Farewell to Bob Noorda

Born in Amsterdam in 1927, Bob Noorda died yesterday in Milan. The city which he chose to be “from” because – he explained – “design lives here” and he was awarded the Compasso d’Oro four times and granted an honorary degree from Milan's Polytechnic University.

A master of visual communication, Noorda called himself a free spirit: “I have always considered myself freelance even when I was art director at Pirelli, because I’ve been a free man my entire life,” he said to Francesco Dondina, in a recent interview for a book published by Editrice San Raffaele. Considered one of the principal creators of the renovation of Italian graphic design, in a career over 50 years long, he designed more than 150 brands known around the world – among them: Coop, Touring Club, Eni, Enel, Rinascente – Noorda is a legend in the world of graphics and design.

Those who knew him described him as a happy man, ironic and elegant, with an irresistible northern charm, capable even – which doesn't hurt – of combining rigour and fun. A quality, which combined with his inventiveness and his talent, entitled him to work with the best clientele, such as Pirelli in the '50's, and from then on, with almost all of the major Italian businessmen who decided to entrust their image to him. Needless to say, the loss of Bob Noorda takes with it an important part in the history of Italian design. He is responsible (in part, along with his studio Unimark International founded in 1965 with Massimo Vignelli) for the signing system of the Milan's underground (1962), innovative enough to also be used in New York and Sao Paulo, as well as in London and Naples; the co-ordinated image of Feltrinelli; the logo for Mondadori; the pictogram designed for Agip; the corporate image of Dreher beer; and the Lombardy Region's emblem (designed with Pino Tovaglia and Roberto Sambonet), the “rosa camuna” inspired by the region's prehistory, the rock carvings in Val Camonica.

Yet last March, as the controversy died out about the restyling of Milan's underground, which wasn’t at all respectful of Albini’s layout nor of the graphics, Noorda sadly confessed to Corriere della Sera: “A logo for Milan today? I thought about it, but nothing came to me. Milan has no personality now.” It’s difficult to say he's wrong. He arrived in Milan in 1954, when it was “the capital of design and inventiveness, it had respect for history and memory, there was the notion of that special piece, the knowledge of the craftsmen.” E.S.