Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Broke typographical rules
Founded Italian Futurism
Combined words with typography to create a new form of expressive poetry
Speed. Machines. Aggression. War. Change. These were the important elements of life in the twentieth century, according to Italian Futurism founder Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Although better known as a poet, Marinetti brought a new form of expression to this literary art by breaking all the rules of typography — and graphic design still reflects his profound influence.
In 1909, Marinetti published his "Futurist Manifesto" in a French newspaper, calling for a revolution in art, poetry and design. He called for the demolition of traditional means of creating, and urged artists to embrace the speed, mechanical processes, and violence of the industrialized world. He saw war as a method of defeating the past and moving into the future. The married father of three daughters was also a big old sexist, as feminism was among the issues he rallied against.
He published his first book, Zang Tumb Tumb, in 1914. Based on his experiences during the Balkan War of 1912, the title is a graphic representation of the mechanized sounds of gunfire, grenades, and other weapons. It was one of his experiments in "words of freedom," where he broke away from conventional linear writing by using only nouns — no adjectives or verbs. Defying traditional typography, he designed the cover using a mixture of typefaces at varying scales and angles and scrambled around the page. He pioneered expressive typography, giving it a pictoral quality, his words looked the way they sounded.
Marinetti furthered his Futurist theories in all areas like music, dance, film and textiles. He even published Futurist Cookbook, in which he proposed to ban pasta because it made the body sluggish (perhaps he foreshadowed the low-carb diet craze). He also became more political and embraced Facism, even through his support for Italian dictator Benito Mussolini didn't last long.
