STUDIO BOGGERI ― TRANSCRIPT
Studio Boggeri, founded in 1933 by Antonio Boggeri in Milan, is one of the most influential studios in the history of graphic design. For nearly five decades, the studio produced timeless works - connecting the precision and discipline of Swiss design with the experimentation and curiosity of Italian design.
Prologue: The Fly and the Spider’s Web
I found an article on graphic design. When I saw certain works that interested me, I looked at the captions and was struck by the fact that in some cases there was not Franco Grignani, or Max Huber, there was Studio Boggeri. And each time, below that, the name of a graphic artist. Rene Martinelli, Aldo Calabresi… For nearly five decades, the studio produced timeless works - connecting the precision and discipline of Swiss design with the experimentation and curiosity of Italian design.
I read the article and discovered that behind this studio Boggeri, there was not a graphic designer, but a violinist. I felt the need to know this man. On my 20th birthday I raced to Milan, climbed to the fifth floor, and I had a strange sensation, a premonition perhaps, because he asked me to stay.
After two or three weeks - I worked in the evening, on Saturdays and Sundays, because I was afraid I wasn’t up for the job - he called me into his office and began to tell me a story about spiders and their webs.
And with his beautiful hands, the most beautiful hands I have ever touched, he traced different types of spider webs in the air. He finally got to the point, telling me that Swiss graphic design is perfect, but it is often useless perfection.
And with his beautiful hands, the most beautiful hands I have ever touched, he traced different types of spider webs in the air. He finally got to the point, telling me that Swiss graphic design is perfect, but it is often useless perfection.
The spider web becomes useful only when a fly disrupts it. So thanks to him I began to look for the meaning, the sense of my work.
Part One: Beginnings
In the beginning there were the first Swiss designers who came to Italy. They came to the Boggeri studio and a new international style was created. Italian graphic design was actually born in that very moment.
Studio Boggeri for me was very important, for myself, but also for the history of graphic design in Italy because he started as a photographer in ‘35. I guess he was a very good photographer. And because he was very cultural and he knew everything about history of the Bauhaus in particular the Swiss Designer - Schawinsky I remember .He was only selecting the best. Vivarelli was another one that worked for the studio.
The Bauhaus was founded in the mid ‘20s, and there was people like Tschichold defining in a very strong and violent way the rules of modernism and that idea of being modern which was cutting edge every time.
In Italy Studio Boggeri was the one that started all of that stream of beautiful and those kind of figures were the masters to refer to and the companies you were working for were amazing like Pirelli and also Olivetti. If you know something about these two companies actually was run by people. People that was interested in progress.
There was already one very good designer here, Franco Grignani. He also use to work for Boggeri but he was not dependant on the graphic of the Swiss. He was a big personality himself.
What I really like about him is that cut continuation and connection with the avant-garde movement and the way he used typography and cut out photographies. I think it was really powerful in graphic design for that era.
Part Two: Catching Flies
For me the university, the real university was to work directly with Steiner, Boggeri, Confalonieri. Albe Steiner for me was more important because he was my teacher. The poster with the rose and the helmet, which was my first inspiration. After I study with him for a few years. I was designing the 'S' of Bodoni and it took us one month because the ‘S’ has a lot of raccordino.
Each time I dealt with somebody that was able at least to work a little bit on letters and lettering. He was a ten times better graphic designer in general. You need to train your eyes and to look at letter all day long. You have to be a nerd otherwise there's no way you can spend your time like I do with the G - you look beautiful like this.
I remember Boggeri telling me about Max Huber, he was so smart. He was designing Bodoni, 6 point, with a little pinarello. Fantastic, you can not even understand that thing. He showed how to use typography and photography together, Muller Brockmann and Armenoff, they were masters at that, putting together the two. Calabresi was another one, that came after Max Huber, and Monguzzi. Monguzzi also. And afterward they all started with Boggeri, and after they opened their own studio.
I remember Boggeri telling me about Max Huber, he was so smart. He was designing Bodoni, 6 point, with a little pinarello. Fantastic, you can not even understand that thing. He showed how to use typography and photography together, Muller Brockmann and Armenoff, they were masters at that, putting together the two. Calabresi was another one, that came after Max Huber, and Monguzzi. Monguzzi also. And afterward they all started with Boggeri, and after they opened their own studio.
Part Three: Leaving Boggeri
Many of designers of Studio Boggeri left in order to start their own design firms. In 1965, Studio Boggeri member Bob Noorda and Milanese born Massimo Vignelli, opened Unimark, the first design consultancy with offices worldwide. Their uncompromising visual systems and principles that demanded sensibility, meaningful design, and consistency in every details.
Well a visual language is like any other language, it is a series of conventions of rules that allows us to communicate. One of my favorite is the underground design system. It was designed by Bob Noorda.
Unimark Bob Noorda and Vignelli were big influence. Big influence in New York design When he did the subway, it was perfect, the subway map. The contamination of the agency - american, which was very creative and good with Vignelli and Noorda influence they create a new system of communication with more sense of humor mixed with the more discipline of the graphic of the Swiss.
On one side you have Massimo Vignelli, which is very rigorous, and on the other half you have Bruno Munari, which completely the opposite. It seems he approached design, and life, always with the eyes of a kid.
Munari I have a beautiful remembering because when I designed the logo, the license plate. I remember he really loved my logo more than the others. “It’s beautiful, I cannot believe how you centered the concept.”
I show you one work I did with Boggeri, and this was done all by hand with paper. And this in some way is very helpful for a designer, to know the material, working with the paper, or sketching.
I have a lot of students, very cultured, very interested, very smart, and they love the idea of studio Boggeri, some people they don’t even know, and that’s scary, you know.So that is our work, as teachers to teach this way the history.So when I see students, interesting, with passion, I always suggest go learn the history, because if you don’t know where we come from, we don’t know where to go.