During the darkest moment of the Pandemic I remember I spent many days in my studio (alone, obviously) thinking of a concrete way in which I too could give my contribution to essential workers.
I knew I wanted to organise some sort of fundraiser and I also knew there would be a poster involved. But my intuitions, at least at first, stopped there.
Then I thought about music, the same music that keeps me company me every day in the studio and that even in difficult moments helps me to be more clear-headed.
I thought about music and then I thought about rock music.
Typography has always been rock: any project I would have thrown myself into would have to pay homage in some way to the rock soul of artisanal typography.
There it is! At that point everything seemed clear to me: I had to involve Negrita.
I believe that much of my spirit of a rock’n’roll typographer from the 1500s lies in their lyrics and their riffs. So, when I proposed them the idea, it was accepted without batting an eyelid. One can also recognise real rock stars in these little details. So off I go with typefaces to select, shapes to compose, rollers and colour to bring out in the open. This isn’t Hollywood. But in the 40 squared meters of my atelier I can find the brightest stars I have ever seen in my life. One in particular, real, wooden, half broken, recovered from an old print shop, managed to find a prominent role in this incredibly special project.
NEGRITA AND TYPOGRAPHY
I met Negrita in 2019, after a concert in Castiglioncello (LI).
Basically, get into this, I met them in the same place and – with a RATHER SEISMIC burst of creativity – I pretended to be a waitress and improvised, ending up serving a tray full of various coffees and liqueurs at their table.
Obviously I spilled everything on the shirts of the various members of the band (you knew this would have happened, right?),
but at least this tomfoolery served a purpose: it started a beautiful friendship.
“So, since you are CLEARLY not a waitress, what do you do for a living?” they asked me.
“I’m a typographer”.
…But if I have to be honest, I didn’t imagine that this project would have been such a success! At the beginning I had decided to keep a few copies for my archive but then the word of mouth worked its magic and, in the end, I found myself (joyfully) giving up all the copies, keeping only one for myself.
HOLLYWOOD managed to raise 1,301.00 euros for Civil Protection. If this isn’t rock and roll…
Hollywood is a 50×70 cm poster, a tribute to the band and the song of the same name, printed with movable wood and lead type.
