Armando Testa 1971. Armando Testa (23 March 1917 – 20 March 1992) was an Italian graphic designer, cartoonist, animator and painter. Born in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, Testa worked as a typesetter until 20 years old."Armando Testa" in ''

Communication Arts ''Communication Arts'' is the largest international trade journal of visual communications.A ...

'', Volume 17, Issue 6. pp. 30-41. He was initiated to artistic career by abstract painter Ezio D'Errico, who was one of his professors at the Vigliardi-Paravia Printing School he attended. After winning a poster design contest in 1937, he started working in the advertising industry, and in 1946 abandoned his work as a printer and opened a graphic studio in his hometown. In 1956, he founded Studio Armando Testa along with his wife, Lidia, and associate Franco de Barberis, and their studio soon became one of Italy's largest agencies, partnering with

Benton & Bowles Benton & Bowles (B&B) was a New York-based advertising agency founded by William Benton and Chester Bowles in 1929. One of the oldest agencies in the United States, and frequently one of the 10 largest, it merged with D'Arcy-MacManus Masius in ...

in the United States and establishing several branches throughout Europe. A key role in Testa's success had television commercials, particularly the ones created for ''

Carosello ''Carosello'' () was an Italian television advertising show broadcast on RAI from 1957 to 1977. The series mainly showed short sketch comedy films using live action, various types of animation, and puppetry. It had an audience of about 20 milli ...

''. In 1959 he created the official logo for

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

. Studio Armando Testa's customers include

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since ...

Lavazza Luigi Lavazza S.p.A. (), shortened and stylized as LAVAZZA, is an Italian manufacturer of coffee products. Founded in Turin in 1895 by Luigi Lavazza, it was initially run from a small grocery store at Via San Tommaso 10. The business (Italian: ...

and

Barilla ''Barilla'' refers to several species of salt-tolerant (halophyte) plants that, until the 19th century, were the primary source of soda ash and hence of sodium carbonate. The word "barilla" was also used directly to refer to the soda ash obtained ...

. In 1965, he was invited to teach and take up the chair at Design and Typographic Composition at Turin Polytechnic. He finished teaching in 1971. He was granted the Gold Medal of the Ministry of Education for his contribution to Visual Art in 1968. Starting from the mid-1980s, Testa focused on painting and on poster design for cultural and social campaigns. In 1985 he was appointed honor laureate in

Fort Collins A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

, Colorado. At the 66th edition of the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

, in September 2009, it was presented out of competition a biographical documentary film, ''Armando Testa - povero ma moderno'' directed by

Pappi Corsicato Pappi Corsicato (born 12 June 1960) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. Selected filmography * '' Libera'' (1993) * ''Black Holes'' (1995) * ''The Vesuvians ''The Vesuvians'' ( it, I vesuviani) is a 1997 Italian anthology film direc ...

. In 1978, the Studio Testa transformed to the Armando Testa Spa. They expanded their operations to Milan and Rome, as well.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Testa, Armando 1917 births 1992 deaths Artists from Turin Italian graphic designers Italian advertising executives 20th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 20th-century Italian male artists

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