About This Book
In the early 1960s Bruno Munari published a pair of slim visual case studies on elementary form — The Circle and The Square — returning a decade later to complete the sequence with The Triangle. This volume gathers all three into a single object, which is where they have always belonged.
Munari's method is deceptively plain: he simply accumulates instances. A circle from ancient Greece sits near a Buckminster Fuller dome; an Egyptian square gives way to Le Corbusier; Aalto appears alongside anonymous vernacular construction. What emerges from the accumulation is an argument about how form carries meaning — the circle tending toward the divine and the continuous, the square toward enclosure and safety, the triangle toward connection and structural resolution. Nothing is laboured. The reader is trusted to see it.
Key Features
- Three landmark Munari titles — The Circle, The Square and The Triangle — collected in one volume
- Square 15 x 15 cm format, in keeping with the original Corraini editions
- Examples drawn from ancient Greece and Egypt through to Fuller, Le Corbusier and Aalto
What You'll Discover
- How Munari builds an argument through juxtaposition and sequence rather than exposition
- The symbolic associations each shape has accumulated across cultures and centuries
- The functional consequences of elementary geometry in structure, typography and product design
- Why these books remain a touchstone for designers half a century after publication
About the Author
Bruno Munari (1907–1998) was an Italian artist, designer and educator whose work moved freely between graphic design, product design, children's books and visual research. His writing on form and method has had a lasting influence on design education internationally.
Specifications
- Format: not stated by the publisher
- Dimensions: 150 x 150 mm
- Pages: 288
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9791254932001
- Publisher: Corraini Edizioni
- Publication Date: 2026
Perfect For
Graphic designers, design educators and students, and anyone building a working library on visual form and Italian design history.