Bruno Munari - Square, Circle, Triangle

Bruno Munari: Square, Circle, Triangle / ISBN 9781616894122 / small (but heavy) 288-page paperback, about 6.25 x 6.4 inches, published by Princeton Architectural Press

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In the early 1960s Italian design legend Bruno Munari published his visual case studies on shapes: Circle, Square, and, a decade later, Triangle. Using examples from ancient Greece and Egypt, as well as works by Buckminster Fuller, Le Corbusier, and Alvar Aalto, Munari invests the three shapes with specific qualities: the circle relates to the divine, the square signifies safety and enclosure, and the triangle provides a key connective form for designers.

One of the great designers of the twentieth century, Munari contributed to the fields of painting, sculpture, design, and photography while teaching throughout his seventy-year career. After World War II he began to focus on book design, creating children's books known for their simplicity and playfulness.

"Even if you're not a designer, the trilogy on shapes encourages a closer look at the repeating structures around us and their deep human and natural histories, in which the simple square can simultaneously be an ancient symbol with 'the power to drive out the plague, and the boundaries for a game of chess."--Hyperallergic