as Forma Nova. Sergio Polano writes: Alone master, the Italian visual designer, painter and photographer Franco Grignani, born in Pieve Porto Morone (Pavia) in 1908, trained as architect at the Polytechnic School of Turin (1929-1933); after being part as painter of the late, second futurism, his artistic research came across the European abstract avantgarde movements, and developed a strong interested in the perception psichology of form, that results from the Fifties in his dinamic kind of OpArt, years before it: the mastering of perception rules is expressed by his visual experiments on virtual movement, optical illusion, subperceptions, distortions, moirés, dilatations, flous and so on, applied, with no breaks, from painting to graphic design, through pictures, images, patterns, signs and words. From the Thirties he works in the field of graphic design, collaborating ia with Borletti, Breda Nardi, Cremona Nuova, Dompé, Domus, Mondadori, Montecatini, Spi, Triennale; his artistic direction for Alfieri&Lacroix printing firm is particularly interesting, as it shows an exceptional integration of words (wrtitten by himself) and images. Very well known, his trademark for Lambswool is a paradigmatic example of his approach to sign design. For 26 years he has been art director of Pubblicità in Italia, a magazine devoted to Italian advertising and visual design. He wrote many essays on design and arts, and lectured in Europe and USA.
