illywords magazine´s new issue: the Journey

by Silvia Vatta | Sep 27, 2011 in Galleria illy London | Leave A Comment

Saturday evening Galleria illy hosted by Flos-Moroso presented a conversation around the latest illywords magazine issue realised in partnership with the Kingston University students.

The general theme is “The Journey”. I met Ian Noble, Professor and Curator of the magazine´s illustrations, Pietro Corraini, graphic designer and Ariella Risch, managing editor of illywords.

The team has already worked together in 2008 for Innovage with the London College of Communication.

While they are getting ready for the talk, I try to steal a few details about this experience that more than ever represents a successful example of fusione of multiple creativity approaches.

Silvia Vatta: “How was the first feedback that your students gave, when they heard about the illywords project? And how did they develope their ideas in relation to the magazine needs?”

Ian Noble: “The students were very pleased and excited to have the opportunity to work on this project. As illustrators, working with an editorial it is always interesting, especially when it is an entire themed issue”.

SV: “Which criteria do you follow to select the art works of the students? How do you usually deal with the combination of images and texts? For example in this particular case?”

Pietro Corraini: “The process of creating images for illywords is actually very simple. The high quality of schools invited to collaborate involves that professors and students are able to meet our expectations very effectively. Every time we start with an open discussion on the illywords issue. Here the students, coordinated by professors, have total freedom of expression. Illustrations become real interpretations of the theme and not just something needed to complete texts, which by the way, the students have no way to read first.

With Ariella we like to define illywords as a laboratory, where the research takes place on an equal footing among articles, interviews and illustrations. However, without a precise connection between images and text, the work can sometimes be complex. We try to use all the illustrations, building a sort of parallel story to the text, and not a compendium, as usually happens in newspapers. In illywords we let these two levels cross-over one in the other with no overlapping, creating this way a sort of dialogue between the two.”

IN: “The works´ selection was interesting. Each student produced a wide range of works exploring different approaches in multiple ways”.

SV: “What´ s your personal opinion about the creativity expressed by Galleria illy?”

PC: “In Galleria illy, or better in the Gallerie illy, I can see illywords soul. I mean, the desire to bring together different voices and points of view to draw out discussions and thoughts, not only in the audience but in illy itself and I think this makes the content much more interesting and ‘real’”.

IN: “The galleria seems to offer a location where interested people can come together, meet and exchange ideas about creativity, communication and design”.

SV: “Can you imagine a word that embodies for you the whole concept of illywords?”

AR: “The word I think is ‘Crossover’. In synthesis, illywords is an editorial concept which stimulates the meeting among different expressions of creativity. When I identify the general theme for the issue, I try to connect it with the contemporary values of life and illy philosophy. All I do is asking people and experts in different fields to compare their creative ideas in relation with the topic. Illywords is a crossover of thoughts!”

IN: “To me the spirit of illywords seems to be about cooperation and understanding. It brings together different people who have different expertise and work in this occasion with each other. It is a long-lasting project that offers an interesting insight into design education from around the world. As we live nowadays in a time when we all need more understanding, I would choose ‘understanding’ as a word describing illywords concept”.

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