Born in Cagliari in 1934, Italo Lupi graduated as an architect at the Polytechnic of Milan. He dedicated himself to the architecture of exhibitions, coordinated graphic design projects, exhibition spaces, editorial graphics. He became a protagonist immediately following the golden age of the Milanese school of design, contributing to the renewal of the languages of “international style” and crossing the most unscrupulous trends of the contemporary, without ever giving in to fashion.
Italian member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale). He collaborates with Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, was a graphic consultant for the department stores “La Rinascente”, “IBM Italia”, Triennale di Milano; he was art director of Domus and, from 1992 to 2007, editor in chief and art director of the magazine “Abitare”. He designed graphics and signage for large exhibitions at Palazzo Grassi in Venice and Stupinigi, for the Papal Stables at the Quirinale in Rome, for the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Parma.
With Achille Castiglioni he designed the general layout of the XVI Milan Triennale and the exhibition “Venice and its lagoon” at the Correr Museum. He has received awards and honorable mentions: Art Directors Club of Milan, Typodomus of Prague, XIII Biennale of Brno, Poster Biennale of Lahti, American Illustrator, Illustration Annual.
In 2015 he was awarded an honorary master’s degree in “communication design” by the Polytechnic of Milan with the following motivation: “for his contribution, of recognized international value, to graphic design through visual translation projects for identity systems that have confirmed and extended the civil function of communication design; for the method and quality of his “editorial direction” projects in magazines which have also contributed internationally to critical knowledge and the diffusion of project culture; for the decisive contribution that his projects represent for the definition and affirmation of the culture and discipline of communication design”. He passed away in 2023.
