Marcello Jacopo Biffi teamed with Marsèll to produce the exhibition A is A is A to present a selection of his alphabet designs (Alphabet 1–8) at Marsèll Paradise in Milan. At the same time, he collaborated with Gabriele Donini from Giga Design Studio to design a complementary digital experience. The website presents a stripped down interface, set in Courier, which registers the characters displayed and their orientation, while the about section features Helvetica Bold throughout. Alphabet 1–8’s glyphs are randomly shown across the screen and cropped forming new abstract shapes. On click, the letters are resized to their full size.

See also a previous post about the exhibition catalog and booklet, and one about the exhibition design.

Détour is a 16 mm film directed by Nicola Pietromarchi and Filippo Castellano produced by Olympìque. It takes Marcello Jacopo Biffi’s Alphabets 1–8 as a starting point to lead the viewer on a journey through landscapes of letters. It's a dreamy experience: the alphabets are blown out of proportion, each letter transforms into an abstract surface losing its conventional meaning. The eye follows the hands, which run through a maze of mysterious graphic signs: shapes blend one into the other, engendering a yin-yang like dualism. The paper sheets interact with each other generating three-dimensional architectural sculptures. The score, entirely made of pre-verbal sounds by Mara Miccichè, assists the deconstruction of the alphabet building a new elemental language. The film titles are set in Imago Bold, printed on paper and then filmed (the lowercase u has been replaced with its small caps version throughout).

Credits
Directors: Nicola Pietromarchi & Filippo Castellano
Production: Olympìque
Director of photography: Gianluca Oliva
Sound design: Mara Miccichè
Set design: Stella Porta
Hands model: Lucrezia Cuccagna
Gaffer: Paolo Pastaccini
Assistant camera: Michele Porcari
Editing: Filippo Castellano
Colorist: Leonardo Masoero
Title design: Marcello Jacopo Biffi
Location: Marsèll Paradise
Print: Tipografia Valdostana

Détour is part of the exhibition A is A is A at Marsèll Paradise, a project by Marcello Jacopo Biffi. See also the posts about the exhibition design and the exhibition catalog and booklet.

Marcello Jacopo Biffi teamed with Marsèll to produce the exhibition A is A is A to present a selection of his alphabet designs (Alphabet 1–8) at Marsèll Paradise in Milan. For this occasion, he designed a booklet (A4) that unfolded to a double-sided poster (A1) featuring all the letters on show and containing texts and technical drawings printed on loose sheets of paper. He also published a limited edition catalog collecting in an envelope (C4) the booklet and a replica set of the sheets of paper used to build the exhibition. The texts are all set in Praxis Com Semibold designed by the late Gerard Unger.

Marsèll presents A is A is A
A project by Marcello Jacopo Biffi
08.10.2020–22.10.2020
Marsèll Paradise, via Privata Rezia 2, Milan

Exhibition designed by From outer Space, curated by BRACE BRACE, and produced by Marsèll. With Gabriele Donini (Giga), Michele Galluzzo (Fantasia Type), Nicola Pietromarchi & Filippo Castellano, and Olympìque.

See also the post about the exhibition design.

The exhibition poster uses Alphabet 1–8 along with Maison Neue (Marsèll Paradise’s standard font).

Marcello Jacopo Biffi teamed with Marsèll to produce the exhibition A is A is A to present a selection of his alphabet designs (Alphabet 1–8) at Marsèll Paradise in Milan. From outer Space (Anna Paola Buonanno and Piergiorgio Italiano with Anna Sedino) designed a series of displays using semi-finished wood panels to host the letters printed on A4 paper sheets in various sizes by Marcello Jacopo Biffi. They built the displays without cutting or altering the panels, then stapled the paper sheets directly onto them (for a total of 25 screws, 232 A4 and 464 staples). A double grid system—a combination of square units and the ISO 216 standard—guided the positioning of the letters in the page. All the single page artworks have been generated by simply scaling and cropping one bigger artboard.

Marsèll presents A is A is A
A project by Marcello Jacopo Biffi
08.10.2020–22.10.2020
Marsèll Paradise, via Privata Rezia 2, Milan

Exhibition designed by From outer Space, curated by BRACE BRACE, and produced by Marsèll. With Gabriele Donini (Giga), Michele Galluzzo (Fantasia Type), Nicola Pietromarchi & Filippo Castellano, and Olympìque.

See also the post about the exhibition catalog and booklet.