Written words, defined with a sign, narrated with signs.
Suddenly, according to the sedimentation of the word or phrase in the mind, in everyday thoughts, the word the phrase becomes a sign-writing like the "Pandora's box". A graphic exercise to get more and more into the meaning of the sentence.
And what a marvel after a few months to read the same sentence, in an article in an Italian newspaper that quoted "Pandora's box" comparing it to the Italian political-social situation of the years 1992-1993.
The graphic or pictorial exercise stops when it becomes aware of the different use of the phrase (journalistic metaphor).
The memory returns to remember how the sentence appeared to us, on what day, whether inside or outside the workplace (studio), what signs or similar signals contributed to the decision that from that moment onwards the exercise daily chart was to display "Pandora's Box".
Remember that the flow of signs came as a different need, (a sort of self-commissioning) visualize concepts, places, links, pieces of history, everyday life, daily newspaper reading, talking to people, the need to make certain concepts visible through one's profession.
Now the path of this methodology is clear, everything comes back to mind.
The release for Einaudi essays of the book "Pandora's Box" by Dora and Erwin Panofsky becomes the ideal palette for the calligraphic exercise, the captions of the illustrations "Demons and snakes come out of the vase", "Pandora's cornucopia", "Pandora suffocated by the vapors emanating from the box fails, and is saved by the intervention of Cupid".
They are exceptional incitements for visualization. The iconographic sources within the book sometimes become models, not to be copied, but to be interpreted in the various daily graphic drafts.
So we (found) also the editorial support (the book), but it could have been an exhibition, a video, a single illustration.
So in this drafting of signs, there are also different supports that help to improve and specify more and more the project to be carried out.
I wanted to briefly reconstruct the various phases of this methodology because it can be applied in the field of visual communication to design an image (brand-logo), a cover, a poster or anything that adheres to any surface.
Alfredo de Santis
Rome, October 1997