Pentagram has designed the brand identity for Fondazione Fedrigoni Fabriano, a papermaking research centre and historic archive based in Fabriano, Italy

Since 1264 Fabriano has been home to one of the oldest and most prestigious paper mills in the world, playing a key role in the history and innovation of papermaking. The process of watermarking was pioneered in Fabriano and the unique handcrafted quality of its paper has been the choice for many artists from Michelangelo Buonarroti, Giambattista Bodoni, Ludwig van Beethoven and Georgia O’Keeffe, to Francis Bacon and Bruno Munari.

The Fondazione Fedrigoni Fabriano was established to celebrate the collection of printing artefacts acquired from the historical Cartiere Miliani paper mill and to promote pioneering research and specialist knowledge in papermaking and conservation.

A visit to the Foundation’s fascinating archive and to the paper mill to see the process of specialist papermaking inspired the craft-led approach to the identity. Encompassing both the amazing heritage but forward-thinking approach of Fabriano, the identity was employed across a range of applications in print and in digital. 

The typographic identity, consisting of three bespoke ‘F’s which stand for ‘Fondazione Fedrigoni Fabriano’, represents the corner of a page and takes inspiration from the feeling of leafing through history. Balancing a classical yet modern approach, the identity uses colours which are warm and vibrant, inspired by rich printing inks, and the aerial view of the Foundation’s building in the town of Fabriano.