Interview with Armando Milani and Atelier Tapis Rouge

When I was studying at the Scuola Umanitaria, Professor Albe Steiner showed us his poster for peace, which still has a significant ethical impact and visual symbolism. He used to tell me, "We have to think about things done for the community and society. If you create ethical images, you will always be proud of them." From then on, I decided that this was the path I wanted to undertake.

Until 2000, I designed hundreds of logos and corporate identities, books, packaging, and signage systems for many significant brands, and I’m proud of my work. Then, one day, I was invited to Beijing with three other international graphic designers to serve as a jury for the Red Cross Manifesto on Peace. We spent a week discussing and deciding the top three positions out of 500 posters. On the flight home, I wondered: What would I create if I had to enter this contest?

I designed a peace poster that became iconic in 2002 after the United Nations chose it and spread it worldwide. Since then, I have devoted myself to designing humanitarian and ecological posters, a series I named "EcoHumanity."

For me, design means communicating ethical, precise, and concise messages that first catch the eye and then reach the reader's heart.

I enjoyed designing many corporate identities for established brands, but what I love most today is creating posters for the "EcoHumanity" collection because they address humanity's most pressing issues.

"Good design," as my mentors Paul Rand and Massimo Vignelli used to say, is design that remains relevant and useful even after fifty years, avoiding fashionable solutions.

I usually start by sketching my ideas, especially those that come to me at night. I find that I am more creative at night. I would wake up, grab my notebook, and jot down the main concepts with small drawings. I often created images using paper maquettes and then photographed them. In the 60s, 70s, and 80s, this was the creative process for presenting a project, and I still use it today.

Although my younger collaborators now transfer my images to software, the process remains the same. My images are visual metaphors that can be read instantly and often require no words.

First, the masters of the Renaissance and the influence of the Bauhaus and Swiss schools also left an indelible imprint, which is reflected in all my work. Informal Italian art of the 1950s, by masters such as Fontana and Castellani, was another significant influence.

The four rugs in the Inganni Spaziali collection by Tapis Rouge—Emozioni, Connessioni, Illusioni, and Grovigli—are large-scale transpositions of analog works from the 1970s originally named "Nirvanil," "Grofac," and the covers made for "L'Ufficio Moderno" and "Società." In particular, Illusioni, the Silver Winner rug of this year's Muse Award, was an image created for the cover of a well-known advertising magazine in 1970s Italy.

During that period, I was also working extensively for pharmaceutical companies. My favorite work from those years was the brochure for Nirvanil, Midy's drug for emotional instability. The image consisted of four or five strips of paper folded to create waves, then photographed. I was always focused on three-dimensional images, enjoying the illusion of three dimensions in a two-dimensional space, optical illusions, and visual trickery. Something small, when reproduced in an image, can completely lose its dimensions, edges, and boundaries. Enlarging these works into large carpets created a continuum with my original philosophy.

Reflect on criticism of your work only from people who love you.

Giordano Bruno, because he defended his ideas until he was burned at the stake.

Ethics, curiosity, and passion. Passion and more passion!