“Transitions”, the new edition of the international festival dedicated to visual design by Graphic Days®

Graphic Days® is a project promoted by Print Club Torino and dedicated to Italian and international visual design. Every year, Graphic Days® involves the most relevant artists, professionals and agencies of the international scene in a widespread festival.

This year the event is renovating itself presenting Transitions, a special edition characterized by an accurate analysis of the most relevant themes of the system we live in, with interesting interventions by experts coming from different fields. This edition, which is taking place from October 1 to 11, 2020, anticipates the widespread edition of 2021.

This special edition will present some participatory workshops dedicated to enhancing the dynamic aspect of visual design. The field remains in continuous redefinition, thanks to its constant contamination with other disciplines, like art, craftsmanship, technological innovation, teaching, are all areas that influence. Visual design, furthermore, undergoes the influence of the systems it is applied in, would it be social, cultural, environmental or even political.

Graphic Days® Transitions will host a series of appointments that involve associations, institutional bodies, professionals and agencies from the visual communication field that will discuss possible scenarios and new paradigms of our society and environment and their transitions through a systemic approach. The programme includes talks and workshops dedicated to visual communication in all its forms. The participatory workshops, organized in collaboration with professionals, institutions and brands will represent the section of the festival dedicated to the insiders and will be accompanied by co-design labs able to activate future projects and apply the discussed debates within everyday life.

This edition represents an experimental moment for the evolution of the Graphic Days® project: the organizers wanted to transform the restrictions related to the health emergency into an opportunity to rethink this year’s target audience by focusing on professionals of the

sector. To maintain the inclusive aspects that have characterized the festival since its first edition, the organizers have extended open hours and scheduled talks in streaming for all those who wish to attend remotely.

The exhibition itinerary will also be different compared to previous editions: Transitions offers a unique exhibition itinerary, which crosses different historical periods and geographical areas to tell the roots of Italian history and traditions. The collective exhibition follows the theoretical concept of “Critical Regionalism”, inspired by the homonymous architectural movement of Frampton. The original productions and sketches selected by the curators of the exhibition will recount the visual projects of the artists. Exhibition Singular Plural investigates the contemporary reinterpretations of the cultural archetypes and historical symbolisms of such a varied traditional Italian culture, which are harmonically and coherently inserted in local surroundings. For the full programme of the event, visit the official website www.graphicdays.it.

To allow compliance with safety regulations, this year Toolbox Coworking will be the only venue of the festival. In addition to being the main partner of the event, Toolbox confirms itself as the most suitable place to explore the differences of a professional ecosystem: at the moment it hosts over 160 different activities that create a constantly updating physical social network.

DETAILS FOR THE PRESS

Graphic Days®

www.graphicdays.it

https://www.instagram.com/graphicdaystorino/

https://www.facebook.com/graphicdaystorino

Graphic Days® is a cultural project dedicated to international visual design. From famous icons of history to contemporary innovative professionals, it describes all the aspects of visual communication, including its contaminations with other disciplines. Every year, Graphic Days® involves the most relevant artists, professionals and agencies of the international scene in a widespread festival. The project aims at supporting the cultural value of visual communication, presenting new inspiring tools and promoting exchange with the audience through debates, exhibitions and installations.

Since its first edition in 2016, Graphic Days® has cooperated with an international network and has become an observatory on visual design, thanks to its research on possible connections between this discipline and today’s global issues. It combines social commitment and environmental sustainability. Its main focus is the responsibility of the visual designer in the narration of the relation between different systems and their implications.

Among the topics of the projects, symbolism and tradition are two crucial themes, especially for their relationship with the universal language of graphic design. This connection combines also form and content, meaning and significance, culture and nature. New tools can go along with traditional techniques, giving rise to new creative ideas.

Print Club Torino

www.printclubtorino.it

https://www.instagram.com/printclubtorino/

https://www.facebook.com/printclubtorino

Graphic Days® is mainly promoted by Print Club Torino, a cultural and multi-project based center that combines social innovation design and visual culture with a wide programme of activities, events, collaborations and projects that deal with social inclusion and accessibility.

The association combines visual communication and social innovation, representing an informal agency operating in the field of sustainable design. Print Club Torino aims at having a positive impact on society: co-design, permanent research laboratories, collaborations with local museums and cultural entities are the main activities of its strategic approach, as well as projects of civic innovation and culture in collaboration with schools and institutions.

Maria Papaefstathiou

VISUAL DESIGNER since 1996 and blogger since 2010. Living in Athens, Greece. She has been focusing her research on poster design and particularly on social poster design and portrait design. Her main poster project is a series of posters celebrating great personalities of traditional and popular culture in Greece and Jamaica. These include actors, singers, musicians, poets etc. This is an ongoing project. “I believe that design is a powerful tool that we designers can use to spark enthusiasm, change mindsets and bring positive actions to our world and our culture”. FOUNDER AND EDITOR OF GRAPHICART-NEWS.COM BLOG. She carefully curates high-quality designs, illustrations, and art, from all over the world that will teach and provoke other designers. Many consider her blog to be an exceptional educational tool. CO-FOUNDER OF THE INTERNATIONAL REGGAE POSTER CONTEST which was launched on December 2011, partnering, the creative activist Michael Thompson aka Freestylee. (www.reggaepostercontest.com)