Fabrizio Radaelli veteran

How long have you been printing?

I started in 2009.

Describe your first encounter with letterpress

Really I don’t remember the exact moment: probably during my childhood, through those old books I found out one day, in the ancient house where I used to spend summer vacation.

Where did you learn?

At CFP Bauer School, Milano. The school still organises courses about typographt and letterpress in its beautiful workshop.

Who was your most influential teacher?

Lucio Passerini and my friends at Officina Tipografica Novepunti: they teach me something every day.

What super power would you like to have?

To stop time.

Do you prefer to work alone or with others?

I prefer to alternate the situations: firstly design alone, then confrontation with others, then alone again etc. etc. But i really like to finish the process together.

What do you most value in your friends?

Their weaknesses.

When do your best ideas occur to you?

Maybe when I am under pressure.

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

I’d like to be reborn in the line spacing between an Akzidenz Grotesk title and a Baskerville subtitle

What tool do you use more often than any other?

Books, tobacco and Google’s researches.

What books are currently on your nightstand?

Critica portatile al Visual Design, by Riccardo Falcinelli, and the Truman Capote’s Complete Works.

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

With Jan Tschichold I guess, even if I’m quite sure he will kick me in the ass in no more than two weeks.

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

My shop is Officina Novepunti, so a bunch of old but reliable machines, good typefaces, dust and knick-knacks.

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

Maybe the location: just a little bit closer to my house.

When and where are you the happiest?

During LPW International Summit, obviously!

What is your greatest fear/worry?

Wasting time and precious moments

What do you think is useful about what you make?

Maybe the fact I really try to solve problems in an original but efficient way.

What’s your day job?

Reading and writing worker_emails, designing on my computer, looking for interesting opportunities, sketching on paper, consulting books, tracing funny and often useless to-do lists.

Do you use any other techniques or media besides letterpress?

Not really, but I'm very interested in the form of books, so I'm quite interested in bookbinding, pop ups books and paper design.