ICoD interviews martina giustolisi: creator of visual identity for international design day 2023: peace. love. design!
![All image credits to Martina Giustolisi](https://www.theicod.org/storage/app/uploads/public/404/e29/edf/thumb__700_1_0_0_auto.png)
20.02.2023 ICoD news
The theme for International Design Day 2023, ‘Peace. Love. Design!’ was inspired by the activism of the sixties, encouraging designers to explore issues of environmentalism, social equity, collective movements and radical change. Additionally, this year's celebration coincides with ICoD's 60th anniversary. As part of the celebration, we interviewed Italian graphic designer, Martina Giustolisi, the winner of this year's visual identity to hear a bit about her work and interpretation of the theme.
Official poster for International Design Day 2023: Peace. Love. Design! produced for ICoD by Martina Giustolisi
01 Tell us a bit about yourself, your current practice and why being a designer today matters to you.
For several years, I have been dedicating myself to ethical practice through design—to create artefacts that communicate collective past experiences and the moral choices required of us today. We are a mirror of the society to which we belong and I am a young designer interested (since childhood!) in spreading common values. My tool for doing this is graphic design.
Da diversi anni ormai mi dedico a tracciare nero su bianco ideali comuni, realizzando artefatti comunicativi che inevitabilmente sono legati a esperienze vissute e scelte morali. Ognuno di noi è il riflesso della società a cui appartiene, io sono una giovane progettista che sin da piccola si è sempre interessata a divulgare valori comuni, oggi il mio strumento per farlo è la grafica.
02 What about the International Design Day, Peace. Love. Design! concept inspired you?
The concept of public utility graphics is very important to me. ICoD’s International Design Day was the perfect occasion to remember the origins of every artist and designer. It provides an opportunity to not forget our mission as designers and to remember the “elementary form” of our craft.
My graphic project produced for Peace. Love. Design! is a formal expression of the simplicity of such a message, and also the voice of my soul. It originates in the idea of “the elementary forms project”: a graphic project that is clear and uncensored, and that has each individual and the society in which we live as its recipient.
Il concetto di grafica di pubblica utilità è molto importante per me e l'International Design Day è stata l’occasione perfetta per ricordare le origini di ogni artista e designer, per ricordare la nostra missione, la forma elementare del nostro mestiere. Questo progetto è la voce della mia essenza, la semplicità formale della comunicazione è da questa idea che nasce il progetto forme elementari. Un progetto grafico dai contenuti chiari e non filtrati che ha come destinatario ciascuno di noi e la società in cui viviamo.
Giustolisi's design was based on the elementary forms of the square, circle and triangle.
Additional assets produced by Martina for the IDD 2023 theme.
03 Tell us about the state of design in your country. What is changing? What are the biggest challenges now?
Today it is essential to put the profession of graphic design at the service of a social cause. A designer's mission should be to carry out projects that examine and provide for basic human necessities, and we can do this by proposing new kinds of projects to organisations that often never have the audacity to commission them.
Catania, the city where I live, in Sicily, and in Italy in general, continues to take giant steps towards building a shared design culture and a form of communication that is socially useful. This is possible thanks to designers with strong ethical and moral values, such as my teacher and mentor, Gianni Latino. Every designer, colleague or friend, who inhabits this world feels the wind of change and continues to follow in its wake.
Ritengo fondamentale mettere il mestiere di grafico al servizio di una causa. Realizzare dunque progetti su argomenti di prima necessità per proporli alle organizzazioni che non hanno mai l’audacia di commissionarli, è la missione che oggi un progettista dovrebbe portare a termine. Catania la mia città, la Sicilia, l’Italia, continuano a muovere passi da gigante verso una cultura del progetto condivisa, verso una forma di comunicazione che sia davvero utile socialmente e lo fanno grazie a progettisti dai grandi valori etici e morali, oggi fra questi il mio maestro Gianni Latino. Ogni progettista che abita questa terra (colleghi, amici) sente il vento del cambiamento e continua a seguirne la scia.
Past design work by Martina
04 What are you working on next?
Eight years ago, I started focusing on graphic design, and in the last two years, I dedicated myself to the study of poster design as a tool for disseminating social ideas. I've always been fascinated by the engaging, "persuasive" power that graphics stimulate in the individual; and the poster, in its simplicity, is the medium that I will continue to study and use for a long time.
I have several projects to complete right now, and I hope I never lose the right path. As I develop my practice, I plan to broaden my research on graphic design culture and professional ethics. As Lica Stainer said, "ours is not a simple job, but it must be a projection of ourselves, of the life we would like, of our common aspirations". So I will work for it.
Otto anni fa ho cominciato a dedicarmi alla comprensione del progetto grafico e in particolare in questi ultimi due anni alla comprensione del manifesto come strumento di divulgazione di intenti. Sono sempre stata affascinata dalla potenza «persuasiva» e coinvolgente che la grafica stimola nell’individuo, e il manifesto, questa semplice area espressiva è il mezzo che continuerò a studiare, usare, ancora per un po'.
Ho diversi progetti che vorrei portare a termine e mi auguro di non perdere la giusta strada, amplierò la mia ricerca sulla cultura del progetto grafico e i valori etici di questa professione. Il nostro non è un semplice lavoro, come disse Lica Steiner, ma deve essere una proiezione di noi stessi, della vita che vorremmo, delle nostre aspirazioni comuni. Io lavorerò su questo.
Martina Giustolisi is a graphic designer based in Sicily (Italy) and a graduate of the Visual Communication Design programme at the Academy of Fine Arts Catania. Giustolisi's work deals with visual identity and the role of the professional designer in relation to social and cultural contexts.
![All image credits to Martina Giustolisi](/storage/app/media/04_Activities/04_IDD/2023/interview%20with%20martina%20giustolisi/Martina%205.png)
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