Team · Founder & Strategic Director
Massimiliano Mauro
Founder and Strategic Director of Pianeta.Studio. Sustainable design, AI Safety, food systems.
Massimiliano Mauro is the founder and Strategic Director of Pianeta.Studio, an Italian Benefit Corporation operating at the intersection of sustainable design, technology, and social impact. Innovation has been his throughline from the start, with ten years of practice in strategic design, communication, and digital production for organizations working at the border between climate, food, and digital sustainability. He holds a Master’s in Sustainability and a Master’s in Creativity from Talent Garden Milan, and founded Pianeta.Studio as a Benefit Corporation in 2023, writing the commitment to planet-centric design and common benefit into the company’s articles of incorporation. He runs the studio as a nomadic, remote-first practice across Catania, Milan, and Rome, and is the author of proprietary platforms for the Sustainability Web — Pianeta.Green (a digital ecosystem for measurably low-impact websites) and the Atlas Framework (an open ESG evaluation system that maps the Italian sustainability landscape through 80 indicator cards).
Artificial intelligence is increasingly central to how he works, both as a tool and as a matter of governance. Pianeta.Studio has built an operational AI Governance framework applied internally — transparent authorship of AI artifacts, a human owner for every system, explicit autonomy thresholds, a Human-in-the-Loop pattern applied at the filesystem level — and is preparing a public version of the framework as a methodological contribution to the Italian design and communication sector ahead of the EU AI Act coming into full force in August 2026. Mauro participates actively in Via Lattea’s advocacy work on AI Safety in Italy, and in 2025 completed a course at MAXXI in Rome on Accessibility and AI. He has a particular strategic interest in the agri-food sector, which he sees as one of the fields most deeply and unevenly affected by AI in the coming decade, and one Pianeta.Studio is working on concretely through its engagement with agroecology and food systems.
Career
Education and early work (2006–2012)
Mauro trained in Rome at the Facoltà Ludovico Quaroni of La Sapienza, graduating in 2010 in Industrial Design, Interaction Design and Web with a grade of 108/110. Already as a student he worked as a photographer for Getty Images — an early hands-on practice with images as material to be organised, not merely captured. The following year he moved to Milan for a Master’s in Visual Design at the Scuola Politecnica di Design, which he entered as a MIND scholarship recipient: editorial design, typography, digital publishing and web treated as a coherent system. The master’s opened the door to the studio of Italo Lupi, one of the most influential Italian graphic designers of the late twentieth century. From 2011 to 2012 Mauro worked there as a designer, learning that graphic design is never decoration — it is always structure of thought.
Wired Italia 2012–2016
Five years in the editorial team of Wired Italia make up the most formative period of his practice. He joins as iPad Designer at the moment the publishing industry is learning to think in screens — and Wired is at the leading edge of that experiment. He then moves into Data Curator and finally Art Director: three roles that trace a coherent arc from medium to narrative, from raw data to finished page. He works under the creative direction of David Moretti, in a newsroom that over those years produces some of the most recognisable infographics in Italian journalism.
International recognition measures the quality of the work: five SPD (Society of Publication Design, New York) awards between 2012 and 2016 — a Silver Medal for Best App General in 2012, followed by four consecutive Best Infographics awards from 2013 to 2016.
In parallel, already from 2012, Mauro brings his newsroom experience into the classroom: Visiting Professor of Data Storytelling at the Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan (2012–2015), then a tutor at Polimi (2016–2017). Teaching is not a separate activity from practice — the two feed each other throughout the following decade.
MMXX: independent practice 2016–2023
In 2016 he leaves Wired and starts an independent practice — which over time takes the name MMXX. Seven years of plural work: Italian and international clients, varying scales, overlapping disciplines. A few projects that trace the direction of that period:
Hops Beerstrò Trieste (2016) — Complete identity for a Trieste brewery that wants to be a cultural reference point as much as a place to drink. The first fully autonomous brand system after Wired.
