Claudio Madella veteran

How long have you been printing?

I started in 2010, after opening Officina Tipografica Novepunti.

Describe your first encounter with letterpress

In 2009, during a short trip in São Paulo, Brazil. I went there to meet a friend and I visited Oficina Tipográfica São Paulo. It was so amazing that, back in Milan, I started looking for someone involved in letterpress.

Where did you learn?

I did it on my own, tacking care of presses and typefaces and asking everyone, everywhere I went. In fact, I'm still learning!

Who was your most influential teacher?

There are two persons who influenced me, mostly because they showed me the right way of thinking about letterpress: Lucio Passerini and Thomas Gravemaker.

What super power would you like to have?

More time...

Do you prefer to work alone or with others?

It depends on the project. Sometimes it is good to work with other people, sometimes better alone

What do you most value in your friends?

Loyalty and humour

When do your best ideas occur to you?

When I don't think about them

If you were to die and come back as a typeface, which would it be?

I'd like Estro, by Aldo Novarese. Not too serious but not too funny either.

What tool do you use more often than any other?

Speaking about letterpress, I suppose a ruler.

What books are currently on your nightstand?

David Foster Wallace, The broom of the system
Peter Dawson, The field guide to typography
Girolamo de Michele, Filosofia, guida alla sopravvivenza
John Steinbeck, Grapes of wrath

If you could study with any printer throughout history, who would it be?

Maybe Willem Sandberg or John Heartfield

If you have your own shop, what equipment do you own?

My printshop is splitted in two: studio and garage. In the studio I have one Grafix GXO, one platen Minima Saroglia, one table top press and some cabinets with wood and lead types. In the garage (at home) another table top press and one Adana 5x3.

If you could change one thing about your shop, what would it be?

More space for paper and archive.

When and where are you the happiest?

I don't have a particular place, mainly depends on the people around me. With good people I can stay everywhere (and I stayed in lots of strange places or situations...)

What is your greatest fear/worry?

Make mistakes in what I do.

What do you think is useful about what you make?

I think my work is useful if it gives people the opportunity to think about what's happening around them.

What’s your day job?

Mostly behind a computer, graphic design. I also teach Lettering and printing techniques.

Do you use any other techniques or media besides letterpress?

I use sometimes cliché, for some illustrations. Once also a photocopy.