Generative Design: between Textiles and Digital Printing is a module of the CVAD Master's – First-level Master's degree in Visual Communication and Art Direction that weaves together creative coding, data visualisation and creative direction to develop visual systems that become material outputs. It is curated by Riccardo Mantelli and Emilio Leo in partnership with Lanificio Leo and Rubbettino Print, as part of the NIMI project – La Nuova Intelligenza del Made in Italy.
In the online phase, we start by generating patterns with p5.js and then move on to actual prototyping during the in-person workshop, using the electronic knitting machines of Lanificio Leo, Calabria's oldest textile mill.
Each of the projects developed by the Master's students in the 2024–2025 Academic Year it deals with sensitive themes, such as overtourism or migration, or interpretative concepts of local identity, starting from information and datasets that are analysed and translated into images, transforming their complexity into patterns, textures and surfaces. The final prints are therefore not simple graphics, but narrative devices that recount socio-cultural or contemporary phenomena.
Within the moduleor were they pThey also designed the packaging and the web interfaces dedicated to the various products, building a coherent and complete communicative ecosystem.
The textile prototypes produced by the wool mill were then exhibited at the NIMI Travel Exhibition.
The projects
CITY INVADERS
A project by Emanuela Alonzo, Matteo Bonaccorso, Ilaria Carcano, Nicolò De Donno, Maria Luisa De Nola and Federica Vitale
HYDRIA
A project by Fabio Damiani, Dania Menafra, Giusy Micali, Giulia Perrone and Simone Serrentino
MELTED MEMORIES
Project by Alexis Ciampechini, Ripalta Ciccone, Paolo Pasquale D’Amato, Giorgio Marinelli and Renata Rodriguez
I would like
Project by Enrico Manno, Andrea Pelliccioni, Diletta Ronconi and Manlio Sapienza
WARD THE SPACE
A project by Alessandro Didio, Isabella Fazio, Violante Salvatici and Andrea Torcasio
Photo credits: Andrea Torcasio
Participants: Emanuela Alonzo, Matteo Bonaccorso, Irene Caprioli, Ilaria Carcano, Alexis Ciampechini, Ripalta Ciccone, Paolo Pasquale D’Amato, Fabio Damiani, Alessandro Didio, Nicolò De Donno, Maria Luisa De Nola, Isabella Fazio, Yuliya Humenchuk, Regina Iaquinandi, Giorgio Marinelli, Dania Menafra, Enrico Manno, Giusy Micali, Andrea Pelliccioni, Giulia Perrone, Renata Rodriguez, Diletta Ronconi, Denise Russo, Violante Salvatici, Manlio Sapienza, Simone Serrentino, Andrea Torcasio, Federica Vitale.
The Generative Design course for the 2024–2025 academic year was organised by the Abadir Academy as part of the NIMI Project – The New Intelligence of Made in Italy, funded by the European Union Next Generation EU (NGEU) for the internationalisation of AFAM Higher Education Institutes under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) MISSION 4, COMPONENT 1, INVESTMENT 3.4, SUB-INVESTMENT T5. CUP: H37G24000080001.
Teachers
