For many Italians, Perugian designer Simone Scimmi included, the Fabriano name has a special place in their memories of making art at school. ‘From children’s drawings to high school technical drawings – this was one of the reasons that made me approach this project with great passion,’ says Scimmi of the new trilingual (Italian, English, German) general catalogue [Catalogo Generale] he has designed for the paper company.
Scimmi aimed to make its design consistent with the recent Fabriano brand refresh by Pentagram (see Pulp 23). ‘The creative choices were strategically aligned with the new guidelines,’ says Scimmi. ‘My interpretation is in the grids on the spreads, the balanced colour palette of the paper categories, the use of typography and the selection of photographs.’
The cover shows the ‘FA’ ligature adapted by Pentagram from Carlo Cattaneo’s original 1970s logo, itself influenced by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase’s Avant Garde Gothic. The cover is a high-resolution photograph (by Gian Domenico Troiano) of a composition of four overlapping papers taken from different Fabriano collections. ‘The idea was to enhance the construction lines,’ says Scimmi.’ Inside, a monochrome photo of watermarked papers shows the tactility of Fabriano Artistico papers.
Arena Natural Smooth 140g/m2 is used for the inside pages, with a 250g/m2 weight for the cover. ‘I found the warm white perfect for the mood of the project and its contents,’ says Scimmi. ‘The sans typography is enhanced by the smooth touch of the paper.’
