United Colors of Naples was born from two incredible and unique loves that will never end; the love for Naples, in all its forms, and the love for typography and graphics in general.

I was enchanted by typography in October 1996, and precisely in Agnano, a Naples neighborhood. The colors, the inkwells, the paper, the machines, the acidic smells of the inks and the screams of the pressmen. A real beauty!

Then, Naples. Despite everything, I can't help but love Naples, its strength, its power: the Water, the Fire, the Volcano. Its contradictions, its unconditional love, its hospitality, its being a refuge, for better or for worse. And so I wanted to do something for Naples. I was looking for an idea that wasn't too stereotypical, neither pizzas nor mandolins, neither sun nor sea. Actually, I was searching for quite the opposite. I wanted and I was looking for the color, or rather, the warmth of the Colors of Naples. Those colors which find you, those colors which show themselves in their incredible but complex simplicity.

Then, you know, it just takes a moment for a good idea. This idea has been on my mind for a long, long time, but I never managed to grab it. Then, suddenly, a pantone formula guide, a test, and here we are. So here is the paper, a good paper, in this case a white 390 grams Fedrigoni Acquerello paper, and the color (the weight depends on the formats!).

A real, true, color, applied through brushes, rollers, mold, old typographical characters.

The United Colors of Naples name derives from a class assignment by the great and unique Gaetano Gravina, one of the few and true Italian graphic designers, in Boccioni Institute Of Art of Naples, in the early 2000s. So yes, the name is not mine, but Gaetano's property. I hope it doesn't hurt :)

The main message of the printing is that it is all analogue, and you can find it on these posters, touch on these posters, smell on these posters.