The RUFA Contest, promoted by RUFA (Rome University of Fine Arts) and conceived by Emanuele Cappelli, fosters meaningful encounters between emerging talents and internationally renowned artists. The 2015 edition of the contest was a defining moment for the event’s format. For the first time, the event welcomed an internationally acclaimed guest of honour: Stefan Sagmeister, the visionary Austrian New York-based designer renowned for blurring the boundaries between art and communication.

The theme for that year, ‘What have I learned?’, invited twenty-five selected students to explore the connection between personal discovery and the creative process. The event transformed the stage of Rome’s historic Teatro Olimpico into a powerful environment for expression and dialogue. Through performances, video installations and visual storytelling, the contest became a collective reflection on identity, experimentation and the emotional power of design.

Cappelli Identity Design was responsible for the creative direction, brand identity and stage design, crafting an immersive experience based on the studio’s Dynamic brand methodology an approach that treats identity as a relationship between values, context and audience, rather than a static mark. Drawing inspiration from Sagmeister’s provocative language and handwritten typography, the visual system embraced deliberate imperfection as a design tool, elevating contradiction to a poetic dimension.

The scenography played with words and light: two large-scale typographic structures acted as both installation and manifesto. With statements suspended between irony and revelation, they captured the essence of the guests’ work and the bold spirit of the event.

Phenomenon
beyond Structure.