Albe Steiner

The career of Milanese graphic designer Albe Steiner was a continual exercise in resisting academic conceptions and refining design to its bare essentials. In 1940, Steiner founded the studio graphica foto with his soon-to-be wife, Lica, in which they pioneered darkroom techniques many eras before digital manipulation, restricting their color use to red, yellow and blue. Alongside the rise of Fascism, and leading up to World War II, Steiner’s graphic work became increasingly political, and is exemplary in conveying the urgency of what he referred to as preventative cultural communication –especially his work in the weekly paper of the Resistance, Il Politecnico. Following the war, Steiner and his wife moved to Mexico, where he designed furniture and worked with Hannes Meyer, the former head of the Bauhaus. Over the course of his career, Steiner has designed for Domus, Agfa and Pirelli, among others. This catalogue collects work from the course of his career.