Label Magazine
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1997-2007
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Label
AT THE ROOTS OF LOVE
An editorial venture rooted in free-spirited contemporaneity, growing from a university experiment into a style magazine distributed in 21 countries. The project that marked the very beginning of the studio’s story.
Before Bellissimo, there was Label. In 1997, a group of students launched a contemporary culture magazine that blended —and blurred— emerging themes and lifestyle trends: art architecture music design consumer culture movies… The following summer, part of that same group decided to start a communication studio —Bellissimo— which, from then until 2007, worked alongside the Label editorial team on art direction and editorial design.
In the early years, Label and Bellissimo followed parallel paths with countless points of intersection: the evolution of the magazine was the evolution of the studio, and vice versa. The bilingual quarterly’s double-page spreads became an ideal lab for developing a forward-looking visual language, built on imaginative photo shoots and original graphic solutions — the dawn of the desktop publishing era, when layout software opened up creative possibilities that had been unfeasible until then.
From 2000 onward, Label took on a new dimension: its format grew, but even more so did its ambitions, in an editorial landscape animated at the time by titles like The Face, Raygun, The Wire, i-D, and many others. Always independent, Label became Italy’s first true style magazine — a trendsetting periodical constantly seeking to anticipate shifts in the creative industries and society at large. The magazine began to reach international audiences, eventually distributing to more than twenty countries. Lonely Planet described it as “the Italian version of Wallpaper,” the most authoritative monthly on architecture and design.
The fast-paced rhythm of producing content under tight print deadlines provided constant training for the studio — an imprint that still shapes the team’s editorial sensibility, alongside a range of other skills. Working closely with the editorial staff also positioned Bellissimo at the center of a network of photographers, writers, and creative talents in Italy and beyond, who became collaborators on studio projects and remain a key part of Bellissimo’s professional network even after the magazine’s run ended.
Anyone who’s ever run a magazine knows: it’s a project unlike any other. It’s like a first love, or a steadfast imaginary friend. It gives a lot — and demands even more.
from A Book About Bellissimo, 2009
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