Pechakucha Night is a nice event that allows people to present whatever they want but using only 20 slides, and having 20 seconds to explain each slides. It started in japan, but soon became a popular format and a lot of cities all over the world are organizing that. I saw the 12th edition in June, in PGH, and manage to submit my slides for the 13th. It was great fun for me and for the audience, I can assure.
I talked about the Italian designer Bruno Munari, a master of creativity, and of his book "Fantasia", edited by "Laterza", but only in Italian.
If you are willing to discover more about him, you can start reading "Design as Art", another masterpiece by him, edited by Penguin.
I spoked about the big distinction between the faculties we use while creating: FANTASY, CREATIVITY, INVENTION AND IMAGINATION.
The book gives you hints on how to use them (and when!) in the correct way. this lead to saving time and have more fun, for sure.
I'm going to talk about Bruno Munari, an Italian designer born in Milan in 1907 and died there in 1998. I'll first present his philosophy and then the book Fantasia, about how to manage fantasy and creativity. In this image, for example, he is showing creative ways to use an uncomfortable armchair.
Mr Munari designed products for big Italian companies such as Olivetti or Danese furniture. He was also an artist. In 1954 he won the compasso d'oro, the most important design award in Italy, for one of the first polyurethane foam toys, the monkey Zizi standing on his shoulder.
He also wrote a number of books about the design process and art. He was able to face problems of production and communication. Here you see one of his most fun and famous books, speak italian, a kind of appendix to the italian vocabulary, explaining our way to wave like crazy, while talking.
He approached the world from a diffrent perspective, totally unconventional. He analyzed the smallest components of a concept, and then synthetized those to create something new, starting from everyday issues and challenges. Here you see the X-hour clock, for the momentous times of the day.
His first concern was very practical. He always worked between factory ownners and machineries. He was able to understand them and to use them in a unique way, making the difference even when it seemed technically impossible, for the mass production technologies repeting the same actions.
He was more focused on create values, than temporary trends. The way to do this, according to him, was mainly through fun. In this case you see one of his most famous pieces, the chair for short visits, to be offered to people you cannot stand. For the 45degrees inclination of the seat, you cannot really sit there for that long, so you are obliged to leave quickly.
Mr munari's process dealt with tools and concepts. He was the first that, when the Xerox copier were sold, found a way to contraddict the main feature, that is obtaining identical copies. By playing with the original, he could obtain other originals from a copy machine.
His sane obsession for the machines and his passion for contraddiction brought him to play with concepts and language. From the fifties he started producing "unuseful machines", a contraddiction even in the title, because the machines are supposed to be useful for their own nature. He did that before Calder, but he used meinly light materials and paper.
Mr Munari was a very practical man. This bed, called "abitacolo" (that means "capsule") weights 100 pounds and has been tested with 20 kids playing. It saves space and stimulates kid's creativity, being customizable. This bed has been included in the Moma collection. It stimulates creativity in the kids, having movable shelves and pockets.
Mr Munari wanted to share his knowledge, in particular with kids. He's aim was first to teach the people how to see the world in a different way. then how to reproduce it and finally how to create new pieces. He wasn't that interested in extraordinary things, but in the beautiful ordinary, much more durable and less expensive.
Fantasia that means Fantasy. this book teaches how to deal with creativity, moving from simple rules that, once consolidated in your mind, can lead to incredible results, when you mix them. This book is fundamental for everyone has a lot of creativity but need a way to quickly go strict to the point and producing powerful solutions.
Let's start with meaningful definitions and distinctions: fantasy is everything that wasn't existing before, even if unfeasable. You can freely use fantasy with no limits. It is the most easy to use, but can lead to a big loss of time in you don't quickly shift to the other faculties.
Is everything that wasn't existing before, but it's a technical issue. You don't have to think about aestethics at this very step. It's all about technique and how to create something from materials, tools and machinery. You must know the tools and how they interact with the materials. Then it's all about process and.. money, of course.
Is everything that wasn't existing but it is feasable in a global way, also from a technical point of view. It use fantasy but with a final aim. Creativity is the one used in the design process, mainly.
This faculty is very important and everyone should "train" to keep it flexible and always ready to be used. The book gives you ideas about how to increase it.
While fantasy, invention and creativity require you to think, imagination is only asking to see. You can visualize whatever you want, without necessarily think about how to obtain that. When you have to find an idea, it is important to use the correct faculty, to save time.
In the book he talks about materials, colors, dimensions, multiplication of pieces, subtractions or sum of parts... he presents common features that is always possible to mix, twist and interpret in a number of ways. All the best ideas start from simple themes remixed to obtain something new.
These are examples Of his creativity. A part from the female brush, my favourite, i also love the collection of "flowers in the salad" that became also a book. Playing with vegetables and fruit he created stamps for children. These are all ideas you can recycle in a rainy day with your kids.
Start simple and then go on. we are surrounded by extraordinary objects, some of theme even unuseful, and just very appealing. But You can find cool ideas starting from nothing. In this case he thought of a problem, just for fun, such as how to send a message in the bottle and then add a post scriptum, once you close it.
The book gives a lot of hints on how to stimulate creativity. Munari presents workshops he did for kids with creative games. Munari's workshop can be very useful also for adults. If you have no time to manage your fantasy, this book can definitely change your life.
I leave you with a bunch of contacts. I'm not earning a euro, from this, I just want to share with you a piece of the best Italy.
There is this book fantasia, only in italian, but also design as art, in english. At the Estorick Collection, in london, there is now a solo exhibit on him. I really hope you had fun, and wish you to have a lot of good and winning ideas, as Mr Munari had!
(Special thanks to ©Kevin Kunak, for the picture!)
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