Lately I’ve been thinking about what has become of the great fashion magazines of our time. Sure they still exist, but rarely am I inclined to pop into one of Verona’s Giornalai and buy one. There were times when it seemed impossible for me to do any kind of work without having at least a double-page spread of Vogue Italia next to my computer on my desk. Like the Bible for a priest on the altar, those double-page spreads with photos of Paolo Roversi and the beautiful young #Natalia Vodianova made me hold my breath and dive into a kind of dreamland where my creations allowed me to get closer to her or whatever my imagination was planting on her beautiful face. 

The beautiful young Natalia Vodianova made me hold my breath and dive into a kind of dreamland…

There was also the aspect of the magazine layout that secretly played an important role in this game of fantasy. These pages were works of art, ‘Compositions!’ as an old friend of mine (a painter) used to exclaim. The text was carefully matched to the content of the images, and sometimes fonts were even created to reflect a particular aspect of a designer’s work or to enhance the way photos were composed next to each other.

This is a flashback to one of my typefaces called Simmetria, based on an idea by Luca Stoppini and part of a page he masterfully composed in Vogue Italia. And it makes me think back to that time and wonder if the next time I happen to be standing in front of a Giornalaio, I’ll stick around and buy one.

Credits:
Luca Stoppini | Art Direction