Arcoscenico is the final exhibition of the first phase of Messinscèna, a two-year mapping project of the Roman art scene, with the aim of analysing the art research in the capital. The event also acts as a sounding board of the Roman art scene in the national context, as well as a moment of theoretical confrontation among the artists.

Messinscèna is a one-shot exhibition format. Each appointment was dedicated to a different artist, who exhibited their own work and a written theoretical statement for five hours. The artists were invited to install their projects in a space that is always identical and to identify a particular form of relationship with the user.

During the staging, the public was asked to respect the rules of use decided by the artist and not to produce photographic material. During the project, only the video interviews with the artists and the public were disseminated, the works were seen/experienced only by those present. In two years, ten exhibitions, ten interviews with the artists and over 150 interviews with the public were produced.

The catalog was conceived and realised in two editions by Numero Cromatico. The idea was to narrate the contemporary art scene in the capital by mapping some of the most interesting and relevant research. The contributors to the catalog are Numero Cromatico, Dionigi Mattia Gagliardi, Salvatore Gaetano Chiarella, Manuel Focareta. The publication measures 18×28 cm and contains 48 pages, in Italian and English. It was Risograph printed on Favini recycled paper.

The VIVE (Vittoriano e Palazzo Venezia) is a national museum institute in Rome, established in 2019 and active since 2020, under the Italian Ministry of Culture. It brings together two iconic landmarks in the heart of the city: the Vittoriano, also known as the Altare della Patria, and Palazzo Venezia, along with the Central Museum of the Risorgimento, the panoramic terrace, and the Library of Archaeology and Art History. Dedicated to preserving and showcasing architecture, artworks, and collections central to Italy’s history and identity, VIVE combines research, conservation, and public engagement through exhibitions and educational activities.

From its establishment, VIVE has adopted a clear visual identity developed by the Trieste-based studio TassinariVetta. The logo and overall visual language favor a minimalist approach that evokes modernity and a sort of architectural precision. These values are reflected in the consistent use of the Suisse font family, beginning with the logotype, which combines Suisse Int’l Bold and Suisse Neue Medium.

This typographic choice is extended across the monuments’ visual system. Suisse Int’l is used for signage, ephemera, and public-facing communication, both online and in the street. A notable example is the long-running lecture series “VIVE al Centro di Roma”, whose first posters and subway ads showcased the new identity throughout the city.

On the website, designed by the agency Vergani&Gasco, Suisse Int’l is paired with Suisse Works rather than Suisse Neue. While all three belong to the same family, the choice introduces a functional distinction: Suisse Neue remains tied to the identity mark, whereas Suisse Works serves as a dedicated text serif. The shift preserves typographic continuity while separating symbolic branding from editorial usability, allowing the digital content to prioritize clarity without altering the core visual language.

The visual identity is here seen applied to the monuments' entrance tickets. Same typesetting, five different color codes for each of the five museums making up VIVE.

Roma is a selection of Gabriele Basilico’s photographic works curated by Matteo Balduzi, Giovanna Calvenzi and Pier Angelo Cappello, promoted by the Italian Ministry of Culture’s official general department of contemporary art in collaboration with the National Roman Museum, Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea (Museum of Contemporary Photography), and the Basilica Archive. The exhibition and book were designed by Tomo Tomo, with Martina Ciccaglione as project leader.

The typographic choices using DJR’s Megazoid and Lineto’s LL Riforma typefaces reflect Basilico’s work, whose research focused on modern architectural developments in the city of Rome. A historic setting with contemporary appearance is represented with the bold stylized title Roma set in Megazoid, which has letterforms mimicking arches, windows, and doorways often seen in Basilico’s images. Megazoid's geometric shapes are complemented by informational texts composed along a grid, using the geometric sans LL Riforma in its Heavy style to match the boldness of the title. The muted color palette balances against the modern minimalist geometric typography by subtly evoking a reminder of historic Italy and allows the architectural photographs to take center stage.

The catalog comes with Italian and English text and was published as softcover with dust jacket by Electa.

Hachette has launched Food Lovers Travel, a collection of travel guides dedicated to the best culinary spots worldwide. Fagostudio designed the covers for the first six books: Rome, Seoul, Paris, London, Montreal, and Amsterdam.

The layouts were designed by Hachette. They use My Creative Land’s Roca​​​​​ for the title of this collection, with FinalSix by Type-Ø-Tones for the subtitle and Very Cool Studio’s Gooper for the yellow stickers. The illustrations feature type, too – see the captions for details.

The concept is based on illustrated facades representing these major cities, highlighting their culinary identities, architectural details, local specialties, and lifestyles. Food Lovers Travel aims to turn every trip into a culinary adventure by featuring the best places to eat, whether restaurants, markets, or speciality shops. Eating well is an essential part of the journey.

