DOT BY DOT

This is definitely my favourite project, the one I enjoyed the most and I worked on with endless effort and enthusiasm. It, actually, started a long time ago, during my exchange programme in Barcelona when some friends of mine and I organized an exhibition around the concept of communication. On that occasion I started to develop a strong interest in linguistics and typography. I did some research on the relationship between written and spoken language and started to write my dissertation on this issue. Additionally I wanted to explore on a purely graphic and visual level the connection between alphabetic and phonetic system and for this reason I started playing around with the shapes of the characters of both alphabets. What is interesting about them is that these two ways to record speech are both the result of human conventions. They are symbols to which we gave meaning, and considering Derrida’s evaluation on written language we can say that they share the same ideographic value. Punctuation marks, fonts and spacing between words have no phonetic connotation and sometimes do not add any extra meaning to the written text but are actually ideographic symbols with embedded meaning. The phonetic alphabet was invented to fill the gaps of the regular alphabet in recording the spoken language. It is, actually, nothing more than a extension of our common alphabet.

With this project I decided to show the purely graphic value of the two considered systems. Using the 26 characters and some of the glyphs available in a sans serif font like Helvetica I tried to produce a brand new version of a phonetic alphabet. It was quite a long process during which I played with alphabetical shapes, cutting and superimposing them one upon another in order to obtain new combinations of phonetic symbols.

Creationism VS Darwinism

The evolution-creation controversy was already something not really unknown to me and, probably due to my scientific and atheist background, I also had already a radically settled opinion on it. What really attracted me to this project was the request that we present the two arguments in an impartial way because as a graphic designer I understand it is quite important to gain a balanced level of objectivity and fairness. I am usually very passionate about my ideas and beliefs and for this reason I decided to put myself in a position that is unusual for me and see how I could manage to self destroy all the prejudices about religion that I had carried with me since I was an adolescent and I am pleased that I could, actually, leave my own opinions behind and treat both positions as an impartial observer. Readers will draw, hopefully, their own conclusions engaging themselves in a reasoning process, ready to challenge their own ideas as much as I had to do in the first place during the research and development stage of the project.

Alice's Adventure in Wonderland

During my second year I chose to do the collaborative elective, that was a project in cooperation with Penguin books. It resulted in being a great opportunity to work on a professional level and experience the spirit of such an amazing company as Penguin. I was able to complete the course successfully gaining one of the highest marks and that gave me the motivation to try to enter for the Penguin award this year. Unfortunately I ran out of time and I could not submit my work, but I kept working on the project with dedication and patience.

This Project has been realised in co-operation with Dani Cánovas, to which I am very grateful!

ISTD project: 100

This brief from the ISTD, was about the interpretation of the number 100. We had to reflect the significance of the number 100 with a design that expressed clear typographic control of the navigation of the information content. When I read the brief for the first time I thought about the 100 canti of the Divina Comedia by Dante Alighieri. I always loved this masterpiece of Italian literature not just for its literary value but also for its perfect structure where each little detail is absolutely the result of a deep accurate research and elaboration. Dante was, no doubt, a Christian but at the same time he believed in a supreme order of the Universe. He was a Pythagorean and mixed this discipline and its fundamental ideas with his religious beliefs. The numerology of the Divina Commedia is quite complex, but can be easily analysed if we relate it to Pythagoras’ teaching. The, almost mystical symbolism of numbers is an essential key to unveil the deep meaning of this wonderful book. And so we come to the number 100 that is a number of extreme perfection and represents the Deity and at the same time, in a metaphysical way, the essence of the Universe.

Snowflake love

Phonemes 2

We had to choose a theme related to Typography and ,using any kind of sources we liked, elaborate a text of 20.000 characters.
We actually didn't have to write this short essay, but we could just copy and paste paragraphs that we though were relevant from our sources.
Once we had the text ready we started thinking about the most suitable way to present its content.
I choose to talk about the relation between language and typography, spoken and written language, and so mainly about the phonetic alphabet.
The book I realized is made of two distinct, but related to each other, parts: the text and the illustrations. It looks like two books bound one next to the other. The first can be open from the right (with the illustrations) and the second one from the left (with the text) ...

Spectrum

The project was called Spectrum, an imaginary gallery that promote new artists and it's not just a physical space but had its extension in the web as well.

First we had to think about the concept behind the gallery, and the relation between its material space and its web space.
Then generate an idea for a viral campaign to promote the gallery and establish an interaction with a possible audience.
At last we were asked to write the brief for its website, draw a rough but understandable map of it and design some pages to illustrate its style and possible organization (above).

Phonemes

Illustration (created using the symbols taken from the phonetic alphabet) for a publication about Typography and Language.

The Shock Doctrine

Project: re-design a book- jacket for "the Shock doctrine" by Naomi Klein.

The book analyzed the way in which dramatic events such as wars, calamities, economical crisis ecc .. are used by governments and corporations to manipulate masses.

The idea is to represent how people (the dots in the front cover) are moved to act by events and media in an apparently chaotic way.
In reality this chaos is the result of an underneath cynical and rational master plan set by the ruling powers.

Unfortunately the pictures are not too good! :(

Use condom

I'm working on a series of images that promote the use of protections.
I believe that taking position against some of our common social myths (among them: catholic dogmas and naive superficiality - "it's not gonna happen to me"-) is necessary nowadays.
We need to destroy all this myths that are merely based on ignorance and superstitious believes.
There's no superheroes and there's no mystical supernatural power that can protect us from HIV. It's our duty to take care of our society and all its member, especially the ones that cannot do it on their own (Africa is a good example I guess ... - by the way really disappointing the public reaction to the speech taken by the Pope during his last visit there!- )

The use of condoms is not accepted by a religion that prefer, in my opinion, let people die (and also give birth to babies that are going to face the same destiny) rather than help who is dramatically in need of help. The Vatican claims that abstaining from sex is the solution.
Virgin Mary is a symbol of love and pity ... she got pregnant by god's will. She's never had sex.
We can believe this ancient tale or not, however in both cases we all must realized that has nothing to do with reality. I think there are issue that can be faced only going back down to earth, with common sense and effective solutions.