piero fornasetti could be described as a visionary. he was designer but at the same time an artist, illustrator, printer, graphic designer, craftsman, manufacturer and businessman, whose products were sold in shops and department stores throughout the western world. although a modern designer, he celebrated surface decoration. he challenged formal conventions: neither form no decoration follow function, nor does decoration follow form. he had a keen sense of the life of two dimensional decoration on three-dimensional form. he was influenced by renaissance painting (giotto, piero della francesca) but also by his friends, italian metaphysical painters (sironi, savinio, de chirico) and writers (leo longanesi). much of his furniture was designed by gio ponti and decorated by fornasetti.