Eat Amsterdam ft. ABC Gravity (“Wafels”), modified Courier (“Amsterdam”), and more Roca (“Oud Kaas”).

Eat Londres ft. Coney Island (big sign) and Komika Title (small sign)

Eat Montreal ft. ABC Diatype (“Bagels”) and more ABC Gravity (“Traditional Montreal”)

Eat Paris ft. Gooper Italic (“Le Petit Parisien”) and DIN Condensed (“Rue de Cornichon”)

Eat Rome ft. Zing Script Rust (“Trattoria”) and Vampiro (menu board)

Eat Séoul with Hangul lettering

Leggerissimo is the yearly supplement to Panzoo, which aims to portray the photography scene in Rome. Each issue is curated by a different personality of the photography field who will give their perspective on the subject through interviews and short essays.

Leggerissimo can be found for free in libraries and museums, along with the Panzoo map, and it comes in pocket size which allows it not to take space away from the contents, precisely leggerissimo (“very light”).

This first issue is curated by Chiara Capodici, founder of Leporello, a bookshop located in the Pigneto area (Rome) focusing on photography publications.

Open House Roma is an annual architecture festival that celebrates the city’s built environment. The theme for 2023, “Balance”, inspired a visual identity that explores the dynamic interplay between order and movement. We designed a flexible grid system rooted in mathematical precision, juxtaposed with typography that moves freely within its structure. This contrast creates a visual tension—oscillating between chaos and harmony—that mirrors the layered complexity of the urban landscape.

The identity was applied across all festival materials, including the printed catalog and a foldable map featuring all the sites open to visitors. These elements not only guided participants through the event but also reinforced the conceptual narrative, turning each piece into an extension of the city’s architectural dialogue.

Atlantic Cruise by Kustomtype sails into the spotlight on the luxurious souvenir tins by Italian chocolate brand Sorini.

Each tin is a masterpiece, showcasing iconic cities in all their glory—with Atlantic Cruise’s elegant curves and timeless charm perfectly framing the journey.

A sweet fusion of design and indulgence, this collaboration proves that great typography can make even the simplest packaging a global treasure.

The copperplate script used for “Souvenir” is Filmotype Zenith, with condensed proportions and extra slant. Small text at the bottom is set in two weights of Futura.

Illustration and graphic design by Erica Zipoli, with art direction by Federico Galvani at Happycentro.

SPQR Now, Imaginarios contemporáneos en torno a la antigua Roma (“SPQR Now, Contemporary Imaginaries of Ancient Rome”) was written by Tono Vizcaíno Estevan and published by Sans Soleil Ediciones, in a design by Carles Rodrigo Monzó.

During his fellowship at the Real Academia de España en Roma (Spanish Academy in Rome), archaeologist Tono Vizcaíno Estevan conducted research on the contemporary reception of the classical past. Its aim is to analyze the new languages generated by the confluence of Archeology and mass culture in the 21st century Rome.

This intersection serves as the foundation of the book’s design concept, blending ancient with contemporary inspired elements to create this contrast that defines its identity.

The 16:9 book format, like the standard mobile proportions, reflects how we perceive the world today; the embossing of a marble jpg, distorted by an internet-sharing error, adds a feeling of pixelated rocky surface; a typeface that merges classical elegance with a contemporary edge evokes a grandiloquent yet unmistakably Roman aesthetic; and the inner page layouts draw inspiration from romantic old-fashioned designs with a brutalist twist.

Book jacket for a German-language edition of Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero, a historical novel written by Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846–1916) and originally published in Polish in 1895/1896. Translated by Hertha Lorenz (1916–1989), it was published by Neuer Kaiser Verlag in Vienna in 1978.

Jacket designer Volkmar Reiter chose a photo of a Roman stone relief found on the outer wall of the Church of Our Lady in Maria Saal in Carinthia, Austria. He used Stack and Futura for the typography.

In 2005, when he was a British School resident in Rome, Toby Glanville made a series of photographs. In 2019, Atelier Dyakova designed a book about this Roma series, using Almeria. The book remained unpublished. From the studio’s website:

Toby Glanville’s photographs have been published and exhibited internationally and are held in collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; The Bruce Bernard Collection; The British Council & The National Portrait Gallery, London.

Classical literature publications inspire the design. The textured card of the cover resonates with the warm terracotta of Roman architecture.

This is the first poster in my travel series, based on photos I took during my adventures. It was during my stay in Rome that I thought that the best souvenir could be made by myself. This and subsequent posters contain elements from a given trip. In this case, we traveled with my fiancée, her sister and her boyfriend. We ate an incredible amount of delicious food.

