The evolution of language in italian advertising posters of the 20th Century

Abstract

The paper analyses the evolution of the language of advertising posters in Italy between the early decades of the twentieth century and the 1960s, highlighting the gradual shift from an illustrative form of communication rooted in pictorial traditions to a synthetic, rational, and subsequently photographic graphic language. Through a historical-critical and comparative approach, the research examines a selection of posters and authors considered emblematic of the transformation of modern visual communication: from Leonetto Cappiello, Federico Sene­ca, and Fortunato Depero to Giovanni Pintori, Max Huber, Bob Noorda, and Armando Testa, among others.The analysis shows how the advertising poster progressively moved beyond its decorative function to assume the role of a cultural device capable of constructing visual identities, collective imaginaries, and new models of relationship between industry, product, and mass society. The experiences of Italian advertising agencies and graphic design studios, from MAGA to Studio Boggeri and through to Olivetti’s coordinated communication, further testify to the consolidation of an increasingly integrated approach to communication design, combining graphics, typography, photography, and corporate identity.Particular attention is devoted to the gradual rise of advertising photography in the 1960s, interpreted not only as a technical innovation but also as a cultural transformation in the relationship between image and reality. From this perspective, the contribution concludes with a reflection on contempo­rary images generated through artificial intelligence, considered as a further evolution of the historical process that leads from illustrated representation to the progressive dematerialisa­tion of the real referent in contemporary advertising communication.