Engaging Italian industry and culture in a single-minded and spontaneous project of national image building, Italy's designers have produced a complete variety of forms--fashion, graphic arts and product and set design--with a unique international resonance. This volume explores Italian design of the last half-century, featuring the classic lines of the Vespa, Bruno Munari's deconstruction of the common fork, the nostalgic appeal of Italo Marchioni's ice cream cone and the sleek Minimalism of Alberto Meda's 1987 "Light Light Chair," among many other masterpieces. Paola Antonelli's lively introduction provides an overview of Italy's design culture; an essay by Giampiero Bosoni illuminates the design objects that are superbly reproduced in the volume's plate section.