Fantasy is the first English translation of Bruno Munari's 1977 Italian treatise — a foundational text on the distinctions between fantasy, imagination, invention, and creativity that has remained inaccessible to English-speaking readers for nearly five decades.
About This Book
Munari opens with a deceptively simple question: what separates fantasy from imagination, and invention from creativity? His answer unfolds through a theory of creative process developed in dialogue with the Reggio Emilia approach to self-directed education and the developmental psychology of Jean Piaget. The book traces Munari's design thinking across two registers — professional client work and the teaching of design principles to children — arguing that play and rigorous making are not opposites but continuous. New contextual annotations by Munari scholar and design historian Jeffrey Schnapp frame the original text, illuminating its innovations for contemporary designers, educators, and anyone interested in how creative cognition actually operates.
Key Features
- 240 pages of facsimile-reprinted original text with new scholarly annotations throughout
- Contextual annotations by Jeffrey Schnapp, Munari scholar and design historian
- Published by Inventory Press, ISBN 9781941753705
What You'll Discover
- Munari's precise taxonomy distinguishing fantasy, imagination, invention, and creativity — four concepts routinely conflated in design discourse
- How the Reggio Emilia educational approach and Piaget's genetic epistemology shaped Munari's understanding of creative development
- The relationship between teaching children design principles and the deeper logic of professional creative practice
- How Schnapp's microinterventions contextualise Munari's arguments within the history of Modernism, Futurism, and Concrete art
About the Author
Bruno Munari (1907–98) was an Italian artist, designer, and inventor whose practice spanned painting, sculpture, film, industrial design, graphic design, literature, and poetry. He made foundational contributions to Modernism, Futurism, and Concrete art, and conducted sustained research into games, tactile learning, kinesthetic learning, and didactic method. Jeffrey Schnapp is a Munari scholar and design historian who provided the new contextual annotations accompanying this translation.
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 240
- Dimensions: [Details available upon request]
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781941753705
- Publisher: Inventory Press
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Designers, architects, and educators with an interest in creative theory; students of design history; readers drawn to the intersections of pedagogy, cognition, and making.