Monguzzi was born in Mendrisio, in the Ticino region of Switzerland, in 1941. He studied in Geneva and London, spent part of his early career in at the studio of Antonio Boggeri, in Milan. The inspiration of the experimental and visually-daring work of the avant garde designers Herbert Bayer, El Lissitsky, Jan Tschichold, Piet Zwart, Paul Schuitema, Ladislav Sutnar, Theo van Doesburg, and Kirill Zdanevich were vital to the development of Monguzzi’s own typographic applications and designs for a dynamic graphic language. In 1965, he moved to Montreal in order to design nine pavilions for Expo 1967. In his designs for the pavilions, Monguzzi applied ideas about three-dimensional structure and perception as a way to meet the challenges of both creating universal forms of communication and contextualized environments for an international audience.
In 1968, he returned to Milan, where he established his own design studio. In 1971, he received the Bodoni Prize for his contributions to Italian graphic design. That same year, he relocated to Lugano, Switzerland, when he joined the faculty of the Lugano School of Design to teach courses in the psychology of perception and typographic design. From 1986 to 1991, Monguzzi served as art consultant to the architecture and design magazine Abitare, published in Milan. Monguzzi’s work on the graphic identity and visual communications program for the Musée de Orsay in Paris (1986) led to his work for the Museo Cantonale d’Arte. Monguzzi’s work on visual communication materials for the Museo Cantonale d’Arte continued into the first years of the 21st century, and is regarded as among the chief achievements of his career.
