Fabrica’s Visual Communication department, directed by Omar Vulpinari since 1998, is committed to alternative opportunities in education and experimentation in communication design for social improvement.
The activities of the department are project and workshop based. The aim is to develop concrete, provocative, socially relevant output that can become globally visible and effective. International application of the projects is facilitated through Fabrica’s worldwide network of partners.
Projects can be resident initiated, department initiated or in partnership with international humanitarian organizations, cultural institutions and global enterprise.
During the past years projects have been developed with the United Nations, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Witness, Index on Censorship, International Criminal Court of Justice, International Council of Nurses, World Wildlife Fund, Emergency, Reporters Without Borders, Stop TB Partership, Porsche, Coca-Cola, Fox International, Domus magazine, Colors, The New Yorker, Internazionale, The Walrus, Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, El Pais, and many others.
Workshops led by world famous artists, designers and theoreticians are dedicated to trans-disciplinary research focussing on environmental, social and relational themes. Recent workshops have been guided by Halim Choueiry on “cross-cultural communication”, Sophie Thomas of Thomas.Matthews on “global warming”, Kevin Slavin of Area/code on “territory”.
Projects and authors from this department have received numerous international awards and have been featured by major world press. The work has been exhibited at the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, the National Museum of Arts and Traditions in Rome, Vivid Gallery in Rotterdam, Ginza Graphic Gallery in Tokyo, DDD Gallery in Osaka, ZeroOne Design Center in Seoul. Through the exhibition “Fabrica: Les Yeux Ouverts” it was presented at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2006, La Triennale di Milano and the Shanghai Art Museum in 2007, and at the Shiodomeitalia in Tokyo in 2008.
Social concern
Never in humanity’s history has our planet been in such delicate environmental and social conditions. Visual communication has enormous public influence, great social responsibility and extraordinary potential for collective improvement. Members of this department become important social catalysts, dedicating the findings of their creativity to humanity’s physical, mental and relational environments.
Universal messages and language
Projects and studies are dedicated to priority messages for the global public, not for elitist fringes, thus communication through image-based universal language is fostered. Central interest goes towards developing ideas for humanity, not design for designers.
Discovery
Intense and constant endeavor for speculation, experimentation and discussion are fundamental for discovery, which is the everyday goal. Members of the department must be sensitive to environmental, social and cultural shifts that can spark research paths, but also have high interest for evolving aesthetical languages and new technologies.
Fabrica becomes Advisor for World Health Organization
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2008
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