The second issue of Fotografia Roma, a foldable map by Panzoo. This free pocket guide is intended to reach galleries, museums, bookstores, and photography schools in Rome.

The data visualization representing the state of the photographic scene in Rome inside the booklet is reused on the cover as a data-driven artwork.

The first issue of Fotografia Roma, a foldable map by Panzoo. This free pocket guide is intended to reach galleries, museums, bookstores, and photography schools in Rome.

The data visualization representing the state of the photographic scene in Rome inside the booklet is reused on the cover as a data-driven artwork.

Romola is a historical novel in three volumes, taking place in 15th century Florence, Italy. The book title refers to the main character: Romola de’ Bardi, the daugther of a classical scholar. The story, first published in 1863, was written by George Eliot – the male pen name of Mary Ann Evans (1819–1880) – travelling between the brand new Kingdom of Italy and the United Kingdom.

This edition was published by Philadelphia based Porter & Coates, ten years after the passing of the author. The text is interspersed with photographs of Florence (photographer unknown) that show a timeless city populated by Renaissance statues and classical architecture. The complete absence of living souls reinforces the impression of Florence as a museum, or somewhat less nicely put, a ghost town. The reality must have been different: horse-drawn streetcars were introduced in Florence a few years before this edition, and the first train station opened six years later.

The title page is typeset in a few sizes of French Oldstyle, a popular choice at the time that was available from multiple vendors, with minor differences between sizes and foundries. The images of the Rijksmuseum, who present this copy in their vast archive, focus on the photographs. Text pages are hidden behind flyleafs with photo captions typeset in an italic face, which appears to be from Barnhart Brothers & Spindler’s version of French Oldstyle (AKA Elzevir).

Detail

A visual research about the aesthetic of Roman monuments and buildings. A journey from historical sites to contemporary architecture, exploring the relationship between sky and volumes. This personal project started from photos I took in and around Rome. The locations were then further explored in editorial form. Cirka is used throughout the booklet.

Source: janmiddendorp.com License: All Rights Reserved.

“The Dutch high profile design company n|p|k invited Gerard Unger to contribute to their proposal of a bespoke signage system for the Holy Year (2000) in Rome. An event that was estimated to attract 20 to 25 million visitors, its brief was remarkable. What made the assignment extremely interesting to Unger was the requirement that a new type design be developed as the central element of the information system. ‘A specific typeface, …a modern one for the third millennium (and not at all a philological repêchage), but in some way related to the tradition of the city.’ Thus the brief of the organizers, the Agenzia Romana per la Preparazione del Giubileo. Rome is very probably the only European city that boasts an uninterrupted two-thousand-year tradition of road signage. So designing a typeface for Rome was both a prestigious and a delicate job, perhaps, Unger wrote, ‘the typographic equivalent of taking coals to Newcastle.’

“The brief, which explicitly asked for a contemporary typeface, suited Unger well, as he is ‘not an enthusiastic supporter of twentieth-century revivalism’. He set out to make a pragmatic, versatile typeface – a ‘real Unger’ which, somehow, also had to communicate Roman-ness. In other words: a blond design with a Latin heart. For Capitolium Unger chose to take as his starting point the work of the sixteenth-century writing master Giovan Francesco Cresci – notably a lower case alphabet which Cresci drew to accompany the classic roman capital. For some time, Unger played with the idea of making the alphabet into a sanserif – lowercase with initial capitals – tapping into twentieth-century signage tradition. Yet in Rome classic capitals are still the norm, even for contemporary street signs. Eventually, Unger reconciled readability and tradition by choosing an in-between solution: a brisk seriffed roman of classical proportions, to be used in lowercase with capitals.

Source: janmiddendorp.com License: All Rights Reserved.

“After several rounds of improvements and refinements, Unger finalized Capitolium: an unorthodox signage alphabet with a companion version for use in print. Although the project did not plan for the type to be set in caps-only, the capitals would work perfectly in this way: in their sober stateliness, they recall Jan van Krimpen’s hand-drawn titles. The design team worked around the clock, managing to meet the extremely tight dead line; unfortunately the organizing committee of the 2000 Jubilee did not succeed in implementing the information system. Parts of it were used for signalling single sites, but the street signage system envisioned by Unger never materialized. For Unger, this was disappointing but by no means a disaster. It simply meant he had been paid to design an interesting typeface of a sort he might never have made without this assignment; from 2002, when the copyright went back to him, Capitolium was marketed by Unger himself.”

The quote and the images are from Dutch Type, Jan Middendorp’s illustrated compendium of type design in the Netherlands. Sold out since ca. 2007, the book will be made available again through crowdfunding in 2018.

Petronius - The Satyricon Translated by William Arrowsmith Mentor Books MD 283, 1960 Cover Artist: unknown

"The Decadent Glory of Rome"