Achille Castiglioni Foundation
A few years ago, I visited the Achille Castiglioni Foundation in Milan. I was was really impressed by the space and the magic of the atmosphere in their studio. I've always appreciated the simplicity of Castiglioni designs and the beauty of his products have become icons of today. In 2013 the Foundation opened a competition to design a logo that could represent Castiglioni's work.
I've started playing with the initials of his name (A and C) looking for a match in form. I've explored a series of letterforms and found that the lowercase serif of an "a" contained both the his initials. By cropping off the stem of the "a", I realized it also revealed the "c". I then refined the letterforms looking for a good balance that allows each initial to be legible as a whole first and separate second. The result is a monogram that can be use in layout that is always aligned to a right margin of a business card or a corner in an environment, It becomes an invitation to turn the corner and visit inside.
I always use to sketch before any design. I like what happens when you sketch on a piece of paper, especially when it is about typography. There is a pleasure of discovering, trying and repeat. I love the fact you can not control exactly what happening on paper. Looking for the "happy mistake" that will make your design unique and magic.
I didn't win the competition, but I was happy to partecipate. When I realized I was off category because of my age, I decided to complete my proposal anyway. I enclosed a letter saying that would be my personal tribute to the Foundation. For some reason the project got many visualizations on my Behance profile and positive reviews.
