Foscarini
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Meeting to prepare an issue
of Lux magazine.
Special pack containing the
seven issues of the magazine.
Chap. 4 — Communicating the culture of light
About shedding light
The publishing projects
Tracing back to a noble tradition of historical distinction of the fi nest Italian com-
panies, which besides producing also choose to transmit cultural values, incorporating
them in a project of communication in all its facets, over the years Foscarini has stood
apart for its way of narrating its own identity to the public and to sector professionals.
The relationships with various counterparts generate ideas, strategies, publishing
projects, facilitated in their graphic design by over two decades of collaboration with
the art director Artemio Croatto of Designwork, with whom a fertile relationship has
developed, based on the model of illustrious partnerships between entrepreneurial
activities and the graphic arts. Working with a number of authors and photographers,
including Alessandro Paderni (Studio Eye), Massimo Gardone (Azimut), and more
recently Gianluca Vassallo (White Box Studio), Designwork continues to produce multi-
ple materials with the company – books, magazines, catalogues – which even in retro-
spect formulate a perspective that is still original, thanks to the multiplicity of visual
languages and formats in the coordinated image of Foscarini.
These forms of narration include a number of publishing projects, starting with the
house organ Lux, edited from 2002 to 2008, from its third issue under the curatorial
supervision of the design historian and critic Alberto Bassi, who in 2003 was also the
author of the fi rst monographic volume on the company, Foscarini ’83 ’03. Twenty years
of lighting design. Lux illustrated various themes in relation to design (transparency,
lightness, colour, light and sound, etc.), with commentary by invited writers – journali-
sts, art and design historians, experts in various subjects – connected with the research
conducted on products, alongside interviews with their designers.
This was followed in 2010 by the launch of Inventario, a ‘bookzine’ and a working
tool, halfway between a book and a magazine, directed by the critic Beppe Finessi
and published with Corraini Edizioni of Mantua. With the subtitle ‘Tutto è progetto’
(Everything is a Project), it embodies the philosophy of the company, open to dialogue
with every form of creative activity: architecture, design, photography, art.
Regarding this published product, Foscarini’s role is that of a silent supporter
whose sole presence, at the start and conclusion of each issue, is entrusted to the free
creative interpretations of photographers, different ones each time. The curatorial
approach to the contents and their original exegesis, also in visual terms, has been
recognized by the assignment of the Compasso d’Oro award in 2014.1 As a whole, for
Foscarini this new project has been a source of interactions and encounters, springing
1. “For the ability to synthesize culturally elevated topics with lightness,
illustrating them with a strong visual identity and quality of the
editorial product”, we read in the motivation behind the award.
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