The Italian Smart Office : The Story of Estel

This book takes the reader through Estel s history from the future to the past, working backward in five major phases of the company s progress. These phases are related through various illustrations, best called dioramas, covering double spreads that fold out, making four full-size pages. Especially created for the book by Pierluigi Longo, these dioramas emerge like modern-day frescoes in which the leading figures of the business world can be observed, along with the production panorama and market environment around them. They represent a sort of visualized concept that not only illustrates and tracks a path through the book, but also lends it concept and structure. The texts that follow each theme-diorama pivot successively on the company philosophy, the protagonists, the products, and a brief text classifying the furniture-manufacturing sector itself. Hence, the tale unfolds on two fronts simultaneously, interweaving the company s history with the ongoing developments in the sector and in methods of production.