diségno
type: channel
description: The journal diségno publishes essays on theoretical topics and advanced research outcomes concerning the scientific-disciplinary area of graphic representation, promoting advanced dialogue in the fields of architecture, engineering, design, landscape, cultural heritage, archaeology, and cultural and creative industries. The journal also deals with Drawing in the broadest sense as a cognitive medium of formal structure, as a tool for the analysis, transmission, fruition and dissemination of cultural heritage and existing values, tangible and intangible, with possible interrelationships between the hard sciences and the humanities. Each issue also features the columns: “Editorial” written by the Editorial Director of the journal; “Cover,” an introductory essay on the issue's theme drafted by the issue's editor(s); “Image,” a drawing evoking the issue's theme, accompanied by a short commentary essay written by a scholar belonging to the cultural area of the journal; “Readings/Rereadings,” a critical review of a book that has been relevant to the theme of the issue or is particularly relevant to the history of the cultural area of the journal; “Reviews,” critical reviews of recently published monographs and edited works by scholars belonging to the cultural area of the journal; “Events,” critical reviews of national and international conferences/seminars/workshops held or sponsored by UID; “The UID Library,” a showcase of scholarly publishing reports. Each issue is the result of an open call that is published about eight months before its release: the first issue of the year, coming out in June, is the result of a call published in the previous October; the second issue of the year, coming out in December, is the result of a call published in the previous March. The first issue of the year concerns a specific but sufficiently broad topic, deduced from the areas of the declaratory of SSD ICAR/17 - Drawing, now SSD CEAR-10/A belonging to GSD 08/CEAR-10 - Drawing, declined…
publisher: UID - Unione Italiana per il Disegno
language: en-US
publication name: diségno
issn: 2533-2899
items: The UID Library
items: Vedere con il disegno, or Art is Made With the Eyes
items: EVA Conference Berlin 2025. Electronic Media and Visual Arts
items: PNRR Mask
items: FORTMED 2025. International Conference on Modern Age Fortifications of the Mediterranean coast
items: URBAN / NOMADIC. Research Innovation and Internationalisation, Comparing National and International Experiences
items: Les mots et les images
items: Les mots et les images. Ambiguity and Disorientation in Language
items: Thinking Images. Linguistic Hybridizations in Ideational Design
items: Representation Systems and Theoretical Design Frameworks
items: The Manual Graphic Language as a Propaedeutic and Research Tool. The Drawing of Construction Details as a Singular Case Study
items: Perspective and Spatial Illusion as Language and Technique in Urban Art of JR
items: The Drawing of Objects with a High Aesthetic Function. Bruno Munari’s Travel Sculptures, a Restless Lexicon
items: Micro Relation Decodes: Movement, Boundaries and Materiality in Drawing
items: To Anyone with Eyes in Their Head
items: Rhetorical Imagery between Word and Sign. Olivetti Advertising and Communication
items: Curves and Colors: a Journey into Hundertwasser’s Visual Language
items: Anatomy of a Prompt: a Semiotic System of Text-to-Image Gen AI
items: Bruno Munari: Communicating through Graphic Language
items: The Graphic Language as a Hybridization of Art, Thought, and Technique
items: Drawing as Language in Panoramic Sketches Created During the Spanish Civil War
items: Graphic Design as a Universal Language: Symbols and Codes in the Vision of Gio Ponti
items: Ambiguous Representations: Drawing and Its Potential Misinterpretations
items: Furrows. Undermining the Limits of Our Language
items: The Songe, the Kanagawa’s Great Wave and ISOTYPE. Notes on Drawing as a Natural, Cultural and Universal Language
items: Drawing and the Language of Creativity
items: Is Architectural Drawing a Language? Symbols, Signs, Pictograms, Ideograms and Drawings
items: Giovanni Anceschi and the Theory of Schematic Representation. Drawing as a Graphic Language
items: Drawing as a Language in the Design Process: a Cognitive Bridge Between Thinking and Representation
items: Drawing as Language
items: Editorial
items: Valeria Menchetelli (2024). Forma immagine. Pratiche dello sguardo. Alghero: Publica
items: Alfonso Giancotti (2025). Nuovi Mondi. Il potere assoluto dell’immaginazione. Siracusa: Lettera Ventidue
items: Laura Carlevaris (2024). L'Ottica di Claudio Tolomeo nella storia della prospettiva. Roma: Quasar
items: Adriana Arena (2024). I disegni di Francesco Valenti. Elementi espressivi e caratteristiche tecniche. San Giuliano Milanese: FrancoAngeli

