Il Mercato Centrale Milano
Mercato Centrale
il Mercato Centrale Milano
concept – strategy – branding – visual identity – art & creative direction – setting – graphic design – menu design – ADV & media plan – digital content – web design
Three years of meetings, brainstorming, notes, presentations, trials, sketches, ideas. Three red zones, but four orange and two yellow zones, too. On September 2nd 2021, il Mercato Centrale Milano opens to the public. Concept and creative direction by almagreal. Here, taste is unique.
Concept, setting, internal and external communication. almagreal took care of all the details and realized the whole project of Mercato Centrale Milano.
A team work involving different actors: professionals, artists and writers. A dream idea that has been designed and finally realized on site.
central central central
Inside the Stazione Centrale, in the very heart of the city of fashion, design and inclusion par excellence. Here, il Mercato Centrale Milano is born.
By its nature, a railway station welcomes, greets and observes people passing by. It is frame and contour of memories and moments, departures and arrivals. It is the space of time. We have been transforming the spaces of Ferrovie dello Stato into the setting of a story, a creative idea that has memory at its heart.
in progress in progress in progress
Two floors, 32 shops, one radio workshop, one meeting area.
However, the first time we entered the Mercato Centrale, it was a construction site. A forgotten space with a great potential. We just observed: walls, corners, ceilings. We understood it was trying to tell us a story. We just listened to it and designed an unexpected square of taste, a place of wonder.
brand brand brand
Il Mercato Centrale Milano is the fourth for almagreal. Four like the sides of a square. The number of solidity, resoluteness and practicality. The compass with its four cardinal points. The elements and seasons, earth, water, air and fire. Especially, time. Because you can measure and hold it. The quarter-hour and the four quarters. The four forms of music. Time that remembers, retells, stratifies. Time that is trace and memory.
concept concept concept
Food is present and the undisputable protagonist of the creative concept. However, it is never presented as a finished, static product. The delicacies of the artisans are told with their facets, in their unique human traits. The creative inspiration is that of graphics and concrete art, based on the realisation and objectification of intuitions. The word register is based on visual poetry and sound poetry.
Word signs are associated with extra-linguistic and non-verbal signs, words are repeated, superimposed, decomposed. Noise, colour and experience. Voice. A unique and distinctive voice. Il Mercato Centrale Milano resonates this voice.
stratify repeat stratify repeat
The voice of the artisans, who together are the voice of the market. A voice that expresses personality, values, emotions, uniqueness.
Voices that speak, shout, whisper and laugh with different intensities. Voices that add up, stratify, repeat.
We decided to tell the many facets of the Mercato on several levels.
It is a layering that makes us perceive all the elements and souls of the single shop, the single craftsman and the Mercato as a whole.
It is a stratification that sees the artwork of Jonathan Calugi, Simone Brillarelli and Urto superimposed and contaminated by paintings, graphic signs, collages and mixed techniques.
A road that finds its mark and opens up to collaboration with ever different artists, because the soul of the Mercato Centrale Milano is in constant progression, it is dynamic and never stops.
setting setting setting
From the posters to the phrases on the walls, from the artistic interventions to the customisation of the food shops: every element of the layout was created on site with the creative direction of almagreal. The walls of the Mercato Centrale Milano are like books to be leafed through, in a journey that traces the experience, the memories, the signs, the symbols that over the years – past and future – belong to a place. A fragment of masonry, inside the Mercato Centrale Milano, that has been collected and will collect. An archaeology of the everyday that expresses itself and creates a narrative identity with aspects linked to the stratification of culture, and the idea of the ancient as loss and/or theft.
signs signs signs
The visual identity is, therefore, made up of signs, shapes, words and colours. At the heart is the square, container and content of meanings. But every visual and word object – including the choice and use of type – overlaps, stratifies, repeats. An encounter that enriches and narrates the complexity of reality by simplifying it.
artisans artisans artisans
Artisans, the protagonists of the Mercato, inhabit the space as in an art gallery. They are portrayed in their peculiar imperfections, with features that are ever different and always unique. They are faces, but they are characterised by a combination of signs, colours, illustrations, photos and words. This sum of elements is the stylistic signature of each artisan and their space. Elements that are composed, added, subtracted and mixed together.
internal internal internal communication
Menus, posters, QRCodes, internal monitors. Every corner of the Mercato is a communication opportunity. The system, again, is dynamic. Dynamic and memorable. And designed to make people fall in love. For those who can no longer part with it, there is merchandising. Sweatshirts, T-shirts, notebooks, pencils and shopping bags. Il Mercato Centrale Milano to take away.
launch launch launch campaign
The aim is to emerge from the variety of messages, to pay homage to the city on the move, to attract attention and amaze. The creativity designed for the launch campaign gives voice to excellence. It does so with a dynamic and static media planning, which welcomes you in the Stazione Centrale and accompanies you throughout the city.
events events events
Il Mercato is always in turmoil. Every day there is something new: an event, an opportunity to pop into the Stazione Centrale and be amazed. The communication format designed for the internal communication of the Mercato Centrale is dynamic and contemporary. Repetitions, illustrations, colours. An ever-changing narrative of the shops and artisans. A universe of signs and symbols that narrates without getting boring.
web web web
The website has been designed, the landing pages have been structured, all the contents have been drafted. Mercato Centrale Milano is online. Every day we take care of the design and creation of the visual contents for social media, striving to convey on pixels the incredible universe that exists in and around the Mercato.
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