Luciano Perondi

Chief designer, researcher, associate professor at the IUAV Venice

You can best believe that if type was a car, he’d be our chief car designer

Since 1998 he has been working as a typeface and graphic designer. He was appointed associate professor of Design at the IUAV Venice in 2018 and he is also a member of the Alpaca, cooperative of designers. Often within a theoretical approach, his interests are focused on visual studies, writing, typography and information design. From 2003–2007 he ran the Molotro studio. From 2005–2013 he was on the editorial board of the Italian design magazine Progetto Grafico. He has lectured in many Italian universities. From 2013–2016, he was the Director of the ISIA Urbino. In 2012 Stampa Alternativa published his book on non-linear writing, Sinsemie: scritture nello spazio. He’s been a member of CAST since 2013.

Riccardo Olocco

Co-founder, designer, researcher and visiting research fellow at the University of Reading

Half researcher half gourmet, he adds academy and flavour to our business recipes

In 2019 he completed his PhD A new method of analysing printed type: the case of 15th-century Venetian romans at the University of Reading, while in 2022, with Michele Patanè he wrote Designing type revivals. In the early 2010s he was a lecturer in Typography at the University of Bolzano, and during the late 1990s, he freelanced as a typeface and graphic designer in Milan and elsewhere in northern Italy. He publishes articles and lectures and is a member of the Nebiolo History Project.

Marta Bernstein

Co-founder, designer, researcher

By travelling, teaching and designing across the globe, she waves the Foundry’s flag far and wide

Originally from Milan, she is currently Associate Creative Director at Studio Matthews (Seattle, Usa), developing EGD and wayfinding systems. She has a soft spot for 19th-century type, a topic she has been researching for a decade and presented at various international type conferences (Atypi, Typographics NYC, Letterform Archive). She has been involved in teaching graphic design, typography and type design on a regular basis since 2007 in universities and design schools in Europe, USA and China. She completed her M.Des in type design at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. She is a member of the Nebiolo History Project.

Erasmo Ciufo

Co-founder, designer

He doesn’t strive to copy Steve McQueen but he loves racing cars. That’s why he’s always in pole position

He’s also founder of Lettergram, a graphic design studio specialising in branding and type design, based both in Milan and New York. In 2004 he graduated in Communication Sciences at Milan University and in 2006 he got an MA in Visual and Graphic Design at the Scuola Politecnica di Design (SPD), Milan.

Valentina Casali

Designer and lettering artist

Half digital, half analogue, she never stops using her hands

She graduated in 2021 from the Type@Cooper Extended Program at the Cooper Union, she also graduated with ‘greatest honour’ in 2022 at the Expert Type Design Class at the Plantin Instituut voor Typografie in Antwerp. She teaches type design and lettering at the Academy of Fine Arts in Macerata, Italy. She also runs Tiger Mochi, a small home-decor brand. She co-founded the ‘typo-graphic’ studio Sunday Büro with Marco Goran Romano. Her work has won awards from AIAP (the Italian graphic designers association), Communication Arts, the Society of Publication Designers and the Type Directors Club. She joined CAST in 2023. 

Alessandro Colizzi

designer, researcher and associate professor at the Politecnico di Milano

We were looking for a multilingual typography historian with a license to design. We found him!

His research and teaching activities at the Department of design focus on graphic design history, typography, and type design. He holds a PhD from the University of Leiden, an MA in Type Design from The Hague’s Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, a postgraduate diploma from the Atelier National de Recherche Typographique, and an MLitt in English Literature from the University of Rome La Sapienza. He is a member of the Nebiolo History Project. He joined CAST in 2019.

Daniele Capo

architect, designer, type engineer

He’s got the know-how and he knows how to put it to work for the Foundry

He holds programming courses for typography, lettering, calligraphy and handwriting. He collaborates with Arci Viterbo in the communication of their social and cultural initiatives and has a contract assignment for the graphic design course at the Disucom of the Università della Tuscia. He specialises in font engineering and training for engineers. He has been a member of CAST and its type engineer since 2016.

Demetrio Mancini

graphic designer

He is a desktop wizard who lives and works in central Italy, halfway between the Adriatic Sea and the Apennines

He designs logos, catalogues, books, advertising, packaging, exhibition set-ups, websites. He specialises in the design of photo books and in post-production of photos. He has been participating in CAST communication activities since 2018.

Andrea Amato (Tipiblu)

art director and typeface designer

He fancies himself as a type designer, but we only allow him to do graphics

He graduated from the Politecnico di Milano with a thesis on the history of sanserifs, and went on to work with Matteo Thun & Partners and Massimo Pitis. Art director of That’s Contemporary, an eye on contemporary art in Milan, he is the owner of the Tipiblu studio with Aurora Biancardi. In 2017 they published Sempione, the first of the Tipiblu faces for the Foundry. A contract professor at Raffles Milano, he teaches lettering at the Accademia Belle Arti Santa Giulia in Brescia. He has been a member of CAST and its art director since 2018.

Giulio Galli

Designer and researcher

He’s getting the know-how and the power to use it. Another vital string to our bow!

Following his BA thesis on tactile typefaces at the ISIA in Urbino, and an MA in Typeface Design at the University of Reading, he teaches typeface design and typography at the Pxl-Mad School of Arts in Hasselt, Belgium. He’s also a PhD candidate at ReadSearch, a research lab at the University of Hasselt, studying parametric typeface design for legibility. He’s been collaborating with the Foundry since 2018.

Agnese Addone

PhD in Computer Science, designer and teacher

Letter-hunting addicted, she gives good advice on Foundry’s strategy and teaching activities

She graduated in Medieval History and post-graduated in Paleography and Archival studies In Rome. School teacher, now PhD in Computer Science at the University of Salerno. She volunteered as CoderDojo champion. Passionate about type with a penchant for epigraphy and signs, she has been a member of CAST since 2020.

Massimo Gonzato

copywriter and editor

He’s committed to make the Foundry’s glory shine on

He collaborates with design magazines and publishing houses. Passionate about letterforms, he is co-founder of SMED, a non-profit association for handwriting (smed2015.it), and a member of the Nebiolo History Project. He's been taking part in CAST’s advertising and publishing projects since 2014.

James Clough

typography and lettering historian, writer, teacher and lecturer

Letter-hunting has become our favourite sport since he’s been prowling the Italian streets

Having studied at the London College of Printing he moved to Milan in 1971 to work as a designer. He started freelancing in 1980 and developed skills in lettering and calligraphy. Over the past thirty years he's been deeply involved in teaching and has lectured in Europe and the USA. He has also curated three Italian printing museums. His writing embraces typography and the graphic arts. Two recent books are Alphabets of Wood, Tipoteca Italiana, 2014, and Signs of Italy, Lazy Dog Press, 2015. A co-founder of the ACI – Associazione Calligrafica Italiana, a member of the Nebiolo History Project, he has been CAST’s editor and adviser since the beginning.

Micol Salomone

APP DEVELOPER AND DIGITAL PRODUCT DESIGNER

Her digital native background means she tends to nerd out a bit

She is an Apple Developer Academy alumna with a Master's Degree in Digital Product Management. Due to her professional pursuits, she came across the unconventional minds at CAST foundry and proudly chose to be part of it. Moreover, she is the co-founder of Elemental Studio, a cooperative dedicated to advancing digitalisation in non-profit and public business across Italy. Besides the digital skills, she nurtures her passion for hand drawing and the mesmerizing world of synthesizers.