The UID Library
type: item
creator: redazione diségno
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 313
ending page: 314

Vedere con il disegno, or Art is Made With the Eyes
type: item
description: The title of this book is a synesthesia. It makes you think of a text based on the suggestions that art, by its nature, is called to evoke. Manfredo Massironi was a visual artist –or rather: a ‘visual operator’, as he defined himself– who never loved conventions. We would not expect methodical writing from one of his books. On the contrary, he follows the artists (Paul Klee, Vasilij Kandinskij, György Kepes, among others) who, when writing about visuality, adopt a scientific rigor. [read more]
creator: Daniele Colistra
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 281
ending page: 286
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.26

EVA Conference Berlin 2025. Electronic Media and Visual Arts
type: item
description: From March 12-14, the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute hosted the EVA Conference Berlin 2025, focusing on Electronic Media and Visual Arts (fig. 1). This 28th edition of the conference series brought together scientists and practitioners from diverse disciplines to discuss current developments in digital media and visual arts. [read more]
creator: Dominik Lengyel
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 301
ending page: 302
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.31

PNRR Mask
type: item
description: On 2 and 3 May 2025, the day of studies and public activities took place in Lipari, at the Archaeological Park of the Aeolian Islands and the Luigi Bernabò Brea Regional Archaeological Museum (fig. 1), as part of the project Restituzione alla teatralità delle miniature di maschere rituali nella necropoli di Lipari, funded by the PNRR (NextGenerationEU). [read more]
creator: Sonia Mollica
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 303
ending page: 305
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.32

FORTMED 2025. International Conference on Modern Age Fortifications of the Mediterranean coast
type: item
description: Since its first edition in 2015, hosted by the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain), the international FORTMED conference –dedicated to the study of Mediterranean fortifications– has established itself as a key annual event for the academic and scientific community. [read more]
creator: Andrea Pirinu
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 306
ending page: 307
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.33

URBAN / NOMADIC. Research Innovation and Internationalisation, Comparing National and International Experiences
type: item
description: The UID Symposium on Internationalisation and Research Innovation in Ferrara on 26th March is part of the 7th edition of the Days of Restoration and Cultural Heritage 2025. It aims to promote the internationalisation of research and its continuous innovation. [read more]
creator: Martina Suppa
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 308
ending page: 310
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.34

Les mots et les images
type: item
creator: René Magritte
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 14
ending page: 14
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.3

Les mots et les images. Ambiguity and Disorientation in Language
type: item
description: In 1929, René Magritte published Les mots et les images in the magazine La Révolution surréaliste, a series of eighteen illustrations that offered a conceptual experiment on the relationship between text and image. [read more]
creator: Michele Valentino
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 15
ending page: 18
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.4

Thinking Images. Linguistic Hybridizations in Ideational Design
type: item
description: The relationship between drawing and language is a theme widely frequented by the theory and critical history of drawing discipline as well as by the disciplines that are adjacent to it or that refer to it: I am thinking of the disciplines of design and those of the artistic sphere, I am thinking of the history of art, representation, graphics, I am thinking of semiotics, philosophy, etc. It is an ancient relationship that, from time to time, reveals similarities, points of contact, overlaps. [read more]
creator: Enrica Bistagnino
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 145
ending page: 148
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.15

