Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
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A quarter of a century after the first vehicles appeared and the boost provided by the futuristic movement are key elements for the creation of a company with an idea of car design completely independent from that of animal-drawn vehicles. From that moment on, power, speed and innovative design made up a triad defi ning Alfa Romeo’s natal identity; three natural features that give way to a fourth essence which, in turn, guides each of the three and gets them together in passion. This article compiles the great achievements supplied by the brand to aerodynamic and aesthetic innovation in current car design.

One of the most complex concepts in Renaissance and Baroque artistic vocabulary is that of disegno. Like so many other terms, its original formulation is attributed to the painter, architect, town planner and theorist Giorgio Vasari, fi the follower of Michelangelo and the first art historian with his work Le Vite de’ più eccellenti Architetti, Pittori et Scultori italiani da Cimabue insino à tempi nostri descritte in lingua Toscana da Giorgio Vasari pittore Artetino... The greatest Vasarian originality in the theoretical field of the system of the arts is the development of the concept of the arti del disegno, which points out the kinship between the three visual arts by means of a common origin, and in practice. Vasari's essential appreciation of design culminated in the creation of the Accademia del Disegno in Florence in the service of the Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici.

The activity developed by academic institutions as centres of critical elaboration of the artistic thought emerges as a paramount theme in the defi nition of the cultural histories that enlivened Europe in the 18th century. This brief article analyses the role and infl uence exerted by the Roman Academy of St. Luca as regards its organization and the practice of competitions. The practice of design was one of the key aspects of the formative project of the Academy, with the birth of a particular ‘kind’, the ‘representations on the occasion of the competitions’, which occupies autonomous application fi elds in comparison to those engaged in professional design.

Susan Kare is the creator of the first set of icons designed for Macintosh 128K (1984). This new set of symbols had to be defi ned taking into account the environment, and Apple chose the visual metaphor of the desktop. It must have been a challenge for Kare to use only black and white on a grid of 32 by 32 pixels to outline actions devoid of any previous reference. However, her fi rst icons overcame technical limitations and became a necessary reference to establish the standards in the design of icons. Apple has introduced the most important progression in 25 years with the photorealistic icons of the Aqua interface on Mac OS X.

The Ibero-American Design Biennial is a long-standing project as a space for meeting, debate and reflection on Ibero-American design co-organised by Central de Diseño-DIMAD and the Banco Santander Foundation and supported by different institutions of the Spanish administration: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, through the Secretary of State for Ibero-America, the Spanish Agency for Cooperation and Development (AECID) and the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB); the Ministry of Culture; the Ministry of Science and Innovation, through the State Society for Development and Innovation; and the Madrid City Council.

Organised by the Asociación de Diseñadores de Madrid, DIMAD, and the Central de Diseño de Matadero de Madrid, and sponsored by the Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez, Pecsa and the Fundación Pecsa, this exceptional exhibition has arisen, which also coincides in time with Straight to Business: Icograda Design Week in Madrid. It is a particularly interesting initiative: it is a collaborative in-progress project that aims, among other things, to map the reality of graphic design in its relationship with the city of Madrid.

The Banco Santander Foundation, in collaboration with the Universia portal, has promoted this year's second edition of TalentosDesign, a design competition aimed at university and Higher Education students, which seeks to promote, recognise, disseminate and reward creativity and talent in the field of design. Participants must be students of legal age from any University, Centre or School of Higher Education in any country in the world.

Pla-Narbona’s work is an example of what has been understood, since the German Renaissance, as graphic design: the art of drawing, engraving, calligraphy, form. His main work includes drawings, engravings, paintings, illustrations and sculptures which, through their numerous expressions, show the artist’s personal way of portraying his own universe and poetics. Pla-Narbona has indeed created a unique and personal world, primarily by means of, quoting Walter Benjamin, the “line of the absolute sign”, the drawing, the stroke, the contour, that is to say, the more abstract and minimum resource of graphic expression.

Present times show themselves as a thrilling period for changes, especially in the field of Fine Arts. The system that used to regulate the limits between major and minor arts is becoming blurred. New materials and forms of expression are being researched on and, at the same time, disciplines traditionally pushed into the background are gradually becoming more and more important. Design can have a say in these uncertain times, since it is becoming established as a means of expression, and its characteristics may lead to a change in the parameters of Art.

The field of communication design is one which involves language, the evolutionary communicative artefact, the capacity to provide new meanings, etc., but also the ability to read the technologies used to produce communication and the eff ects that they have within the ‘action plan’ of an object. In this context, we have chosen to develop ideas on packaging within a broader study of the environment focusing on ‘design for access’ and to read packaging artefacts according to this perspective. Speaking about access design therefore means reversing the point of view and design priorities.Considerations about the roles and functions of packaging imply, as a consequence, a revision of the artefact which does not have to be limited by the performance and operative dimension of the object. The first line of work is linked to ‘implicit ethics’ and strongly connected to the communicative and informative accessibility of packaging. The second line of research is engaged in developing new forms of appreciation of the term ‘access’. The present research investigates the potentiality of the artefact as an instrument to develop new levels of access to the content itself and to the informative content.