Connected Cities 2019 — Visual identity for the European smart cities summit organised by Talent Garden: a system designed to work on paper, screen and physical space simultaneously, with infrastructural data as aesthetic material.
Jo Diaries from Future (2020) — An editorial-digital project experimenting with the format of a diary from the future: a publishable platform built as a living product rather than a static artefact, using speculative narrative to explore climate and technology scenarios.
Jameson GREENer PASSport (2021) — A sustainability brief that asks for a credible, measurable environmental commitment. The answer is an interactive experience that turns impact data into direct visual language: not reporting, verifiable communication.
Kiwi (2021) — A presentation framework for people who need to communicate complexity to heterogeneous stakeholders. Not a template — a structure designed to adapt to content without sacrificing readability.
Vuem (2022) — First experience as co-founder of a digital product. A step beyond pure consultancy, towards direct ownership of the product.
In the same period, a series of projects around data and impact — Riconnessioni, Quantis Membrane, FutureSeed, C40 — consolidates a positioning at the intersection of data visualisation, sustainability and strategic design. Teaching activity grows in parallel: IED Milano (Pianeta.Box, 2019–2024), IED Torino (Information Design, 2019–2023), plus collaborations with Raffles and other institutions.
Pianeta.Studio 2023–today
In 2023 the independent practice becomes a collective entity: Pianeta.Studio is founded as an Italian Benefit Corporation, with the mission of planet-centric design and common benefit written into its articles of incorporation. It is the logical endpoint of a path that has always held together aesthetics, data and impact. From here, the story is the one told in the bio above.
Education
| Institution | Programme | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Talent Garden Milano | Sustainability Management — Master’s | Oct–Dec 2024 |
| Scuola Politecnica di Design, Milan | Master’s in Visual Design (editorial design, typography, web) — MIND scholarship | Oct 2010–Dec 2011 |
| La Sapienza, Facoltà Ludovico Quaroni, Rome | Bachelor’s — Industrial Design / Interaction Design / Web — 108/110 | Oct 2006–Jul 2010 |
Awards
| Award | Category | Year |
|---|---|---|
| SPD — Society of Publication Design | Best Infographics (Wired Italia) | 2016 |
| SPD — Society of Publication Design | Best Infographics (Wired Italia) | 2015 |
| SPD — Society of Publication Design | Best Infographics (Wired Italia) | 2014 |
| SPD — Society of Publication Design | Best Infographics (Wired Italia) | 2013 |
| SPD — Society of Publication Design | Silver Medal Best App General (Wired Italia) | 2012 |
| MIND Scholarship | Master’s in Visual Design — SPD Milano | 2010 |
Projects
Full project list from the MMXX practice (2016 onwards), plus selected work from the Wired period and earlier. Order follows the CV.