Representation Systems and Theoretical Design Frameworks
type: item
description: This contribution, developed within the broader context of a reflection on the role of drawing in the conceptual phase of the design process, analyzes how the adoption of a specific analogical projective representation system aligns with adherence to a particular theoretical orientation in composition. As a mediator between the design concept and its gradual final configuration, drawing becomes an expression of design intent. It is an essential tool for the designer, who can explore examples and solutions drawn from historical tradition and the reference context, reinterpreting and enriching them with new potential and meaning. Drawing is not a neutral tool, but is always linked to the architectural culture that produces it, shaping design choices. This highlights the non-neutrality of representation as a form of language, linked both to the cultural attribution of meaning to the graphic sign anchored in a specific historical moment and to the ways in which the author employs it to convey a design intention. Today, technological evolution has led to the proliferation of a wide range of digital tools capable of influencing design practice itself. The research to which this contribution refers has shown how digital technologies can restore a central role to drawing in the conceptual phase of design, offering designers innovative tools to explore new creative possibilities.
creator: Maria Pompeiana Iarossi
creator: Cecilia Santacroce
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 149
ending page: 162
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.16

The Manual Graphic Language as a Propaedeutic and Research Tool. The Drawing of Construction Details as a Singular Case Study
type: item
description: In this paper, we present a study on the value and relevance of mastering manual graphic language as an essential tool for the development of educational and research processes, especially in contexts related to the performance of technical and creative skills at advanced levels of critical thinking. In contemporary times, where digital resources have reached a notable level of sophistication, manual drawing continues to hold a significant place due to, among other characteristics, its expressive immediacy in fostering perception, participation, spatial understanding, and creativity. The design of construction details, as a singular case study, demonstrates that technical drawing remains an irreplaceable universal platform for professions with technical and creative roots. Therefore, the propaedeutic training of architects, engineers, and designers is more necessary today than ever. The preview capabilities provided by digital tools, including BIM, are fundamental for contemporary professional practice. However, learning to build and manufacture requires rigorous prior training. Drawing, as a scenario where errors are reversible, allows one to anticipate problems that may arise during the execution phases.
creator: Antonio Estepa Rubio
creator: Jesús Estepa Rubio
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 163
ending page: 174
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.17

Perspective and Spatial Illusion as Language and Technique in Urban Art of JR
type: item
description: Street Art, as the set of artistic and performative practices within the urban space, represents one of the most significant artistic movements of modernity. Through visual imagery, Street Art invites viewers to reconsider the reality surrounding them, engaging them in a process of reinterpretation of the lived and traversed space. In this context, illusory representations, with their ability to alter perception through ephemeral spatial suggestions, offer fertile ground for experimentation by street artists. The artistic production of the Paris-based urban artist Jean René, widely known as JR, is emblematic in this regard. This study focuses on the exploration of trompe l’œil and anamorphosis as visual languages and techniques within JR’s artistic practice. The aim of the research is to analyze how figurative techniques of Renaissance origin are interpreted in his urban artworks, to make explicit the complex relationship between stylistic choices and the communicative purposes of the artistic project. Through an in-depth examination of selected works, the research intends to show how the perspective construction of illusory space, reinterpreted through photography and new media, is today a visual and symbolic language capable of conveying unprecedented visions and representations of contemporary urban space.
creator: Alessandra Coppola
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 175
ending page: 186
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.18

The Drawing of Objects with a High Aesthetic Function. Bruno Munari’s Travel Sculptures, a Restless Lexicon
type: item
description: The present contribution describes the research work to catalogue and study that system of objects, multiples and mass-produced, to which Munari gave the name Travel Sculptures, which he created from 1958 onwards in a constant and tireless search for a balance between form and meaning, between utility and aesthetic function, between art and design. In the taxonomic reading of the master’s production and above all through the decoding operations performed by the drawing, the sculptures appear to be objects that revolutionise the way of looking at things: based on the ‘co-presence of variants’, what is observed is not a single subjective and definitive image, but a multitude of images in continuous variation; not a single form but a series of forms in movement. Through the operations of interpretation of the approximately 40 sculptures, traced through research in the multi-source literature, which shows their strong critical historical impact, they have been redesigned and decoded through an actual survey carried out on the images collected and catalogued according to chronological criteria, referring to material, size, etc. As will be seen, the design of the artefacts is crossed by the multiple dynamics of observation and use, by the relationship with space, by the action of opening and closing, by the discontinuity of the material, by light and shadows, by movement and stillness, restoring a particular language that is never monotonous, at times ambiguous and discordant, variegated, that in the graphic sign seeks its state of stillness.
creator: Valentina Castagnolo
creator: Christiana Maiorano
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 187
ending page: 198
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.19

