[English] 注目の同世代イタリア人グラフィックデザイナーMatteo Morelliにインタビュー
【この記事の内容を簡単にまとめると】今回は著者が大学1年の頃に出会った、同世代（つまり学生）のグラフィックデザイナーでイラストレーターのMatteo Morelliを紹介します。彼はミラノを拠点にしながらも、オンラインで世界各地のお客さんと、様々な場所にいながらしてデザインしています。インターネットの時代、理解されないこともあるかもしれませんが、恥ずかしがらず、すべてはよりよい作品づくりのため、世界中の人に自分の作品を見てもらうことから始めましょう！
Modern designer from Milan - Matteo Morelli
彼はミラノを拠点にしながらも、オンラインで世界各地のお客さんと、様々な場所にいながらしてコラボレーションしています。そんな彼は日本の美大（武蔵野美術大学）に留学、日本の教育を通して、自分の文化の強み弱み（特に弱み）を知る機会になったと言います。そして日本のデザインは、誰が作ったか表に出てこないないことが新鮮だったと言います。Matteoは2013年にBehanceで自身の作品を発表して以降、2年経たずしてフリーランスとして仕事を受けることが増え、Bechance appreciation awardで優勝したほか、2014 Young Illustrator Awardも受賞しています。インターネットの時代、恥ずかしがらず、理解されないこともあるかもしれませんが、すべてはよりよい作品づくりのため、世界中の人に自分の作品を見てもらうことが大事ではないでしょうか。
1 Who is Matteo Morelli?
Matteo Morelli is a graphic designer student and an illustrator, or an Illustrator who is still studying graphic design.
“I am currently based in Milan but thanks to the internet era, I can be almost everywhere in the world and have the opportunity to collaborate with customers in many different countries.”
2 Why should we talk about Matteo Morelli? What is your characterizing point?
My passion for art led me to explore pretty much every facet of art during the last 10 years: sculpture, oil painting,engraving and completing a Bachelor in product design. I try to use all my previous experience in my works, giving them a very personal touch. I always want to leave a piece of my soul inside them, even though I only leave a simple logo.
3 Where's your inspiration comes from?
I am a bibliophile and browsing my antique books is my main source of inspiration. Sadly, I have to say that the power of historical knowledge has been always underrated, especially by contemporary designers.
4 Why you come to Japan?
When I was a kid, my dad often traveled to Japan and he brought me amazing items every time that I still keep in my room. I grew up idealizing Japan and its culture. Finally last year I got the opportunity to live there for a while and to experience it personally, spending a semester in one of the best design schools in Japan, Musashino Art University.
5 What did you learn from that experience?
I know it could sound weird but I learnt a lot of things about Western culture. Living in a total different environment, such as the Japanese one, helped me to figure out which are the strong and (especially) the weak points of my culture. Oh, and finally I learnt how to use chopsticks properly.
6 What's the difference between Japan and Italy?
In the design field, there is a fundamental difference. The thing I appreciated in Japanese culture is the ennobling of anonymous design. For Japanese, a design piece can be excellent even though it has no “signature”. That made me think also about its sense of community, a sense that you can feel even sharing the meals around a table and that is something Italy does not have. The first thing we learn is to try to be different from the others. In the Italian design, all high quality artwork have to be signed and author should be easily recognizable. That is why Italians, or Europeans in general can develop that many different styles, especially in graphics.
7 How do you get your visibility?
I decided to open my works to the world in 2013, joining the Behance network. The high quality artworks I could browse everyday on that platform inspired and challenged me. In less than two years I achieved good visibility, which led to receiving proposals for freelance jobs, the possibility to be featured in design magazines or sometimes just a message from people who congratulate me on my work. Just this positive feedback is the best “award” I can get.
More details about Behance : https://partner-web.jp/article/?id=68
8 About awards, is there any relations with the awards you got and Behance itself?
Yes, somehow they are connected. When I was in Japan I had the chance to join the Portfolio Review #4 in Tokyo, organized by the wonderful Japanese community of the network and I was selected as one of the winners of the Bechance appreciation award. Thanks to Behance, I also got the opportunity to join and be selected as a finalist in another international competition, the 2014 Young Illustrator Award.
9 Do you have any tips for the young designers who start to open to the world?
My one piece of advice is to not to be shy and accept the challenge of the Internet era. Being online, being visisble to the whole world is very important right now. Having a great talent is not enough if nobody can see it. Don’t be too jealous of your work, even though the risk that somebody takes your ideas or your style is pretty high.
Somebody can even dislike or simply not understand your work. But that should not make you give up, it should simply motivate yourself to improve everyday.
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I met Matteo in first grade of university and we became very good friends. Sometimes we worked together at the school’s library. We shared information and opinions, he is like my teacher and brother. As I knew I was going to write some articles, the first thing I wanted to write about is Matteo and his works, even though we have only known each other for a short while. Through doing this interview with him, I can still learn something from him. I think the important thing of being an artist or art student is to upload information into your mind, see more and read more. For this purpose, introducing artists from around the world to readers is what I want to do. I hope you guys enjoy my article!
Photo Credits:
http://matteomorelli.net/
https://www.behance.net/matteo_morelli
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STUDENT WRITER
ケン リ / Ken Lee
Taiwanese, living in Japan Musashino Art University Oil Painting Department
