Let’stalk(s) is a series of open seminars on issues concerning gender equity and inclusion. Born within the activities of the Gender Equity Working Group, the series - curated by Letizia Bollini – focuses on Missing in action: Gender Equity in Design and Art.

The contribution of the lectures is aimed at mapping some of the issues concerning the project culture and the artistic practice – both form the material as well from the communication side – its history and the use of language from a diverse perspective. 

Today Prof. Francesco E. Guida presents "Micro-histories of Female Pioneers for a More Inclusive History of Italian Graphic Design". 

The great histories of graphic design, both in Italy and internationally, reserve a secondary or minor role for women. Some publications have recently placed this question in a critical form, trying to understand the reasons for it, as well as accounting gaps and absences. However, if we refer in particular to what we could define as the golden age of Italian graphic design – in a time span between the 1950s and the early 1970s – few figures have emerged, more like as exceptions than as a result of a contextualized and intentional historical research based on a different point of view from the ones of the identification of masters and paradigmatic cases. Another issue is the one of the representations of women through visual artifacts in a period conditioned by stereotypes and preconceptions about female roles in asocial context subject to great changes. My aim is to underline sources, methods and criteria to be adopted to achieve a possible rewriting of history in a more inclusive way, identifying a series of less known personalities who have full rights to be considered pioneers and role models.

Francesco E. Guida (Naples,1971) is author and assistant professor at Politecnico di Milano (Bachelor in Communication Design). PhD in Design and Technology for the Enhancement of Cultural Heritage, he has a 30 years long experience as a graphic design consultant. Board member of AIAP, he is coordinator of activities and researches for the Graphic Design Documentation Centre (AIAP CDPG).
His main research activities are in the fields of flexible visual identities, speculative and experience design, and graphic design micro-histories.

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