A superlative studio,
for things that are
relevant and beautiful
Bellissimo is a communication design studio active since 1998. We are based in Turin, in a bright loft where we work with major brands and institutions, historic companies, and new ventures across many different sectors. In our projects, we combine disciplines and languages to create visuals, experiences, and contents that are necessary and effective in conveying values and messages.
Today, Bellissimo comprises a team of 15 designers, copywriters, and project managers, plus one architect. We describe ourselves as a studio, both for the shared references that inspire us and for our more horizontal structure, with roles that are less rigid than those in a typical agency.
IN A FEW WORDS
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Enthusiastic
Doing a good job means doing it with love — a principle at the heart of everything we do. First, we work hard: we know we need to prove our value every time, and we know that this requires great effort. Second, we want to live life with depth. We stay positive, smile, and inspire confidence. We understand how important a clear mind is: being clear, concise, and sincere. Growing means showing the ability to guide those who are confused —managers, organizations, or a team— and continuing to do so.
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Leader
For over 25 years, we have been engaging people in forward-looking projects. We continuously create opportunities to connect and challenge the status quo: a style magazine, a creative studio, a design community, a monthly newspaper, an experimental city imaging lab, and a travel and networking format across multiple European cities. We often open our projects to others — collaborators, designers, makers, entrepreneurs, volunteers.
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Open
We love it where we work: our Bellissimo Blue Loft. Here, we welcome people into a bright, inspiring open space designed for creativity. Whenever we can, we enjoy hosting a party —
sharing the behind-the-scenes of our projects over a unique drink, with carefully selected music playing in the background. We often open the doors of our studio for workshops, book launches, talks, brainstorming sessions, experiments — as well as photoshoots and video productions.
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Prolific
Size-wise, Bellissimo is a relatively small studio, but since 1998 we’ve produced an incredible volume of work. We are fast and organized: every Monday morning, we review an average of fifty different projects. Yet we never stop focusing on our growth plans. We stay up to date through work trips and study sessions. Each year, we dedicate upwards of a month to a number of non-profit side projects. Over 25 years, we’ve done many different things, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds.
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Talented
Young and talented, yet reliable and mature. Bellissimo was founded with the idea of working with words and images to create communication that is evocative, contemporary, and direct. Today, our team of designers carries forward the same mission while keeping an open perspective on the scope of design. We work as a team. We believe in blending roles and don’t rely on job titles or account positions. Our work is connected to current events, innovation, business, and urban life. Whenever a meaningful initiative arises, we are happy to be part of it.
Why Bellissimo? When we see or read something we like, “Bellissimo” is what we utter — a word that the world understands and beckons with self-irony to our objective of superlative ambitions.
Bellissimo is both a name and a mission. The best moment is when the circle is complete — when someone who has trusted us sees the final result and says: “Bellissimo!”
THE TEAM
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LUCA BALLARINI
FOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR
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BARBARA VILLANOVA
PARTNER & ART DIRECTOR
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EDOARDO BERGAMIN
EDITOR & COPYWRITER
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CRISTINA ORTALI
ART DIRECTOR
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ALESSIO D’ERRICO
ART DIRECTOR
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ALESSANDRO BEVILACQUA
PROJECT MANAGER
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CHIARA BERTETTI
ARCHITECT
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MANUELA FERRI
PRODUCTION MANAGER
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ALESSANDRO ZANE
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
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MARTA DORIA
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
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GIANCARLO M. TRAINA
COPYWRITER
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ALBERTO NALDI
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
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ANDREA VINCI
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
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PIETRO LONGHI
COPYWRITER
They’ve worked with us: Henry Albert, Alessia Agostini, Daniele Bitetti, Angelo Bruno, Silvia Bruno, Beatrice Carmi, Veronica Cantono, Sofia Castrogiovanni, Martina Cerrato, Livia Chiriatti, Dario Consoli, Christian Corrent, Cristina Costamagna, Greta Costarelli, Alessandro Cuttica, Gemma De Bernardi, Valeria De Lauretis, Stefano De Rigo Piter, Simone Ellero, Carlotta Favretto, Ivan Felleca, Jacopo Ficulle, Flaminia Gallo, Samantha Garofalo, Simone Gatto, Anna Gerometta, Michele Guazzone, Matteo Guerra, Marta Guindani, Gloria Maggioli, Annalisa Morzone, Paola Nardini, Lucrezia Noro, Francesca Oddenino, Enrico Opezzo, Valentina Paracchi, Karin Pretto, Daniela Puddu, Dario Quatrini, Daniela Rodia, Francesca Sardigna, Leonardo Siciliano, Laura Sinagra Brisca, Gloria Somaini, Alberto Spadafora, Gabriele Stragliati, Alice Tirinzoni, Veronica Viotti.
