Building Brands Like Editorial Systems

Today, much of branding is organised around visibility. Companies produce content at an unprecedented pace, distributing messages across increasingly fragmented channels in an attempt to remain present within public attention. Yet many of the organisations that left the deepest mark on visual culture did not build their identity through campaigns. They built it through editorial systems. Long before the contemporary vocabulary of branding existed, a number of Italian companies had already understood that communication could function as cultural infrastructure rather than promotion. During the decades following the Second World War, as the country experienced rapid industrial growth, organisations began investing in publications that often resembled literary and cultural journals more than corporate magazines. The phenomenon expanded quickly. By the late 1950s dozens of company publications were circulating throughout Italy, becoming a parallel publishing ecosystem that developed alongside industrial modernisation itself. What distinguished the Italian experience from similar initiatives in Britain or the United States was not simply the number of publications but the people entrusted to produce them. Instead of assigning editorial responsibility exclusively to journalists or technicians, companies frequently involved poets, writers, artists, architects and designers. The result was an environment where industrial culture and intellectual culture began to overlap.

Publishing as Research

One of the most significant examples emerged at Pirelli in 1948. Under the initiative of managing director Giuseppe Luraghi, the company launched a publication whose artistic direction was entrusted to Leonardo Sinisgalli. Sinisgalli occupied a unique position within post-war Italian culture. Trained in engineering but active as a poet and intellectual, he moved comfortably between scientific thinking and literary research. His appointment revealed an ambition that extended far beyond conventional corporate communication. Working directly within the company rather than as an external consultant, Sinisgalli collaborated closely with engineers, administrators and technicians while simultaneously developing editorial and cultural projects. His objective was to overcome what he described as a barrier of misunderstanding between the technical world and the humanistic one. Through the magazine, industrial production was no longer presented merely as an economic activity. It became material for cultural reflection. Over time the publication evolved into a platform where photography, typography, literature and design could coexist. Contributions came from photographers such as Ugo Mulas, while graphic experimentation increasingly became part of its editorial identity. The magazine demonstrated that communication could become a place where culture was produced rather than simply transmitted.

A similar transformation occurred within Italsider. Originally founded as Cornigliano in 1957 and later becoming Rivista Italsider following the merger with Ilva in 1960, the publication emerged from a very different context. Under the artistic direction of Eugenio Carmi, communication became a tool for rebuilding relationships between the company and the surrounding social environment after years of tension and conflict. What began as an internal communication channel gradually opened itself to architecture, contemporary art and experimental writing. Collaborations eventually involved figures such as Gillo Dorfles and Umberto Eco. Once again, the significance of the project lay not in its promotional function but in its ability to position a company within a wider cultural conversation. The magazine was treated as part of the organisation's intellectual life. Through publishing, the company participated in debates that extended far beyond the industrial sector itself.

Culture Before Communication

Perhaps the most radical example arrived in 1960 with Imago, the house organ of Bassoli Fotoincisioni directed by Michele Provinciali. Unlike most publications of the period, Imago functioned almost entirely as a laboratory for experimentation. Provinciali imposed very few constraints upon contributors beyond the physical dimensions of the publication itself. Within those limits designers and artists were encouraged to explore new possibilities. The result was a publication composed of folded sheets, posters, unusual bindings and printed objects that challenged conventional reading experiences. Contributors included Bruno Munari, Pino Tovaglia and Fulvio Bianconi among others. Imago became evidence that editorial design could itself become a research practice. The publication was not communicating a product. It was demonstrating a way of thinking.

What these projects reveal is that some of the most enduring identities in history were constructed less like brands and more like publishing houses. Their strength did not derive from repetition alone. It emerged from the continuous production of meaningful cultural artefacts connected by a shared editorial vision. Long before the arrival of content strategies, brand narratives and digital ecosystems, these organisations had already understood that identity grows through accumulation. A publication becomes influential because each issue adds another layer to a larger discourse. The same principle applies to brands. The organisations that continue to be remembered decades later are rarely those that communicated the most. They are often those that created environments capable of generating culture around themselves. Their magazines did not simply document industrial modernity. They actively participated in defining it.

Sources & Further Reading

• Adriano Olivetti, L'Ordine Politico delle Comunità (1945)

• Leonardo Sinisgalli, Civiltà delle Macchine (1953–1979)

• Pirelli, Rivista d'Informazione e di Tecnica (1948–1972)

• Eugenio Carmi, Rivista Italsider (1960s)

• Umberto Eco, writings for Rivista Italsider

• Michele Provinciali, Imago (1960–1967)

• Jeffrey Schnapp, Olivetti Builds

• Giorgio Camuffo, Storia della Grafica in Italia