Micro Relation Decodes: Movement, Boundaries and Materiality in Drawing
type: item
description: This research explores how drawing and tracing have evolved into critical tools in scientific and political discourse. Tracing, once seen as mere reproduction, now involves transferring conditions, engaging with past events, and addressing urgent issues –particularly within forensic aesthetics. The study questions the epistemological status of traces, framing them as ontologically significant in both artistic and technical production. Drawing is approached as a performative act that reveals unsensed or unconscious micro-events. It extends beyond the body. The research aims to conceptualize how tracing and drawing converge through the re-visualization of invisible. The political agency of drawing and its dialogical potential between abstraction and grounded realities. Simultaneously, it considers the aesthetic and technical dimensions of drawing as a dynamic, non-standard process. Tracing is redefined as performative –through choreography, erasure and evolving imagery– opening new paths for engaging space, perception and meaning.
creator: Şebnem Çakaloğulları
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 199
ending page: 208
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.20

To Anyone with Eyes in Their Head
type: item
description: A professor is delivering a lecture in a university classroom. It is an ‘intermediate’ lecture for an ‘intermediate’ year of study. The students are already familiar with the academic path, the subject matter –having learned most of the technical terminology– and with the professor himself. Though the lesson is technical in nature, it does not introduce particularly advanced content. [read more]
creator: Elena Ippoliti
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 211
ending page: 226
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.21

Rhetorical Imagery between Word and Sign. Olivetti Advertising and Communication
type: item
description: Technological evolution has always diversified communication tools by introducing new media and languages. Digitalization demands an adaptation of codes to the immediacy required by contemporary channels, focusing attention on the word–image relationship. The acceleration of the digital transition requires a revision of communication modes, as multimedia channels interact synergistically with the sensory system, making it necessary to reconsider how words and images work together. The rhetorical principles codified for verbal language also apply to visual communication, as demonstrated by advertising, considered the “soul of commerce” due to its effectiveness in engaging the audience. The verbo-visual rhetoric of modern advertising renews the art of communication by creatively combining ethos, pathos, and logos in a narrative that appeals to emotion. In particular, Olivetti’s commercial communication channels went beyond mere product promotion. They created a syntactic–semantic ecosystem that remains relevant even in the digital era. Alongside other forms of commercial communication, advertising in general, and Olivetti’s communication in particular, serve as a reference point for updating languages in the digital age. This is especially valuable for activities operating in the virtual space as a privileged place of communication, especially in the commercial domain.
creator: Michela Rossi
creator: Sara Conte
creator: Greta Milino
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 227
ending page: 240
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.22

Curves and Colors: a Journey into Hundertwasser’s Visual Language
type: item
description: This paper offers a critical and original reading of Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s work, focusing on the continuity between his visual language in painting and architecture. Moving beyond symbolic or stylistic interpretations, the analysis introduces the concept of atmospheric drawing: a perceptual grammar in which color, line, and texture do not merely represent but generate multisensory and affective environments. Hundertwasser’s graphic signs –spirals, organic curves, chromatic contrasts– are interpreted as compositional devices that activate emotional responses and structure space, both pictorial and architectural. By comparing specific paintings such as Irinaland over the Balkans with buildings like the Hundertwasserhaus or the Waldspirale, the article demonstrates how drawing operates as a generative process that redefines the relationship between humans, architecture, and nature. The concept of the ‘third skin’ is reexamined as a sensory interface, mediating the boundaries between interiority and landscape. Finally, the paper proposes the idea of visual ecology as a framework for understanding drawing as a critical and environmental practice. In doing so, it positions Hundertwasser’s work as a living laboratory for rethinking the role of drawing, not as a static representation of reality, but as a creative tool for shaping how we perceive, inhabit, and imagine the world.
creator: Cristiana Bartolomei
creator: Caterina Morganti
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 241
ending page: 254
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.23

