BIOGRAPHY
Oliviero Toscani
“If you need to look for ideas, it means you haven’t got any.”
Oliviero Toscani was born in Milan in 1942 and studied photography and graphics at the University of the Arts in Zurich from 1961 to 1965.
He is renowned internationally as the creative force behind the most famous press publications and brands in the world; the creator of images which have changed the history of communication. His institutional and corporate campaigns have brought topics of interest and social engagement into the mainstream. Toscani is one of the founders of the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, he has taught visual communication in several universities and written books on communication.
He has won numerous awards such as the Golden Lion four times at the Cannes Film Festival, the Grand Prix d'Affichage twice, the UNESCO Grand Prix, the Creative hero award from Saatchi & Saatchi and numerous awards from Art Directors Clubs around the world. The Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino awarded him the Il Sogno di Piero prize. He received the title of Honorary professor from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and Emeritus professor from the Academy of Perugia. In 2021, he received the “Lorenzo il Magnifico” Lifetime Achievement Award at the XIII Florence Biennale. In 2017, he was awarded honorary degrees by the Academy of Fine Arts of Brescia and the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, and in 2018, by the University of the Arts in Zurich. Oliviero Toscani is an honorary member of the Leonardo Committee and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.
His latest projects include a collaboration with the Italian Red Cross, the Istituto Superiore della Sanità (Italian National Institute of Health), the UN Refugee Agency and a number of campaigns of awareness and social commitment dedicated to road safety, anorexia, violence against women and stray dogs.
After almost six decades of innovation in publishing, advertising, film and television, he has now turned his attention to communication creativity applied to various media, producing editorial projects, books, exhibitions and workshops.
