This is an exciting job that I got thanks to a long Instagram stalking by Matteo Zazzera, one of the top organizers of Criterium Italia. The Fixed’s world is hard to explain, full of crazy people, able to fast and furious up in bikes with no brakes, in city or non-city circuits, risking hurting themselves badly.
Matteo came to me after a short but intense brainwave that he had while looking at my old poster of Romeo Venturalli, which I created to tell the story of one of the greatest and most reckless cyclists who have ever pedaled in Emilia-Romagna. My interpretation of this unusual character must have stuck in Zazzera a sliver of madness, because he come up with an insane idea: commissioning me the posters for Criterium.
9 stages, around central and northern Italy, several teams, a lot of passion and, above all, a sporting discipline they wanted to promote and to make grow.
The places have represented the most interesting challenge, especially because I wanted to dignify them at best. Rome and Florence have probably been the easiest work, but interpreting less renowned small towns has been incredibly fascinating. Working on the Matterhorn’s outline, giving a warlike look to the Legnano Castle, discovering the magnificence of the castles of Abbiategrasso and Varano de’Melegari, giving symmetry to the crenellations of the castle of Castell’Arquato, placing a thin outline of the Apuan Alps in the horizon of Forte dei Marmi, finding out about the magnificence of the cathedral of Lissone and recreating its geometry.
Also the protagonists of the Fixed race have proved to be interesting subjects to interpret, even if I didn’t know them at the beginning. Jasmine Dotti, Alvise Zanasca, Alec Briggs, Alessandro Mariani, Emanuele Poli, Ivan Ravaioli, Giorgio Brambilla, Martino Poccianti and Stefania Baldi have made their way on the posters with their determination and their sweat.
