1966 Bruno Munari

In his book on art as a profession (Arte come mestiere, 1966) Bruno Munari makes us picture road signs in the refined color combinations of the Art Nouveau period. Colors as pink and yellow side by side, brown and blue, red and pale blue (instead of dark), or coffee and chocolate. As the designer puts the question, "Can we imagine a 'No Overtaking' sign with a coffee and chocolate car on a violet background?"¹ Or the triangular 'Dangerous Curve to Left' sign with a curved mint green arrow on an olive background and a rosy beige edge? Such signs could match anyones taste, they would probably look like art but they also would very likely blend into their surroundings. After all Munari believes, to except, to know, and to use the colors of our own time is to express oneself in the language of today.

¹ Bruno Munari, Design as Art, Pelikan Books, 1971