Moleskine ® - Legendary notebook - The Hand of the Designer

Design in the making
FAI and Moleskine® present the Hand of the Designer, a fund-raising project celebrating the persisting power of free hand sketching in the AutoCAD® era.

SUMMARY: The Italian National Trust and Moleskine® present a new book and an exhibition, displaying original sketches of 150 international designers. The book is bound in the classical Moleskine notebook layout, A4, but with white cover. Worldwide preview will be during Milan's Salone del Mobile, April 14-19, 2010. Revenues from the initiative will support the Italian National Trust maintenance activity for modernist architecture masterpiece Villa Necchi Campiglio, Milan.

Milan, Italy - Moleskine, the legendary manufacturer of paper tools for creativity, introduces "The Hand of the Designer", a collection of 462 reproductions of hand made sketches by 150 internationally recognized designers, including Bouroullec Brothers, Michael Graves, Hella Jongerius, Karim Rashid, and many others.

"The Hand of the Designer" is an intimate look into the creative process of the designer, and a celebration of the everlasting power of free hand sketching even in the AutoCAD® era. The general layout has the familiar look of a Moleskine notebook, which indicates a visual connection to the sketchbooks often adopted by designers. The dimensions are those of the A4 Folio collection, with all the iconic features of the Moleskine brand: hard rounded corner cover, elastic band, ribbon place marker. The only (and most noticeable change): the cover is white. "The Hand of the Designer" is packaged with a 120-page Moleskine Folio blank drawing book for notes and free hand sketching.

The publication will be released in conjunction with a special exhibition featuring all the original sketches at Villa Necchi Campiglio and Triennale Bovisa, during the 2010 Salone del Mobile Furniture Fair in Milan, Italy, April 14-19, 2010. Following the exhibition, the original works will be auctioned by Sotheby's Milan at Villa Necchi Campiglio on May 13, 2010, The initiative is organized by and will benefit FAI Fondo Ambiente Italiano (the Italian National Trust). Partners include Alterstudio, in collaboration with La Triennale di Milano, Galleria Antonia Jannone and Sotheby's, with Moleskine as the publishing partner. Curators are Francesca Serrazanetti and Matteo Schubert, together with design expert Doia Giovanola.

 "The Hand of the Designer" follows the successful publication of Moleskine's "The Hand of the Architect," first published in 2009 and now in its fourth reprint distributed worldwide. Like its predecessor, "The Hand of the Designer" features an impressive array of original designs and never-before-seen works donated by designers Alberto Meda, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Antonio Citterio, Massimiliano e Doriana Fuksas, Michael Graves, Jaime Hayon, James Irvine, Hella Jongerius, Piero Lissoni, Ross Lovegrove, Alessandro Mendini, Karim Rashid, and Oscar Tusquets, among many others. The book will also include previously unreleased essays by the curators, Juli Capella, Cristina Morozzi, Enrico Morteo, Vanni Pasca, and Franco Raggi.

Like "The Hand of the Architect," the donated works from "The Hand of the Designer" will benefit FAI ("Fondo Ambiente Italiano" - the Italian National Trust) specifically for the maintenance of Villa Necchi Campiglio, a masterpiece of Rationalist architecture built in 1932. Located in the heart of Milan, Villa Necchi Campiglio was designed by the Milanese architect Piero Portaluppi and donated to FAI in 2001 by Gigina Necchi Campiglio and Nedda Necchi. The Villa hosts an important collection of 20th-century Italian paintings donated by Claudia Gian Ferrari as well as a priceless 18th-century collection of paintings, furniture, miniatures, and precious china. FAI was launched in 1975 by a group of Italian citizens concerned with safeguarding Italy's cultural heritage.

The initiative has also been enhanced by crucial contributions from Artemide, BTicino, Dornbracht and Pirelli, with support from Cosmit, Fondazione Cosmit Eventi and Alessia International, under the patronage of Milan City Council and the ADI - Associazione per il Disegno Industriale, and Abitare magazine.

Available worldwide beginning June 2010 in selected bookshops, design stores, and online at moleskine.com.

Wordwide preview sale during Salone del Mobile Furniture Fair in Milan, Italy, April 14-19 at Villa Necchi Campiglio.

For further information please visit: www.moleskine.com/moleskine_world/special_projects/

"The Hand of The Designer" - publication
Curated by
Francesca Serrazanetti - Matteo Schubert
ISBN 13: 978-88-6293-531-9
Size (inches): 12" x 8 ½"
Size (cm): 21x29,7
Pages: 362 + 196
Cover: Hard Cover + Cardboard Cover
Cover Colour: White + Black
Format: A4
450 color illustrations
70.00 USD.
59,00 Euros


"The Hand of The Designer" - exibition
Milan, April, 10 - May, 9 - 2010
Villa Necchi Campiglio, via Mozart 14 - Milan
Triennale Bovisa, via Lambruschini 31 - Milan
Action: Sotheby's Milan at
Villa Necchi Campiglio on May 13, 2010

About Moleskine®

Legendary notebooks
Moleskine® is the heir of the legendary notebook used for the past two centuries by artists and thinkers, from Vincent Van Gogh to Pablo Picasso, from Ernest Hemingway to Bruce Chatwin. The anonymous and essential little black notebook, with its unique rounded corners, elastic closure, and expandable inner pocket, was originally produced for more than a century by a small French bookbinder that supplied Parisian stationery shops frequented by the international literary and artistic avant-garde. This trusty, pocket-sized travel companion held their sketches, notes, stories, and ideas before they became famous images or beloved books.

The Moleskine® Notebook
In 1997, a small Milanese publisher brought the legendary notebook back to life, choosing for it this literary name, thus restoring an extraordinary tradition. Following Chatwin's footsteps, Moleskine® begins its journey once again, this time as an indispensable complement to today's mobile technology. Capturing reality on the move, preserving details, impressing the unique aspects of experience upon paper, Moleskine is an accumulator of ideas and emotions, which are then released over time.

About Moleskine srl and Moleskine America, Inc.
The Moleskine brand was born in 1997, reproducing the legendary notebook of artists and thinkers of the past two centuries. Since January 1, 2007, Moleskine is also the name of the company which manufactures and distributes the legendary notebook and its newer descendants. Moleskine srl was born of the experience of Modo&Modo, the small Milanese publishing house which, in 1997, created the Moleskine brand, thus rediscovering and reviving an extraordinary tradition. In the autumn of 2006, Modo&Modo Spa was purchased by SGCapital Europe, now Syntegra Capital, with the aim of fully developing the potential of the Moleskine brand. Moleskine srl is a small creative company in constant growth. Today, Moleskine srl has over 50 employees and a vast network of partners and collaborators, located in Milan, Italy. In May of 2008, its American affiliate, Moleskine America Inc., was founded and is currently stationed in the Meatpacking District of New York, home of artists, designers, and visionaries from around the world.

For Hi Res Images and press contact:
US: Marlene C. Capron, BDE marlene@bdeonline.biz T: 212.353.1383
Kimberly Krueger, BDE kim@bdeonline.biz T: 212.353.1383

Europe: Silvia Trenta, Moleskine srl silvia.trenta@moleskine.com T +39 02434498.1