than 100 studios and professionals of different ages, languages and backgrounds.

h+ is an integrated communication and production agency, that deals with brand strategy, festivals and widespread events, territorial campaigns and activations and online and offline strategic communication. h+ creates unconventional experiences and contents capable of fastening different worlds together: public and private, local and digital, corporate and institutions, the dynamics of marketing and the everchanging realms of art, design and culture.