Scuola Politecnica di Design SPD

Scuola Politecnica di Design SPD

A creative workshop for discovering, understanding and exchanging ideas and experiences.
The very first school in Italy for design and communication, founded in 1954.

Since 1954 this school has worked with Italian design, seen it grow and develop into what we know it as today. The artist Nino di Salvatore set up SPD in 1954. As a painter and sculpturer, he has captivated and brought together artists, designers, professionals and students from across five different continents. Bruno Munari, Gio Ponti, Max Huber, Pino Tovaglia, Isao Hosoe have all taught at SPD. Guests at the school include Achille Castiglioni, Rodolfo Bonetto, Roberto Sambonet, Donald Norman and Tomato. Today, working alongside our young designers, experimenting with real projects and designs, training new talent are Piero Lissoni, Stefano Giovannoni, Denis Santachiara, Andrea Branzi.

There are always things that you can discover, rethink, transform. In Milan, the capital of design, SPD organises annual Master’s courses. With over 50 years of experience in the field, these courses range from product design to interior design, from communication to multimedia. Didactics is personalised, in a human-sized environment promoting easy contact with the faculty and the staff.

The study programs have a strong orientation towards real projects, keeping in close contact with companies and professionals.

Awards

An outstanding past has been extremely rewarding with exceptional recognition of the school: Boasting the exhibition at the Biennale di Venezia in 1986, at the Carrousel du Louvre and at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris; the ‘Medaglia d’Oro’ at the tenth Triennale in Milan and even the ‘Compasso d’Oro’ awarded by the ADI -Associazione Disegno Industriale in 1994; not to mention the honour of being granted twice the SMAU prize for Industrial Design