Italo Lupi, an architect and art director who was born in Cagliari in 1934, passed away at his home in Milan at the age of 89. Lupi has signed an innumerable number of projects characterized by grace and elegance: for the strength of the compositions, for the shrewd use of lettering and illustration, for the refined way in which he used color, which was perhaps the defining characteristic of his approach to work and even to life. His entire universe has moved within art historical quotations and a dimension resulting from his formation between the Renaissance and American pop art. Lupi, one of the protagonists of Italian graphics, was one of the few to introduce the public to the visions of North American and British visual culture: he acted as a bridge between cultures, while maintaining his vision as an author steeped in Italian tradition. He introduced his countrymen to the magic of Saul Steinberg's drawings, and in Aspen, in 1989, he became a symbolic Italian ambassador at a design conference by creating The Italian Manifesto, a collection of banners as if to affirm quietly, but forcefully, a cultural identity that comes from afar. He is the artist behind the logos for Miu Miu, Fiorucci (with Raphael-inspired angels), the Triennale, Poldi Pezzoli, and, most recently, the Adi Design Museum - Only a month ago, Lupi called a historic collaborator for a symbolic passing of the baton: he entrusted her with the care of the image of Palazzo Butera in Palermo, which he himself was following. He realized he no longer had the strength to continue the work.