Anatomy of a Prompt: a Semiotic System of Text-to-Image Gen AI
type: item
description: Text-to-image Generative AI (Gen AI) introduces a novel perspective on the notion of drawing as a language. This study employs Saussure’s Semiotic Theory to investigate how architectural and interior design prompts in DiffusionDB (part-000001) function as a semiotic system. The filtered dataset includes 246 architecture-related prompts (APs) and 276 interior design-related prompts (IDPs), validated through random sampling and visual inspection. Among the APs, 98% featured terms like ‘architecture’ and ‘design’ with ‘building’, ‘nature’, and ‘archdaily’ appearing in 71-72%. Other prevalent themes included ‘city’ (59%), ‘art’, and ‘digital’ (48%), reflecting a conceptual emphasis on physical structures integrated with environmental and stylistic elements. In contrast, IDPs showed a 100% occurrence of ‘style’, followed by ‘light’ (74%) and ‘concept’ (63%), suggesting a focus on stylistic expression and ambient qualities. The findings indicate that APs center around ‘building’ as the core term, while IDPs are anchored by ‘style’. Notably, ArchDaily and Artstation emerged as linguistic and visual archives, informing the prompt structures. This semiotic analysis reveals that Gen AI users consciously employ architectural vocabulary and artistic techniques, crafting prompts as intentional design compositions that bridge language, imagery, and social meanings in architecture and interior design.
creator: Hoa Vo
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 255
ending page: 264
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.24

Bruno Munari: Communicating through Graphic Language
type: item
description: This article examines Bruno Munari’s contribution to visual communication, with a particular focus on his approach to graphic design and the graphic-visual language. The aim is to highlight how Munari redefined the processes of visual design by developing a method which, moving beyond a purely aesthetic perspective, integrates formal rigour, expressive synthesis and perceptual experimentation through a ‘structural’ exploration of how meaning is conveyed through images. The methodology adopted is based on a critical analysis of Munari’s major graphic works, enriched by theoretical references to semiotics, Gestalt theory and visual pedagogy. Through the examination of case studies –from the illegible books to editorial design and graphic experimentation for children– the study reveals the process by which Munari constructs an autonomous visual syntax, in which the graphic sign becomes a self-sufficient communication system. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how Munari’s graphic thinking anticipated and influenced concepts that are now central to contemporary design and visual communication. His ability to transform illustration, typography and editorial graphics into tools for cultural and cognitive reflection makes him a key reference point in contemporary design, not only as a practitioner, but also as a theorist of a new visual grammar capable of transcending traditional conventions to create a universal, essential and immediate graphic language.
creator: Barbara Messina
creator: Stefano Chiarenza
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 265
ending page: 276
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.25

The Graphic Language as a Hybridization of Art, Thought, and Technique
type: item
description: Drawing has always stood out as one of the main tools of communication, capable of expressing mental or real images instinctively or through codified systems, by means of lines and marks. Beyond being a document that conveys information about the depicted object, it is also a source of insight into the style, personality of the author, and the time and place in which they operated. [read more]
creator: Manuela Piscitelli
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 91
ending page: 100
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.11

