Bassi studied at the Accademia di Belle Arte in Brera and taught for some years at the Instituto d’Arte, Cantù. From 1949 he worked as a graphic designer with Olivetti, later becoming an art director at one of Olivetti’s design and advertising studios. Franco Bassi was art director for Weisscredit in Lugano and worked on publications for the municipality of Rome. He took part in international expositions of abstract and concrete art in Milan, Rimini, Paris, Madrid, London, Tokyo and also in a group exhibition of six Italian graphic designers in Barcelona. His work has won many awards, including the Premio Mondadori, the Trofeo d’Oro from the newspaper Il Giorno, and a gold medal at BIO 5 in Ljubljana for his Olivetti 600 campaign.