Illustratore Italiano: where experiences and images merge to describe illustrations and people who make them.

The first Italian independent magazine on illustration. Conceived by Maria La Duca, an illustrator from Brescia, and her brother Filippo, graphic designer. The crowdfunding will start on the 3rd of November.

Biography of an idea

Illustratore Italiano (the Italian illustrator) is the first Italian magazine entirely focused on illustration. The project started spontaneously in 2014 when the Italian illustrator from Brescia Maria La Duca had the idea to create a Facebook page to collect news and updates about illustration. In a few months the page gathered together hundreds of users creating a real community that made Illustratore italiano grow. Then Maria and Filippo had the idea to produce a magazine, inspired by the famous periodicals of the past like L’Illustrazione Italiana, Domenica del Corriere, Corto maltese and Linus, but very up-to-date. The project is to achieve a strong identity and two main objectives: describe a profession that is improving in our country through images and give accurate and punctual information to the ones interested in illustration, to illustrators themselves and to the professionals whose work is connected to it: the publishing industry, cinema,
design and communication.

The web and the printed material

Last summer Illustratore Italiano progressed on a blog online (illustratoreitaliano.wordpress.com): it contains articles and columns both written and drawn by illustrators and in-depth analysis taken by the editorial staff. Moreover, it provides a newsletter of the most important events, workshops and contests in Italy. It is a fixed space in Italian and English that values young and new ways of expression. Starting from March 2016 the project, in collaboration with famous Italian illustrators (for instance Simone Massoni, Gloria Pizzini, Lucio Schiavon, Riccardo Guasco) will become a magazine. Beginning from next March a bilingual (Italian and English) printed edition will be published four times a year (once every quarter year). The magazine will make the reader explore Italian landscapes via travelogues depicted by some selected artists in their distinctive style. The result will be an art travel journey through the pages of the magazine. Besides, every issue will include some other research conducted by the staff. It will explore every single area concerning graphic arts: editorial illustration, storyboarding, street art and children’s illustration.

“Since I started this job I have always wanted to get to know the background and scenario of what I was studying while I was attending the International School of Comics. Even while I was engaged in other jobs
I have always been captivated and interested in illustration: I was surrounded by my grandpa Calogero’s Gulliver’s Travels figures, his comic strips on the OM magazine (the company magazine of a car and truck manufacturing company) and his paintings of sailing boats. They gradually took me to the world of illustration and the change has been radical. I risked a step into the unknown. While I was doing some research I realised that a huge number of information about illustration is scattered and hard to find in the web and on social networks. That is when everything started”, explains Maria La Duca, illustrator and inventor of the project. She keeps on, “Filippo is my right hand: when he finished his degree in graphic design, we started to concentrate on the project together trying to expand my initial idea.”“With the printed issue we want to provide an interesting and enjoyable editorial project, not only pleasant to read but also inviting to collect”, adds Filippo. “The graphic plan and the the use of a refined paper will add value to the contents and the ad hoc illustrations.”