interview with andrea braccaloni founder of leftloft

andrea braccaloni founder of leftloft

andrea braccaloni is the founder and creative director at leftloft – a graphic design practice with offices in milan and new york city that specializes in branding but also works across all types of visual communication. andrea told us more about his work and influences.

designboom: what originally made you want to become an graphic designer?

andrea braccaloni: as a child I spent my afternoons drawing, instead of doing my homework; as a boy I spent my evenings doing lettering on VHS labels instead of studying; as a teenager I spent my nights painting city walls instead of going out for a beer. then I decided to become an architect. while studying at milano politecnico, I met some cool guys and our focus on politics led us to decide that we wanted to be urban planners. hence we founded a graphic design studio!

internazionale (inter milan) crest

internazionale advertising

internazionale advertising

DB: how would you describe your approach to design?

AB: I think our approach could be considered quite common. it’s a mix between rational practices and intuitive trial-and-error actions. it usually sparkles from a ‘vision’, which is then explored and tested by a deep research and corroborated by sketches, diagrams or any other scribble that might be helpful in order to share the initial intuition. if we are persuaded by the idea, than we follow its development.

documenta exhibition identity – advertising

DB: who or what has been the biggest single influence on your design approach?

AB: since we are primarily self-taught and we founded the studio without having previous work experience in the field, we didn’t have any real mentor. we received countless influences from every person, place or discipline we had the chance to stumble upon on our path. I also personally think that what I learned studying architecture, really impacted me.

I think that the debate around the ‘design thinking’ is what recently helped us to better understand where we wanted to go and how to get there.

moleskin identity – packaging

DB: what would you say is your strongest skill?

AB: I think we are capable of dealing with complex systems, providing strong visuals where typography and photography play a leading role.

DB: what type of brief or project do you enjoy working on the most and why?

AB: we love design and whether it is a brand strategy or a custom typeface, we enjoy working on it equally. but there are better modalities than others. we want to have strong relationships with our clients. we want to develop our projects side by side with decision makers. the final outcome is always more successful and more effective this way.

icon magazine identity

DB: what are your thoughts on specialization vs generalization?

AB: graphic design is too small a field to concentrate only on certain aspects of it. the studio, since its founding, has always delivered projects in the widest possible range of graphic design services. we don’t want to serve just a few industries or focus only on a limited range of services. we like to change, to tackle new challenges. it’s more fun and more fulfilling. there are projects we feel more comfortable with, of course, but in general we love to keep a more humanistic approach.

vocabolario della linga latina book cover

DB: how do you think online design resources have influenced the graphic design being produced today?

AB: the biggest difference I think is timing. we work in a sort of global scene where ideas can be spread instantly and influences are border-less. regions are less important and schools are maybe the last remaining rampart of local peculiarities. I’m not against it, but the critical mass of projects is so huge that some ideas get easily overused. trendlist.org collects a lot of good examples of this phenomenon.

la lettera exhibition

DB: what are you currently fascinated by and how is it feeding into your work?

AB: design trend debates are a little boring, but of course we have new infatuations everyday. I’ve personally always been fascinated by language and the written word and I’m currently working on some typographic projects about this.

SEL exhibition

DB: what are you passionate about besides your work?

AB: food über alles, playing tennis and supporting bologna football club.

DB: do you have any superstitious beliefs or rules that you live by?

AB: I used to be a little superstitious when I was a teenager. It was the fear of getting big I guess. now I’m not at all and I feel much better now than I did then!

pirelli exhibition

DB: what’s your personal motto?

AB: I’m not a big fan of quotes, even if in the studio there have been a few circulating for a long time, the majority from our favorite writer: tom robbins. but the motto I always keep in mind comes from pliny the elder, it is ‘nulla die sine linea’. not a single day without a line. when you find what you love doing, do it every day, get better every day.