Chronicle Books Blog

In the movie I Am Love by Luca Guadagnino about a prosperous Milanese family, the material quality of everything plays a crucial role in telling the story. The consistency of the food, the shine of the china, and the textures in the architecture and the clothing (they’re a textile family, after all) all set the tone, and in their detailed opulence, transport the viewer. Speaking as a designer (and not a romantic), so much of Italian manufacturing is of an incredibly high level of quality.
 

Italian textiles, tailoring, and printing are consistently some of the best in the world. It’s difficult not to generalize, but these industries earned their reputations over time. Take the Italian-owned Moleskine notebooks for example: They’re super-durable, combining high-quality materials with a practical design. Anyone using one can appreciate the smooth cream stock and hardy covers because they function so well. Here’s Moleskine’s description of how they are made, printed in China with a combination of industrial production and individual handmade craftsmanship.

As nerdy book designers are wont to do, whenever the material quality of a book catches our attention, be it for the paper, printing, or binding, we often check to see who and where it was printed. So often, for the really impressive stuff, it’s Italy. Not that there isn’t great printing coming out of the U.S. or Asia, but there’s something sublime about fine art Italian presses.
 

History and the industrial tradition in Northern Italy may very well have something to with this focus on quality. When the Tipoteca Italiana Fondazione visited our offices recently, they gave us these two beautiful letterpress posters made using old wooden letter forms. In the same way that I imagine a fashion designer would like to feel the textiles filmed in I Am Love, we enjoyed getting up close and feeling the ink and paper of these posters. Fortunately for book and graphic design enthusiasts, publishing still produces high-end products far more affordable than fashion. And I could be biased, but seeing someone reading, writing, or sketching (on a Moleskine or not) does more for their hot appeal than any designer handbag or sunglasses ever could.
 
Suzanne LaGasa
Designer

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