Drawing as Language in Panoramic Sketches Created During the Spanish Civil War
type: item
description: The article focuses on the analysis of panoramic sketches drawn during the Spanish Civil War in Aragón. These sketches are perspective drawings that depict the warfront landscape as perceived by combatants from strategic positions on both sides of the contact line. They are elongated graphic documents, generally of large dimensions, created by specialists integrated into the participating Spanish and Italian troops. These sketches are part of the cartographic material necessary for the meticulous study of the terrain where military actions took place. The prolonged stagnation of the front in Aragón allowed for precise delineation of the relief profiles and the placement of positions, trenches, and fortifications. The sketches served as a means of communication between the message sender, the draftsman, and the receiver, who projected operations onto the territory. The technical quality of the documents and the validity of the transmitted message are evaluated. The authors’ ability to express the complexity of the territory through the language of drawing is assessed. The phases of their creation and their characteristics are investigated. Additionally, the calculation procedures, graphic techniques used, and methods available for obtaining duplicates are analyzed.
creator: Santiago Elía-García
creator: Ana Ruiz-Varona
creator: Rafael Temes-Cordovez
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 101
ending page: 114
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.12

Graphic Design as a Universal Language: Symbols and Codes in the Vision of Gio Ponti
type: item
description: Graphic design was a tool for Gio Ponti to synthesise his design and communication, bringing together art, architecture, and design in a consistent visual language. This study looks at the role of graphic design in his work, highlighting its function not only as a means of representation but also as an independent code capable of conveying complex concepts. Through an iconographic and semiotic analysis of his works, the influences of the Bauhaus, Futurism and Italian Rationalism are explored, contributing to the definition of his graphic style, characterised by modularity, geometry and an innovative use of colour. The research also investigates the relationship between editorial graphics, architectural production and industrial design, demonstrating how Ponti’s style has become a constantly evolving visual matrix. Finally, the potential for mutation of his language in the contemporary context is analysed through digital graphic experimentation and new branding and interactive design applications. The article highlights how graphic design for Ponti was not merely a means of representation, but a form of visual thinking capable of transcending eras and contexts, confirming itself as a fundamental reference point for contemporary design.
creator: Alessandro Spennato
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 115
ending page: 126
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.13

Ambiguous Representations: Drawing and Its Potential Misinterpretations
type: item
description: Drawing, understood as a language, is inherently ambiguous: every mark can be misinterpreted, reinterpreted, or manipulated. Starting from Paul Ricoeur’s reflection on the link between interpretation and the possibility of misunderstanding, this essay investigates architectural drawing as a non-neutral device, shaped by cultural conventions, biases, and social contexts. Through the analysis of historical examples –from the accusations of espionage against Aleksandr Alekhine, triggered by the misunderstanding of chess score sheets, to the controversial reception of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Masieri Memorial project– it highlights how drawing can become a tool for ideological misinterpretation. A close reading of Jean-Jacques Lequeu’s drawings further reveals how seemingly geometric inaccuracies disclose a more complex rhetorical and symbolic intention. The article proposes a classification of ambiguities into four categories: technical, epistemic, rhetorical, and perceptual. The latter is illustrated through the phenomenon of multistable images (Kippbilder), which underline the inherent instability of human perception. In conclusion, the essay argues that the ambiguity of drawing, far from being a mere source of error, constitutes a vital element of its creative and hermeneutic potential, encouraging a more critical and conscious reading of architectural representation.
creator: Felice Romano
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 127
ending page: 142
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.14

Furrows. Undermining the Limits of Our Language
type: item
description: In the following note –without delving into the broader topic of drawing as language, or seeking to establish the connections between verbal and graphic forms of communication– I take the opportunity to organize some reflections that have emerged over recent decades. These reflections have shown a certain practical effectiveness in educational and didactic contexts, and are based on references that are not particularly recent, yet far from obsolete. [read more]
creator: Edoardo Dotto
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 23
ending page: 34
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.5

