Parco Gallery is an open space that is a stage for graphic designers of all nationalities and hosts exhibitions and meetings by Loredana Bontempi and Emanuele Bonetti from Parco Studio
Hotpot: the research project on historical and contemporary graphic design
Parco Gallery has inaugurated the Hotpot publishing project, a bimonthly publication on graphic design research, theory and history that features a different guest editor every six months and combines theoretical texts disseminated through newsletters.
Loredana Bontempi explains, «Today’s fast, and in many cases superficial, approach to the enjoyment of content is gradually annihilating the idea of going in depth on a topic, of reading slowly and in a sense making a sacrifice».
Parco Studio + Parco Gallery
In 2010 graphic designers Loredana Bontempi and Emanuele Bonetti, born in 1985, after training in Italy and experience abroad, including Holland, Russia and Norway, opened Parco Studio in Milan, 35 Via Zuretti.
The two designers over time build an imaginary identity that distinguishes them and, eight years later, transform the studio into an exhibition and bookshop space that they will call Parco Gallery. A white-walled open space that is a stage for graphic designers of all nationalities and hosts exhibitions and meetings.
The newsletter as a communication tool: Parco Studio
In the ocean of information conveyed in an increasingly invasive way, the newsletter is making its way as a ‘soft impact’ method of bringing a community to life. «It was natural to rely on the newsletter as a communication channel. Both of us are consumers of it and we appreciate the freedom aspect of joining», Bonetti explains.
«While social networks bombard users with extra input, often questionably useful, against their will, signing up for a newsletter is a conscious act that manifests interest in a reality. This skimming aspect helps create an active community that shares our project and willingness to engage in deep, sometimes challenging, but inspiring reading».
Davide Fornari: Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne
Davide Fornari is the first guest editor involved for the Hotpot project. A full time professor at the Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne, where he heads the research and development department, he has been investigating the history and evolution of graphic design for years.
Bonetti and Bontempi recount how together with him they have been thinking about the role of this discipline. Fornari argues that it is difficult – and wrong – to apply the same parameters used to categorize art to graphic design. Reasoning that currents and masters lose the intrinsic sense of a system that is more complex to narrate. «A series of references, events and characters appear in Davide’s text, dialoguing with companies and studios of all kinds. It is a dynamic where production becomes a product of value, but only as a mirror for other phenomena».
Graphic design reflected in Parco Studio
Such multiplicity of aspects proper to graphic design is also reflected in the gallery. «Form is not the only priority for us; we design with the concept of graphic communication linked to the content it conveys. As much in commissioned work as in self-produced projects, it is the message that is of primary value. Idea development, style and rendering express our taste but are articulated as an outline. Over the years we have realized how successful work is determined by interfacing with issues that stimulate and interest us. For example, we particularly attempt socio-cultural issues such as equal rights and anti-discrimination. Applying ourselves to something we do not believe in has never worked».
Confrontation with the different to remain oneself
Because of the competition that characterizes the professional field, being able to activate a sincere confrontation with external realities proves to be more difficult than it would seem. Particularly among creatives whom we would imagine to be teaming up for an increasingly broad interpretation of the world.
«There are few occasions when we openly converse with other studios, reflecting on what it means to do this job, to relate to clients, to bring a project to life. Our environment, but perhaps the work environment in general, is often pervaded by a superficial level of mutual distrust, as if there is a fear of sharing one’s design with competitors. The times when we have been able to do so have been revealing: different visions stimulate tremendous reflection».
Bontempi and Bonetti explain how their identity has been strengthened by encountering different ways of working. «One of the activities that has served us most and continues to serve us is precisely the confrontation with those who think differently from us. It is amazing how dialogue with other ways of thinking has led us to question our approach, in many cases reinforcing the values we believed in».
Slowing down the pace at Parco Studio and Gallery
The need for a detachment from the flow of information we are subjected to is a priority issue for the studio and gallery, which promote a ‘quality-over-quantity’ philosophy.
«We have no ambition to change the world with graphics, but we are convinced that images have power, to be managed and enjoyed with awareness. Quite different from the scrolling on Instagram that we are getting used to. In general, slowing down the pace is essential, however much effort it proves to be. We ourselves first realize that we almost have to force ourselves to stop and read a text like the one we propose with Hotpot. People are seldom bored now, it would be useful every now and then to stare at the wall for half an hour».
Italy or abroad for Parco?
A central debate today is the alternative between settling abroad or staying/returning to Italy. «We met while attending the Polytechnic, where we received an effective education in professionalism. After some independent experiences, Rotterdam was our meeting point for two years. From the perspective of a career path, it was crucial to see both the first and second realities, the technical and the more open to creativity. If at university we were subjected to project requests that were already predefined in the basic idea, in the Netherlands we suffered the shock of ‘What do you want to communicate? Build the concept from scratch’».
The studio, however, was founded in Italy. «Despite the open-mindedness we encountered abroad, we were a bit fed up. It becomes unavoidable to master the language and aspects such as the climate begin to become intolerable (we could not endure twelve kilometers daily in the rain for more than two years). In addition, interesting situations were being created in Milan, young creatives were beginning to find their voice and propose more innovative alternatives to the system. We felt we wanted to be part of it».
The gallery that is also a bookshop: the value of print publishing – Parco
Despite the fact that technology optimization is trying to challenge it, print publishing can still enhance a project. «Paper has a different feeling; it allows you to see materialized visual research that does not have the same value in digital. We started by exhibiting magazines with the opening of the gallery in 2018, moving on to books, but also to objects, clothing, and local productions. Each element we choose plays a role in building the imagery of the studio and ourselves, a consistency according to a type of taste and sensibility that becomes identity. As for the choice of volumes, we don’t really do research, we are more inspired by what we come across, by the cues that emerge while we are basically doing something else. For the most part, these are books focused on graphic design or adjacent disciplines (typography, illustration…), but we also love visually impactful projects related to themes we hold dear. In any case, we try to avoid widely distributed products. We used to get passionate and buy interesting publications for ourselves, now we simply do it for the gallery, for others».
Parco Studio
Milan-based graphic design studio founded by Loredana Bontempi and Emanuele Bonetti. Since 2010, they have been designing communication systems and visual strategies to shape their clients’ content, with a focus on issues of socio-cultural relevance and a constant search for possible intersections with contemporary visual culture. They believe that imagination is the best way to shape the future.
