our work is rather like that of the translator. a good translator enjoys reading, loves writing and perhaps rewrites a single phrase by shakespeare fifty times till it finally sounds shakespearean. it is no longer monguzzi, but shakespeare in italian. it took all knowledge, understanding, sensibility and culture. it took all of monguzzi for that text to become shakespeare. —bruno monguzzi


spider’s web

In 1961, at the age of 20, Monguzzi started his career at the legendary Studio Boggeri in Milan, one of the leading design and advertising agencies in Italy at that time. Monguzzi recalls an early conversation with Antonio Boggeri, in which Boggeri compared Swiss graphic design with a spider’s web—a perfect geometric construction that was often completely useless. The web performs its function only when invaded by the entangled fly. “It was then,” Monguzzi said, “that my use of type and pictures began to grow towards more expressive solutions.”