The Songe, the Kanagawa’s Great Wave and ISOTYPE. Notes on Drawing as a Natural, Cultural and Universal Language
type: item
description: The contribution proposes a theoretical framework for the analysis of drawing, rooted within the studies of psychology and enriched by significant experiences of visual communication, both contemporary and historical. This approach is justified by considering architectural drawing as a specific declination of drawing understood as a broad language, thus allowing many fundamental observations on the nature, functions and processes of drawing already explored in general contexts to be transferred to the field of architecture. Relevant examples will be shown that illustrate the three main dimensions of drawing as a natural, cultural and universal language, with particular attention to some studies from the 1960s and 1970s that, although partly outdated, are still fundamental in the study of images and drawings. The overall theoretical framework will then be declined in the specific context of architectural drawing, highlighting how it incorporates and utilises the three linguistic dimensions outlined above in an integrated manner. The contribution will conclude with an articulated definition of the distinctive features of drawing understood as a natural, cultural and universal language, laying the foundations for future theoretical and practical reflections on drawing understood as a language.
creator: Alessandro Luigini
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 35
ending page: 48
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.6

Drawing and the Language of Creativity
type: item
description: This paper examines the communication of cognitive and emotional elements between a drafter and an observer through drawings. Although this topic has been explored from philosophical and psychological perspectives, it still lacks sufficient scientific evidence to determine its biological foundations. Electroencephalography (EEG) is now a recognized instrumental tool that can be used to assess the cognitive and emotional engagement of both the drawing’s creator and its viewer. This study reports the results of experiments in which EEG recordings were made from four subjects who acted as both drafters and observers of drawings with presumed differences in cognitive-emotive content. As drafters, the participants were asked to create both a freehand drawing and a CAD version of an architectural landscape. It was hypothesized that the freehand version would carry a stronger cognitive-emotive charge than the CAD one. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the EEG data showed that both drafters and observers exhibited parallel responses to the same image. These findings provide experimental support for the theory that specific feelings and perceptions of the drafter are transmitted to the observer, who responds as if him/herself were the author of the drawing.
creator: Gaia Leandri
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 49
ending page: 58
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.7

Is Architectural Drawing a Language? Symbols, Signs, Pictograms, Ideograms and Drawings
type: item
description: Articulate language was established in the 20th century as the superior model of thought. It claimed a monopoly on the model of rational thought, even advocating a homomorphism between language and brain structure. We defend here the autonomy of architectural drawing over any linguistic discipline with the arguments that will be developed in six fields of debate. This analysis will argue why, stricto sensu, architectural drawing should not be considered a language. In our view, drawings do not ‘mean’ anything; rather, they either represent or shape the world. The lack of correlation between a syntactic and semantic field denies one of the basic principles of language. Drawing, especially architectural drawing, is based on the mathematical analysis process of Euclid’s geometry and does not require deductive reasoning based on logical or natural language. Neither does conceptual art based on language models seem to have produced remarkable works of art, nor has the attack on the visual brought even some of what was promised. Goodman’s symbol system models have provided a more useful way to understand the specifics of architectural drawing as part of a representational symbolic system, beyond ‘languages and notations’. Finally, neuroscience posits the coexistence, without privilege, of a visual cognitive style as distinct from verbal cognitive style.
creator: Angel Allepuz
creator: Carlos L. Marcos
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 59
ending page: 68
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.8

Giovanni Anceschi and the Theory of Schematic Representation. Drawing as a Graphic Language
type: item
description: The article aims to recount the evolution of Giovanni Anceschi's research work on the subject of visual design, specifically with regard to schematic representation modes and processes of depiction. The value of drawing as a visual language and graphic instrument was one of the cornerstones of Anceschi's theoretical reasoning. Specifically, we intend to start from his degree thesis of 1966 at the Department of Visual Communication at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm (under the supervision of Abraham Moles, Tomás Maldonado and Herbert Kapitzky), passing through the partial translation that the author himself offers in the 1981 collection ‘Progettazione visiva’, up to the seminal text of 1992 entitled ‘L'oggetto della raffigurazione’. By means of a philological reconstruction of the publications in which Anceschi insisted on these themes, the aim is to investigate how the graphic designer's point of view interprets concepts proper to drawing such as schematisation or representation, and how these themes can inform the theoretical debate on graphic design.
creator: Andrea Lancia
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 69
ending page: 76
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.9

