Horry Huang

After writing and illustrating his first children’s book, Little Blue and Little Yellow (1959), Lionni went on to publish 30 more. In 1961 he settled in Italy, he “home”, where he established to pursue painting and sculpture. In addition to producing Posters for Olivetti’s Lettera 22 Portable typewriter, Lionni oversaw the interior design of showrooms for the company.Interiors such as this one in Chicago display the elegance that is associated with Italian design of the period. An impromptu game Lionni devised for his grandchildren inspired the first of his 30 books for children. He wrote and illustrated this book,published by Ivan Obolensky Inc. of New York, to encourage exploration of colour.Lionni was art director of the prestigious American business magazine Fortune throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s. As well as commissioning graphic designers associated with the current “New York style” of graphic design, he created many covers himself. Here a black background makes the colours of the repeated words “new York” stand out in a way that is reminiscent of the city’s grid-like structure.