A book published to celebrate design, experienced by Italians in their everyday life

Five leading industrial designers help readers discover the phases and significance of their work

Turin, 7 May 2008 11.30 a.m. – Seat Pagine Gialle, a European leader and one of the main international operators in the area of multimedia telephone publication and hi-tech products for the Internet, is presenting Daysign-Design Today at the 21st Turin International Book Fair.

The book, which is divided into two parts, recounts design from two different viewpoints: that of professionals and that of the general population.

The first part of the book features essays by five top designers: Stefano Giovannoni, Michele De Lucchi, Marc Sadler, James Irvine and Denis Santachiara. Their contributions offer a detailed description of the path of creativity, composed of processes, specific techniques, the choice of materials, and the meaning of their art and profession. The book uses elegant and innovative illustrations as a way to highlight research into details, which are fundamental in design. The conversations with these designers examine daily habits step by step: breakfast, work, lunch, afternoon and evening, bringing the day to a close.
Each interview offers insight into how design accompanies us throughout the day, as we often share our lives with design objects without even realising it.

The second part of the book features the 12 best essays chosen from those submitted to the “ Io e il mio Design” competition, conducted with the contribution of RAI–Radiotelevisione Italiana (Italy’s public service broadcaster) and AAMS–Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (State Monopoly Administration). The competition was promoted in all the 2007–2008 editions of Pagine Gialle, in collaboration with Turin 2008 World Design Capital and ADI–Associazione per il Design Industriale (Industrial Design Association) to encourage the use of design objects in our everyday lives.

Competition participants sent stories and pictures that describe a specific time in their lives in which a design object was a key player in the narrated episode. This collection of emotions and little stories is composed of simple gestures that became precious memories thanks to design. Thus, a coffeepot, a beach umbrella or a pen suddenly came to play a leading role in unforgettable moments.

The volume also features an extraordinary introduction by Gillo Dorfles, a witness, critic and driving force behind 60 years of Italian and international design.

In the year in which Turin is the World Design Capital, Seat Pagine Gialle has been committed to serving as an engine for creativity, bringing together various figures who, together, bear witness to the way design is a part of daily life: the professionals who design objects and works by analyzing every gesture of daily life, and the people who use them and experience them as part of their emotions, and particularly the young people who assembled all these statements in the publication.

In fact, the book was created for Seat by the students from the Master RSP program in Publishing Design at the European Institute of Design (3rd year), who personally handled the interviews with the designers and oversaw the book graphics and layout.

The book, published by Seat Pagine Gialle, will be presented on Thursday, 8 May, at 9 p.m. at the International Book Fair – Book Design Space
(Pav. 2).

The book (ISBN 978-88-902916-3-0) can also be ordered through Seat Pagine Gialle’s toll-free number (Italy only): 800 011411.
All proceeds will be donated to the Comitato Telethon Fondazione Onlus, a nonprofit organisation.

SEAT PAGINE GIALLE
The Seat Pagine Gialle Group is the European leader and one of the main operators at world level in the sector of multimedia profiled advertising, offering “print-voice-online” directories, hi-tech products for the Internet and for satellite and ortophotometric navigation, as well as complementary communication services such as one-to-one marketing.
SEAT Pagine Gialle has been engaged in information services, and search and communications tools for over 80 years. It is a success story based on a brand that is familiar to everyone, a sales network employing over 1,700 persons, a technology that is constantly evolving and a database that includes 15 million households and 3.8 million businesses (2007 data), and a wide range of products guaranteeing a real integrated system of communications to about 600,000 Italian customers. A total of 65 million volumes distributed to the homes and offices of Italian subscribers (2007 figures), 35 million enquiries through the directory assistance service (2007 figures), and over 343 million hits on online directories (2007 figures) connect people and businesses, bringing together needs and solutions and promoting economic exchanges.

Contact:
Barabino&Partners
Adela Leka
a.leka@barabino.it
Tel. +39 02.72.02.35.35