| Project | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Milano Montagna | Clime and Mountain Events | 2024 |
| BoscoColto | Architecture Summer Campus | 2024 |
| BC3 Klab | Web Redesign | 2024 |
| BC3 Aries | Web Redesign | 2024 |
| IP-Gruppo API | PM Lead — Product Launch | 2024 |
| BC3 Corporate Design | Corporate Design | 2023 |
| BC3 Long form storytelling | Storytelling | 2023 |
| BC3 Annual Report 2022 | Annual Report | 2023 |
| BC3 Children’s Book | Editorial | 2023 |
| BC3 Aries & k.LAB Website | Web Design | 2023 |
| BC3 Imagine Adaptation Website | Web Design | 2023 |
| ISTAT Beautiful Number Challenge | Data Viz | 2023 |
| IED Torino Thesis Teacher | Teaching | 2023 |
| IED Milano Design System Class | Teaching | 2022–2023 |
| Sign | Product Ideation | 2023 |
| Ai Landing | Product Ideation | 2023 |
| Roces | E-commerce + Editorial | 2023 |
| The Spiritual Machine | UX/UI | 2022 |
| Aries Infographics | Infographics | 2022 |
| Sketchin | Associate Designer | 2022 |
| Uniting | Design Ops Management | 2022 |
| Vuem | Founder / App | 2022 |
| Raffles | Teacher — Data Storytelling | 2022 |
| Il Libero Professionista | Editorial / Data Viz | 2022 |
| Comunità di Sant’Egidio | UX/UI | 2022 |
| Condé Nast | Infographics | 2022 |
| Transparency | UX/UI | 2022 |
| C40 | UX/UI | 2022 |
| Nursind | UX/UI | 2022 |
| Quantis Membrane | Data Storytelling | 2022 |
| FutureSeed | Data Storytelling | 2022 |
| IED Torino Thesis Teacher — Il Sole 24 Ore | Teaching | 2021 |
| Compagnie di San Paolo | Infographics | 2021 |
| Morsy | E-Store | 2021 |
| Jo Issue 1 | Editorial Design | 2021 |
| Jameson | Digital Experience | 2021 |
| PolyPiù | SEO Analytics | 2021 |
| Kiwi | Presentation Kit | 2021 |
| IED Torino Thesis Teacher | Teaching | 2020 |
| Jo Diaries from future | Editorial Design | 2020 |
| Alfa Parf | Brand | 2020 |
| Bn1 | Video Editing | 2020 |
| Studio Corte | Brand Design | 2020 |
| ODD Garden | E-commerce | 2020 |
| GrazIA | Competition | 2020 |
| Scalvedi | Brand Identity | 2020 |
| Riconnessioni | Data Storytelling | 2020 |
| L’Altro Bar | Brand Design | 2020 |
| Culture Palestre | Brand Design | 2020 |
| Petra | Corporate Design | 2020 |
| Ariadne | UX/UI Design System | 2020 |
| UniVerona | UI | 2019 |
| Luxottica Uni | UI | 2019 |
| SoundReef | Social Media Curation | 2019 |
| Solo In Cartolina | Data Workshop | 2019 |
| Elio | UI | 2019 |
| Software Sicuro | Art Direction | 2019 |
| Sisal | UX/UI | 2019 |
| TAG Connected Cities 2019 | Corporate Design | 2019 |
| Intranet Italia Day | Brand Design | 2019 |
| Intranet Italia Champions | Web Design | 2018 |
| Buzzi | UI | 2018 |
| Shallo | Corporate Design | 2018 |
| Odoo | UI | 2018 |
| Berenato | Brand Identity | 2018 |
| Pegaso | UI | 2017 |
| Buzzoole | UI | 2017 |
| Newslist | UI | 2017 |
| Luxottica SOD | UI — Information Design BI | 2017 |
| Lucy | UI | 2017 |
| Luxottica | Consultancy | 2017 |
| Red Point | UI | 2017 |
| Polimi | Tutor — Product/Service Design | 2017 |
| Scuola Politecnica Design | Information Design Class | 2016 |
| Avolio Milano | Web Design | 2016 |
| Hops Beerstrò Trieste | Brand Identity — Social Curation | 2016 |
| La Repubblica | Infographics | 2016 |
| Polimi | Tutor | 2016 |
| Primitia | Brand Design | 2015 |
| Scuola Politecnica Design | Data Storytelling Class | 2015 |
| Wired DE | Infographics | 2015 |
| CentoEventi | Marketing Platform | 2015 |
| Ab Inbev | Motion Design / Illustration | 2015 |
| Scuola Politecnica Design | Cartography for Storytelling Class | 2014 |
| Prada | Digital Catalog | 2014 |
| Scuola Politecnica Design | Workshop Open Data | 2014 |
| Wired | Data Curator | 2013 |
| Wired | Information Design / Art Director | 2012 |
| Italo Lupi Studio | Junior Designer | 2011 |
| Dude Mag | Editorial / Digital Publishing | 2010 |
| Getty Images | Photographer | 2009 |