Design has always been a princely ambassador of Made in Italy. Companies in our country for decades through Design have been transmitting, everywhere in the World, a modern and exciting concept of Italian-ness. Design is also a phenomenon undergoing rapid and profound transformation, which sees at the same time its use spreading and the breadth of its functions increasing.

First of all, we said, Design is present in society, the economy and our lives in an increasingly widespread and pervasive way. I wrote in my essay “Il Design Crisalide," "Design today is everywhere. Almost a background noise in companies, an under-skin sensation on the streets, a basic color in our lives; almost, even, an idea of society."

Riccardo Falcinelli, far more authoritatively, states, "In the contemporary world, design is everywhere: it can be used, inhabited, enjoyed, exploited, wasted, destroyed, recycled; but above all, design can be seen."

We could say, adopting Francesco Trabucco's learned irony, that Design is good everywhere: "Design is like salt: taken in the right dose, it gives flavor and meaning to things, makes them pleasant and desirable. Just like salt, a pinch of design is good almost everywhere, which explains why design is so widespread, indeed pervasive and transversal: design of objects and the machines to produce those objects, design of relationships and communications, design of environments and interactions, design of strategies and services."

Here, therefore, we now speak of Product Design, Systems Design, Process Design, Communication Design, Design Thinking, Social Design, Brand Design, Web Design, etc.etc. Design, moreover, is seeing a strong broadening of its scope, a multiplication of its functions.

Of course, Design continues to concern the Shape of products, but it is also increasingly extending its influence on their Functioning and the Meanings they convey to consumers.

We can say, using the fine words of Walter De Silva, that "Design is a cultural model in constant evolution. It develops analog and digital, aesthetic and poetic systems. It defines business strategies and is at the center of decisions. It makes products less ambiguous by giving added and repeated value over time, for mutual benefit between citizen/user and business/country."

The new complexity of today's functions of Design was brilliantly captured by Alberto Bassi, according to whom, "Today, the role of design is confirmed as the synthesis of an overall, collective global path of care for people and the world. Which also means trying to understand how and why to design, produce, communicate, distribute and manage at the end of the life cycle objects, systems and services."

ADI - Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (Association for Industrial Design) states that "design is a system that connects production with users by dealing with research, innovation and engineering, in order to give functionality, social value and cultural meaning to goods and services distributed in the market."

Design in the Contemporary, in short, is certainly about Aesthetics, but it also touches on Technology, Communication, and Semiotics.

This article inaugurates a new column, entitled "Italian Design." In "Italian Design" we will report, share, and comment on interesting and significant cases of Design of our time.

On the one hand, we will consider the more traditional applications of Design; on the other hand, we will explore the more advanced and innovative frontiers of Design.

Understanding Design, given its strong pervasiveness in every field of society and the unprecedented breadth of functions performed in today's reality, is of extraordinary importance.

Today more than ever dealing with Design, as Francesco Trabucco says, is equivalent to "confronting history," because-to quote Deyan Sudjic-"design is the language a society uses to create objects that reflect its purposes and values."

Exploring Design, then, means investigating the Time we are living in, interpreting its spirit and expressions.

We hope that this journey around Italian Design, which we gladly and proudly propose to the readers of We the Italians, will be a source of useful ideas and stimulating reflections.