PUBLICITÉ POUR LA RADIOTELEVISION
[Radio and Television Publicity]
Erberto Carboni, Gio Ponti [introduction]
Erberto Carboni, Gio Ponti [introduction]: PUBLICITÉ POUR LA RADIOTELEVISION [Radio and Television Publicity]. Milano: Silvana Editoriale d'Arte, 1959. First edition. Text in English, French, German and Italian. Quarto. Blue cloth decorated in white. Printed dust jacket. Printed endpapers. 132 pp. 242 black and white illustrations. 2 color plates. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print.
A superior copy of an uncommon title — a fine copy in a fine dust jacket.
9 x 11.5 hardcover book with decorated cloth with 132 pages and 242 illustrations (2 color plates) of Carboni's trendsetting work in print and exhibition design for the Italian radio and television industries. This book features gravure printing and the highest reproduction qualities and was printed in Milan under Carboni's supervision. Introduction by Gio Ponti.
From the book: "To the almost unlimited and often unrealized potentialities of radio and television advertising, Erberto Carboni brings all the ingenuity and dramatic flair which have made him a brilliant leader in the exciting Italian school of modern design."
A visually stunning book that spotlights the relatively unknown Carboni's work in from the early 1930s through the late 1950s. This book is a valuable resource because it traces the development of one of Italy's finest modernists through tightly focused case studies of his publicity work for the emerging Italian mass media. It is a true joy to see complete campaigns reproduced in full-- my highest recommendation.
Design is ars publica: it is a direct, human, universal, immediate language, one speaking by poetical images and by an understanding, without intermediaries, of the “public world.” It can be thrilling when, as the type of Carboni’s work illustrated in this book, design joins hands with and stylizes the advent of two exceptional, new, modern media for communication with the public, the Radio and Television.
Design is the newest art and, today, the most confident, uncontested and generally — I would even say — entirely understandable; yet it absorbs a cultural sap and gives fresh expression, through the talents of its artists, to the boldest art currents of modern culture.
Design has a fascinating story to tell. It is linked to a marvelous medium, printing, born of two things: one, fragile, is paper, the other ephemeral, is ink, yet both of them -- matterless matter of infinite beauty -- are destined to immortality in time and mind. — Gio Ponti
Erberto Carboni [1899 - 1984] was a recognized master in the field of publicity through the graphic arts. This book is a collection of his individual poster and advertising work since 1934, on such varied subjects as oil, wine, textiles, machinery, appliances, toothpaste and chemical products. Carboni started his studies in architecture in 1921, but became also interested in graphic and industrial design. His career began at the famous Studio Boggeri, but later he worked on his own. He specialized in exhibitions for trade fairs (Olivetti), interior design and graphics. For many years, Carboni worked for RAI (the Italian radio and TV company), but also for clients who mainly manufactured basic consumer products like Motta (ice cream), Pavesi (bread), Barilla (pasta) and Shell Oil. He presented those clients with a complete graphic line, ranging from packaging to posters.
From 1953 to 1960 he worked for Bertolli, for whom he designed a whole series of magazine ads and posters. He mixed photography, graphics and inventive typography and brought a rigorous modernism into his work. In 1954 he designed the ‘Delfino’ (dolphin) chair for Arflex.