Being at Indaba has been an incredible experience, being in South Africa for the first time and
being able to share ideas with these incredible talents who have come from all over the world
has been an extraordinary opportunity. The sheer size and power of Indaba is quite exciting.
My presentation this morning was a superficial survey of my career starting in book jackets,
going into restaurants and food packaging since my main passion is food and anything to do with Italy.
The story always starts here in Italy which is my greatest source of inspiration both typographic and gastronomic.
So having grown up in an Italian-American household where the main topic of conversation every morning was
what to make for dinner, it should have come as no surprise to me that I would end up working in the food industry.
Food packaging is so important because it's the only way you're ever going to get a new customer.
The packaging has to inform and seduce and of course if you get them that first time that's what counts.
This is a very interesting lesson in package design. These were the number one and two best selling products
in all the William Sonoma stores in the US and Canada for nine years straight, the whole time that it was in the store.
And what I find really interesting is that this box of salt in the center is seven cents worth of salt that's sold for twelve dollars.
What does that tell you about package design?
When I was very young I was always interested in typography. At a very, very young age I was always drawing letter forms on the wall
and getting in trouble with my parents for that.
And when I was in high school I taught myself calligraphy. I still didn't know what graphic design was.
I had no idea that this was related to that. And then when I got to college I found out about graphic design.
When I started in publishing it was kind of a grim time for book jacket design.
Everybody seemed to think that they had to follow the same formulas.
There was very little innovation going on and everyone seemed to think that type had to be big and vulgar.
I, on the other hand, was on a mission to prove that you didn't have to shout to capture someone's attention.
And I think that this cover for The Lover is the best example of that.
I was always interested in books and felt very comfortable with them. I sort of fell into that but was very happy doing that.
And that's really what enabled me to find my design voice.
I was working at Pantheon Books for eleven years where I could experiment with a different period of design and type history on a daily basis.
Mostly focusing on the typography. But then when I started my studio I really wanted to focus more on food.
So that was kind of a big jump from publishing to food but I'm glad I did it.
And now the only books I do are my own books which is just right.
Over the years I've been doing a series of limited edition promo books in letterpress called Logos A to Z.
Because I realized one day that I had done a logo for almost every letter of the alphabet.
From Ocafe to Zelda. So these are done in letterpress.
The first book was 26 Logos but I didn't have every letter of the alphabet so some of them were duplicates.
So then I went to a second volume and then a third.
By the third I was unabashedly offering a discount to anyone who had a business that started with a Q, X or Y.
There are similarities between books and food.
In a way it's the same thing. You're dressing something to appeal to people.
Yet you have to be authentic to what the product is. You can't lie.
The most gratifying thing is to work with small upstart companies.
Since most of the work I do is for smaller companies.
To start with someone who's just coming out with something and to see that the design can really make a huge difference in their success.
That's quite gratifying.
Last year was the year of the biggest thing I ever designed and the smallest thing.
This is less than an inch tall. A love stamp for the U.S. Postal Service.
Also it was done in a print run of 250 million which was by far the biggest print run of anything I ever designed.
That one came out last year for Valentine's Day and this was this year's.
Everything you've seen here and more is in my latest monograph, Elegantissima.
I think the main reason that I did this book was so that I could design this copyright page.
Graphic design is a wonderful field but you really have to integrate it with something you're passionate about.
That's what I did. I integrated it with food and all things Italian.
That's certainly what I recommend. Find a passion and integrate that into your career.
