Parola Amore

Pino Tovaglia was born in Milan on 3 December 1923 and stared working as a fabric designer at the age of fourteen, already at such a tender age heralding his his exploration of the world of visual communications. In 1944, he attended the Art Shool of the Sforza Castle in Milan, where his teachers included Usellini and Carrà and he progressed to the status of the latter’s assistant at the age of nineteen. At the same time, he worked for Nino Nutrizio, doing the layout for the daily newspaper “la Notte” after school hours. Once he had his diploma in his pocket, he worked as an advertiser with Pagot Film, where he developed short experimental films. From 1947 to 1950, Tovaglia worked in the Ciuti studio, elbow to elbow with young Dario Fò, before pursuing his career as a freelance, including a period working from 1954 to 1956 with Finmeccanica on an advertising campaign that was to win him a mention in Graphis magazine: an experience of fundamental import to him because of the working relationship and friendship it brought with Leonardo Sinisgalli, the engineer and poet who captaine Finmeccanica at the time. Meanwhile, Tovaglia developed an enthusiasm for photography and started doing experiments that would bring him close to the research being done in that period by Mulas and Ballo. In 1957 Tovaglia teamed up with Giulio Confalonieri, Ilio Negri and Michele Provinciali to establish the CNTP studio, a great experiment, though one doomed to be short-lived, as it lasted no longer than 1965. Two year after that , he joined the Exibition Design research group, with Coppola, Confalonieri, Grignani and Munari. The scope of Tovaglia’s fee-paying work also included exhibition design, on tangible example being the Labour Pavilion in Turin for Italia ’61, where a symbolic element was applied in the graphic work. From 1967 to 1970, Tovaglia was art director at Pirelli, where he worked with Mulas and Ballo. This was followed by a long period working with Nebiolo typeface foundry, where he co-ordinated a research group. At the same time he also designed corporate identities for several publishing groups and other firms, such as Ottagono, Alfa Romeo, the Region of Lombardy (with Munari, Noorda and Sambonet), the Italian Environmental Foundation FAI, Fini, and Italian Tourin ClubTCI, and advertising campaigna for several firms – Splugen, Alitalia, Lanerossi, FlexForm, Bassetti, Flos, Acna, Nava, Alessi, Valenti, Artflex, Montesud, Videograf, MonteShell, Montecatini, Mathers International – and for such magazines as Ufficio Moderno and Stile Industria. In 1968, Tovaglia served as President of the Milan Art Directors’ Club. At this time, he also worked in cartoon animation for the Italian State Radio and Television network RAI with Bruno con Bruno Bozzetto and for RadioTelefortuna 67. At this time, his design career trod a path midway between art and graphic design when he created the 3D design for AMORE, an experiment in typographic research “based on the in-depth rather than linear reading of the letters” that make up the world A-M-O-R-E. A sculpture of AMORE now has a permanent home in front of the entrance to the Council of Europe building in Strasbourg. Pino Tovaglia died at the age of 53, leaving the enormous heritage of his uncompromising visual research. No description of Tovaglia’s life and career would be complete without mention of his work as a teacher and lecturer, which he started in 1954. Tovaglia taught Graphic Design and Visualisation at the Art School in the Sforza Castle in Milan, in the technical courses in the Umanitaria, and in the Special Qualifying Course, Corporate Identity in the Scuola Politecnica di Design and Graphic Design in the ISIA in Urbino.