“Non c’è il blu senza il giallo e senza l’arancione”

"There is no blue without yellow and orange" (Vincent Van Gogh) Amongst the different applications of the "graphical means" and the way they are used in artistic practice, there exists a fundamental difference: first, design has a purely structural function and it communicates the "meaning" of thoughts, secondly it expresses an expressive meaning... it is the expression and aesthetic manifestation of a concept. The opposite behavior is also true: towards a codification and standardization of a sign on one hand and towards its continuous renewal on the other. The term "design" derives from the Latin word "designare", which means "to indicate", "to signal". Since the first graphical expressions, design has experienced different characteristics depending on the destination and use for which it was intended: interesting examples can be found in the numerous collections of the representations of the landscape, whether pictorial or purely graphical, which compose a complete picture of the thousand sides of design. In its most simple form, design is used to trace a line meant to define a figure, a plant, a contour; in its most complex form, it can highlight all the aspects that characterize a plant: its volume, composition, three-dimensional aspect and movement in order to achieve a "work of art". However, design represents an essential moment of the creative process. As stated by P. Klee, visual arts should not simply "portray that which is visible", it should firstly "make things visible". Design and the entirety of its richness does not become a sufficient image of realty, as a mark lacks reality's body, soul and power of expression. What can really make the representation "real"? What can materialize the atmospheric conditions that cannot be touched? How and through what process can the temporal variations of our urban landscapes be transmitted? "Color" is the key to follow; it is a concrete answer to that which design lacks. As stated by Paul Cézanne "design and color are not at all distinguished". As one continues to paint, he is designing. The more harmonious a color becomes, the more precise the design. Design and color blend in an inseparable relationship, both poetically and representatively, thus becoming a unique expression. Nature provides us with a countless amount of chromatic stimulations: the world of vegetation, the animal kingdom and mineralogy (that set of elements we call landscape). There is one phenomenon that is above all colored items: an elaboration and combination of colors, a purely chromatic abstraction... a rainbow. Scientists and others, such as Goethe, Philip Otto Runge, whose definition of a chromatic sphere was published in 1810, Delacroix and Kandinsky found themselves working around the definition of the chromatic scale of a rainbow. The Latin word "color" indicates a material that covers and qualifies, a quality of light, a sensation felt by the eyes. Color has a grammar of its own to define structure. Designing and controlling the use of color means having to face a theme of great interest and complexity; a theme whose objective and subjective contributions are in direct connection as they depend upon each other. Intense color, as an element of attraction, expansion, unity, motion and spatial rhythm certainly represents a moment of reflection and study in the contemporary world, just like in the history of art. However, one must not forget that - as supported by Jorrit Tornquist - "color is a sensation" and as such, it provokes emotions....