Week 7- Outside of Class 2

Off Campus Event

Matteo Bologna

God is the Kerning: Branding from a Typographer's Point-of-View

Wednesday, March 11, 5:00 pm, DeMeester Recital Hall at York College of Pennsylvania 

Matteo Bologna is the co-founder of Mucca Design and many other design organizations and clubs. He was born and raised in Milan, Italy but he shared his story of obtaining the American Dream and the steps he took to get to American and become a well-known designer. He specializes in architecture, graphic design, illustration and typography. His talk was very humorous and entertaining. He talked about his work and how he was one of the first in Milan to purchase a Macintosh in order to create designs and therefore he was a Graphic Designer. He had heard about what was happening with design in the U.S and had to be apart of it. He never spoke of himself as a master of design but always honored when asked to design for companies whether it's the typo-logo of a company, a entire alphabet designed for the company or the overall mood of the company. Matteo was actually one of the first designers that I've listened to, that said he works directly on the computer creating display faces or typefaces and never really sketches. If someone wanted sketches of his work he would create fake ones.

When Matteo would create typefaces for companies he would either create original designs or re-design the pre-existing type. He said that the typeface is the sound of the voice of the company and without this then the company has no true voice. He always tried to connect the atmosphere of the company into his designs. One of the questions I had going into the talk was copying pre-existing typefaces into designs  but he covered that and put in perspective of why not to use them with one point. He said it's not good to buy pre-made typefaces because you have the fear of someone else using it and it's not original anymore. But sometimes he has to buy them because they are so well done and it helps make the brand. Matteo really enjoys old fashion type and ordainments but it's not very sophisticated and very feminine. So he tries to make middle mean between big strong sophisticated type and girly cute type. Although he has designed script he isn't really a fan of loose all over the place script because you can't read it. He was very hypocritical with type because he would say one thing he didn't like but do it anyway. For example AIGA asked him to design the cover of their Thirty Anniversary but in the process Matteo created a poor legible type design but AIGA didn't care because it look good. 

I would definitely listen in one of Matteo talks again because it was so entertaining and informative. All the work he showed was very professionally done and always came out to reflect the company perfectly. His designed were also very inspirational.