Lucia Gaggiotti reflects on her poster series for Rummo Pasta.

We asked Artworks illustrator Lucia Gaggitotti to discuss her thoughts and feelings about one of our favourite projects of last year, her poster series commissioned by Irving & Co for Rummo Pasta;

This work was commissioned about a year ago by Irving & co, an independent creative design studio in London, famous for its originality and love for craft and illustration.

I have been collaborating with Julian Roberts (founder) and his team for more than 10 years now; I respect them very much and above all they are loving people, so much so that I consider them my creative family in London.

It’s ironic but also flattering at the same time how when Italian clients contact Julian to do a job, he then often contacts me because I presume, he must see me as a genuine Italian and therefore, able to convey the authenticity of a product, which he strives for so much (In fact, I have to admit that when I communicate, even the smallest part of my body communicates, gestures and emphasises with me!).

I consider Julian a visionary; I am always stimulated and fascinated by his briefs, usually involving an inspiring image supported by a creative concept, which I am then asked to develop and customize. Normally, he will look into some of the greatest designers of the past as examples and tell me: “Now, turn it into a Lucia”!

The customer for this particular project is Rummo, one of the best brands of Italian pasta, much loved by the Italians themselves and now known all over the world for the certified quality of the grains and for their slow artisanal processing. The brief was to create a series of 3 posters to promote 3 different types of pasta by Rummo.

Irving asked me to represent an everyday Italian situation where pasta was inserted in the narrative as a star, an icon, the protagonist. The idea was to represent a “culinary” yet “dreamlike” journey of the Bel Paese (beautiful country).

I transformed a “Conchiglione” into a gondola that runs through a romantic Venice lagoon, an imposing “Fusillo” into a Bernini sculpture in Rome, and a handful of “Stelline” like a starry sky over squares in Romagna, during traditional gatherings at Christmas.

The challenge I faced at the beginning was the unusual size of the illustrations (A1). Considering that my technique is a digital collage of hand-made drawings, I had to organize the initial work very well, taking into account all the steps, the proportions and measurements of the elements that I was drawing separately.

The part that amused me the most of this work was to create an additional level of reading, an additional added value to the protagonists who acted as a common thread, as if the three posters were souvenir photos of the same story. I imagined a couple, an Italian together with a tourist on vacation in Italy, who, while traveling together, dive into some magical, sometimes funny, and sometimes romantic… sections of “Italian” everyday life!