Modern design owes a lot to Andrea Branzi, an architect and designer born in 1938 in Florence, who is considered among the leading exponents of Neo-modernism and is also recognized internationally as one of the main authors of the design scene from the 1960s to the present. He graduated in 1966 and has lived and worked in Milan since 1973. From '64 to '74 he was a member of the Archizoom Associati group, the first internationally known avant-garde group, whose projects are now preserved at the Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione of the University of Parma. In contrast, his dissertation and numerous projects are preserved at the George Pompidou Center in Paris, which in September 2017 opened a permanent room dedicated to his work.

In 2018 the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm awarded him the Rolf Schock Prize for Visual Arts. Co-founder of Domus Academy, the first international postgraduate school of design. Author of numerous books on the history and theory of design, he has curated numerous exhibitions in this field in Italy and abroad. In 1994 he was awarded the Compasso d'Oro for lifetime achievement. He passes away on October 9, 2023, at the age of 84, leaving a huge void throughout the design world.