Drawing as a Language in the Design Process: a Cognitive Bridge Between Thinking and Representation
type: item
description: The design process is inherently representational; drawing and similar tools reduce cognitive load and enable the generation, recording and reuse of ideas. This process supports the internal dialogue that fosters innovative solutions. Representations have both external forms, such as drawing and modelling, and internal forms, such as imagination and thought, while language is a crucial tool that guides the processes of thinking and doing. While verbal expressions convey abstract thoughts and provide insight into the problem, visual representations concretise abstract ideas. This study analyses the transitions between verbal and visual representational languages, examining how ideas are transformed into representations, what comes to the fore, and what is left behind in this process. The ways designers structure ideas, the gaps that occur in the transitions between representational languages, and the ways they cope with these gaps are revealed through an examination conducted through drawing and physical modelling. The study positions drawing as a bridge between languages, moving it beyond being a mere representational tool in the design process, and focuses on the role of drawing in framing, organising and translating design ideas, making it an indispensable component of the discovery process.
creator: Saime Gümüştaş Babalı
creator: N. Ömer Erem
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 77
ending page: 88
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.10

Drawing as Language
type: item
description: Drawing and graphic communication can be taken as equivalent concepts; in fact, drawing always aims to convey a message through an alternative language to the verbal one, and its communicative nature is implicit. [read more]
creator: Enrico Cicalò
creator: Valeria Menchetelli
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 7
ending page: 13
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.2

Editorial
type: item
description: Issue No. 16 of the journal diségno marks the handover of a scientific publication founded in 2017 and which has been running for 8 years. A balance sheet full of events and transformations, which now sees a mature journal witnessing the scope of a scientific disciplinary sector with strong ties to Area 08 - Civil Engineering and Architecture and beyond. [read more]
creator: Francesca Fatta
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 5
ending page: 6
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.1

Valeria Menchetelli (2024). Forma immagine. Pratiche dello sguardo. Alghero: Publica
type: item
description: To present Valeria Menchetelli’s volume, it is worth starting from here and from what the author herself suggests in her interpretation of the semantic ambiguity of this binomial, evoking the idea of “a snapshot, of an overall view taken from a particular framing, the one given by observing from a specific point of view”. [read more]
creator: Alessandra Cirafici
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 289
ending page: 290
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.27

Alfonso Giancotti (2025). Nuovi Mondi. Il potere assoluto dell’immaginazione. Siracusa: Lettera Ventidue
type: item
description: The volume of Alfonso Giancotti’s drawings, set in a horizontal format, is a precious editorial work, in terms of paper quality, binding and concept, especially because it appears to be specifically designed on the features of the drawings themselves. [read more]
creator: Fabio Colonnese
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 291
ending page: 293
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.28

Laura Carlevaris (2024). L'Ottica di Claudio Tolomeo nella storia della prospettiva. Roma: Quasar
type: item
description: Laura Carlevaris’s volume L’Ottica di Claudio Tolomeo nella storia della prospettiva (Claudius Ptolemy’s Optics in the history of perspective), published in 2024 by Edizioni Quasar of Rome –specialized in the fields of Antiquities and Archaeology– has been available since 2024 on the digital platform Torrossa, in digital format. [read more]
creator: Edoardo Dotto
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 294
ending page: 296
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.29

Adriana Arena (2024). I disegni di Francesco Valenti. Elementi espressivi e caratteristiche tecniche. San Giuliano Milanese: FrancoAngeli
type: item
description: The book I disegni di Francesco Valenti. Elementi espressivi e caratteristiche tecniche (Drawings by Francesco Valenti. Expressive Elements and Technical Characteristics), edited by Adriana Arena and scheduled for publication in 2024 as part of FrancoAngeli’s Forme del Disegno series, offers an in-depth study of the graphic works of architect and engineer Francesco Valenti, who was active from the late 19th century into the early 20th century. [read more]
creator: Assunta Pelliccio
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 diségno http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
number: 16
starting page: 297
ending page: 298
doi: 10.26375/disegno.16.2025.30