Sign Language

The art director of Frieze magazine tells us why Bruno Munari’s Supplement to the Italian Dictionary makes her smile. “To complicate is simple, to simplify is complicated. In order to complicate, you just need to add something, whatever you wish: colours, shapes, actions, decorations, characters, environments full of odds and ends. Everybody is able to complicate. Only a few can simplify.” — Bruno Munari

Indeed, only a few can simplify and Bruno Munari has done just that in this book: a witty, minimalist guide to Italians’ expressive nonverbal communication. Originally published in 1958 as a supplement to the Italian dictionary, my copy is published by Corraini Edizioni and continues to delight, a precious pocket-sized gem. “The author examines in this book the different ways of talking without a single word being spoken, by using only hands or by expressions of the face or the attitude of the body.”

The pure simplicity of this book makes me smile. What can I add to what has already been said about this book — it is funny, clever, and elegant. There are no embellishments, no gimmicks. Black and white photographs of gestures are accompanied by very short text — only a sentence or two.

For example, the well known Italian gesture featured on the cover is described like so:
 
"WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?


The tips of all fingers of one hand are brought sharply together to form an upward-pointing cone. The hand can either be held motionless or be shaken up and down, according to the degree of impatience expressed. Very common in Naples.”


An interesting note in the last pages states that “the first edition of this book was not for sale. It was printed in Turin in 1958 by the Carpano company. A second edition with twenty gestures, texts and illustrations taken from a book on the same subject of 1832, was printed by Muggiani in 1963.”

One of the most witty, inventive and influential Italian artists of the modern era, Bruno Munari remains for me the most charming and imaginative designer and a story teller.

www.atelierdyakova.com
Dyakova


Sonia Dyakova is a Russian expatriate working in London, where she is head of the multidisciplinary studio Atelier Dyakova. She is currently art director of both Frieze and Frieze Masters magazines, the former of which she redesigned in 2012. Dyakova studied in America before moving to London to work with Vince Frost, Kerr|Noble and Phaidon Press. She is a specialist in typographic design, as the success of such prize winning typefaces as Paper Alphabet attests.
Bruno Munari


Once described as the “Leonardo of our time” by Pablo Picasso, Bruno Munari was an Italian sculptor, painter, film maker and designer. A one time card carrying Futurist, Munari’s most famous works as an artist were his kinetic cardboard sculptures, what he called his Useless Machines. Post-World War II, Munari concentrated on industrial design and writing. Developed with a high degree of theoretical ambition, products such as the X Hour clock and Flexy toy sought to introduce the Italian public to a radically new conception of design. His books were similarly innovative, 1953’s Un Libro Illegible, which challenged the accepted use value of the published object, being a case in point.