In March 1996 TassinariVetta took over the art direction of Casabella, the historic architectural review founded in 1928. From that moment on the magazine has become part of the everyday life of the studio, where it is designed month after month.

Aiming to go beyond the traditional concept of ‘typographic architecture’ – which sees graphic arts subject to the universal compositional rules expressed in architecture – and to offer a new perspective on the world of letters, the 2024-25 cover design sets editorial objectives ahead of graphic ones.

Taking advantage of the constraints inherent in monthly publication in sectoralization and serialization, and enhancing repetitive elements—the masthead, headlines, but above all the sequential number—the project brings editorial content to the cover through the choice of the font used to compose the number, its graphic interpretation, and the explanatory note published on the inside pages, which is an integral part of the project itself.

Faithful to the magazine tradition, issue after issue, the choice of lettering or typeface moves through the 20th century between avant-garde and modernism, with forays into adjacent spaces suggested by unlikely discards or ambiguous analogies, while exploring the development of the industrial means underlying mechanical writing.

With philological respect—using fonts available under license, photographic reproductions of original specimens, or vector redrawing, as appropriate—and with the calibrated use of a color palette consistent with the magazine visual history, the graphic interpretation ultimately aims to bring the historical artifact into the present, contextualizing it in a contemporary and accessible language.

no. 976 – Lettering for the Tomba Veritti (Udine, Italy), Carlo Scarpa, 1951

no. 975 – Univers, Adrian Frutiger, Deberny & Peignot, 1957

no. 974 – Prisma, Rudolf Koch, Klingspor, 1930

no. 973 – LL Le Corbusier, Nico Schweizer (da Le Corbusier), Lineto, 1999

no. 971-972 – Memphis, Rudolf Wolf, Stempel AG, 1929

no. 970 – Ingenieur, Wim Crouwel, 1964, The Foundry Types, 2012

no. 969 – bayer-type, Hebert Bayer, Berthold, 1931

no. 968 – Mexico 68, Lance Wyman, 1966–68

no. 967 – Our Bodoni, Massimo Vignelli, Tom Carnase, WTC (World Typeface Center), 1989

no. 965-966 – Futura Black / Paul Renner / Bauer, 1929

no. 963 – Fat Face, Herb Lubalin, Tom Carnase, ITC International Typeface Corporation, 1970

no. 962 – Kabel, Rudolf Koch, Klingspor, 1927

no. 961 – Stop, Aldo Novarese, Nebiolo, 1970

no 959-960 – New Alphabet, Wim Crouwel, 1967

no. 958 – Frankfurter, Bob Newman, Letraset, 1970

no. 957 – Universal, Herbert Bayer, 1925

no. 956 – Oakland, Zuzana Licko, Emigre, 1985

no. 955 – Aldina (Aldino), Nebiolo, redesign Adalberto Libera, 1938

no. 954 – Kombinationsschrift, Josef Albers, 1926–28

no. 953 – Bifur, A.M. Cassandre, Deberny & Peignot, 1929

Japan Architecture + Urbanism:

First published in January 1971, a+u – Architecture & Urbanism – is an architectural magazine in Japanese and English that provides information on architecture around the globe to a global readership. As Japan's only monthly periodical dedicated to disseminating information on architecture around the world, a+u has been widely and actively read by the architecture community since its inaugural issue. The magazine's research network extends around the globe, covering more than 100 countries. It features direct reporting on individual architects in various countries, and each issue is edited from a unique perspective to efficiently deliver the latest trends to readers. In addition, essays penned by architects, critics and historians help guide thinking on tomorrow's architecture, greatly influencing the industry inside and outside Japan.

a+u is a staple in the architectural world with its now classic format of monographies and issue long in depths of a specific project. The content is mainly communicated through images, and as such the layout takes a step back, always following the same modernist formula.

All Latin type is set in Our Bodoni, a cut of Bodoni devised by the late Massimo Vignelli to match the x-height of his beloved Helvetica. Japanese is set with Adobe’s Kozuka series, utilizing both the Gothic and Mincho version. And while the Latin is used for larger titles, running texts present both scripts equally side by side, grounded on the same baseline grid. The use of Our Bodoni might seem curious at first, as there is no Helvetica to match, but the more you think about it the more it makes sense. The enlarged x-height provides a much better match with the Japanese, where characters always set at full height. Its also the house type of design consultant Massimo Vignelli (credited with creating the magazine structure), so it could also be just that.

Covers for the catalog for the Best of Scandinavian News Design 2013 competition, organized by SNDS, Society for News Design Scandinavia, in cooperation with the publishers' organizations in the Nordic countries. The catalog is an 80 page book with two front covers (and no back cover) — one for the print winners, and turning the book over, one for the online winners.

The four different typefaces signal the variety of the competition — from the good old printed newspaper (B) and the bold use of geometric magazine design (e) to the many digital possibilities of the online categories (S) and the typewriter font (T) representing the reader — as this kind of type often is used in comments or on opinion pages.

WTC Our Bodoni was commissioned by Bert Di Pamphilis of World Typeface Center and designed by Tom Carnase under the direction of Massimo Vignelli. The goal of this 1989 Bodoni revival was to match the proportions of Helvetica, one of the few typefaces Vignelli uses.