Elisabetta Ognibene, storia di una progettista militante

In the history of Italian graphic design, the events and contributions of the female component of the national graphic design scene on the one hand and those belonging to the last two decades of the 20th century on the other are still little investigated. In these two specific contexts the partial reconstruction of the work of Elisabetta Ognibene, a graphic designer from Modena, recognised in Italy above all for being one of the few female figures belonging to the Public Utility graphics movement and a “disciple” of Massimo Dolcini, fits in. In fact, Ognibene’s career, spanning almost fifty years, boasts a series of collaborations that are worthy of closer examination due to the particular type of commission, most of which pertain to the political, social and cultural spheres. Indeed, among its most important clients over the years are the major centre-left political parties – the PCI being one of the first –, administrative institutions such as the Municipality and Province of Modena, and various social and cultural organisations. The propensity to work for such realities is not accidental and shows from the very beginning her aptitude for political and social activism that clearly conditions her approach to graphic design to such an extent that she considers her profession as a mission and visual communication as a means of transmitting ethical and social values. Starting from the first projects for the provincial PCI Federation in 1976 up to the end of the 2000s, Ognibene’s work highlights not only his aptitude as a militant designer, but also shows his ability to use visual languages clearly influenced by vernacular themes and codes, borrowing especially from the world of youth and mass culture. This influence is especially evident in the political propaganda projects developed between the mid-1980s and the very early 1990s, in which the way of conceiving political communication is overturned, bringing it within everyone’s reach. Furthermore, through the reconstruction of Elisabetta Ognibene’s story, the aim is to recount a slice of Italian graphic design that developed outside the Milanese context and to highlight the peculiarities of peripheral design realities, worthy of having contributed to the spread of design culture throughout the country from the point of view of a woman.