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WHAT SETS US APART
Being designer-editors
When we talk about our work, we often refer to this dual role of designer-editor. It’s not just a way to express a unified approach to projects: it’s an attention to all dimensions of a communication —visual, verbal, strategic— that each of us brings, regardless of our specific professional role.
Designers: focus on content. Editors, think about form. This approach always applies and is tied to the editorial experience the studio was born with. For nearly ten years, Bellissimo’s work ran in parallel with the publication of Label, a style magazine — later, this experience was repeated with the monthly ITALIC and other ventures.Conceiving and producing content, art direction, and layout — being responsible for a single, unified process. Over time, our work as publishers has shaped a culture of visual and verbal care that now shows in our most complex projects, where we manage content and graphics in full — and more. It’s an impulse to expand personal reflection, transcending job titles and their boundaries on paper.
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Subtraction and division
The two math signs in our logo have an existential value for Bellissimo. Initially chosen as guiding principles for our graphic design approach, these two operations continue, years later, to inspire the creative thinking at the core of the studio’s work. A dual lesson —sharp and spontaneous— precisely because it was chosen by self-taught designers at the start of their careers. A choice made almost by chance. A trick. Yet one that reveals itself as the theme of a sonata, returning through countless variations.
Subtract and divide. Select, cut, reduce. Edit. Make the message clear and sharp, with words and images — not everyone likes it, but for us, it works best. What remains at the end of these progressive reductions has the power to strike, to evoke memories and emotions: it appears to the eye as something new, the kind of image that lingers in long-term memory and becomes timeless. Curiously, these two “existential” symbols stand in stark contrast to what happens in our lives, where everything accumulates and multiplies as we move forward.Bellissimo has always believed in education through vision. Instead of abstract ideas, we aim to create concise forms.
Vision is the result of synthesis — the same kind required to build an argument or form a judgment. Each of us continues to learn from what we see, day by day. The evolving nature of the design profession carries great responsibility, but it is also a strong motivation toward what we want to see, a drive to bring it to life. That is why the greatest results of our work come when these visions become shared. -
A cultural mission
Bellissimo is a communication studio, and our task is to respond to the goals of the companies and organizations that come to us. Simultaneously, through our work, we believe we can contribute to a broader conversation about the quality of the content we create.
We are interested in the cultural role we can play, within the scope of our activities and the spaces we manage to open up, as communication designers: in the desire to create a contemporary visual language, in the willingness to experiment, in our use of words, and in the eagerness to tell stories, even if it means adding a few extra lines. We aim —within the limits of each project— to push language a little further, whether for a niche publication or a mass-market packaging project.This professional attitude shows itself in daily interactions with clients and partners, and also finds freedom in self-initiated projects and initiatives. The Summer School, meetings, and workshops we organize at the loft all stem from the same idea of the studio as an active place within the creative industry.
“We humble ourselves, we sharpen our wit, and we offer, at the very least, our moment of lucidity. Our concern is always ‘the place of value in a world of facts’. But there is no role waiting for us, there is merely the chance of making one out of the sheer courage of our perceptions.”
— Norman Potter, What is a designer