By Rebecca Ceccatelli.

We welcome you behind the scenes of an exhibition.
This is how each episode of the podcast Museo Ferragamo: Dietro le quinte di una mostra [Museo Ferragamo: Behind the Scenes of an Exhibition] begins. Created by the students of Istituto Marangoni Firenze from the Arts Curating and Multimedia Arts courses, in collaboration with the Fondazione Ferragamo, the podcast aims to narrate and explore the backstage of the exhibition currently running until April 6, 2026 at Museo Ferragamo in Florence, titled Salvatore Ferragamo 1898–1960.
The exhibition is the largest retrospective ever dedicated to the great historic shoemaker of Hollywood stars, retracing not only his biography and the most significant stages of his career, but also the smallest details of his creations, from materials to anatomical studies.
The podcast created by the students seeks to adopt the same approach as the retrospective, but this time keeping as the central focus of the research not so much the figure of Salvatore Ferragamo, but the exhibition itself.
Thus, each episode is presented as an exploration of one of the different figures who, from behind the scenes, contributed to building the exhibition. Through interviews, they narrate their collective project – its challenges, processes, and insights.
In the second episode, Esaltare il contenuto: la grafica [Enhancing the Content: Graphic Design], Stefano Rovai, designer and founder of the studio RovaiWeber Design describe what it means to create a visual identity for an exhibition and how it can support the exhibition’s content simply through graphic elements.

Welcome, and we’re very pleased to have you with us. During your career, you’ve often crossed paths with Stefania Ricci. How did your meeting with the director of the Museo Ferragamo and curator of the exhibition come about? What was the conversation like to identify the project’s priorities?

I’ve been fortunate to know Stefania Ricci for a very long time, so this is not the first exhibition I’ve worked on with her, and that familiarity is extremely helpful in carrying out a project. As always, when you meet Stefania, she provides a wealth of information about the exhibition, explaining its main content. From there, the adventure begins, made up of countless details that people often don’t even notice. A show is not just the exhibition itself; it’s everything surrounding it in terms of communication: from external communication design, to the design of the exhibition, to editorial projects, and all the tools necessary to convey and amplify the exhibition’s message. What’s particularly interesting is that an exhibition doesn’t end with the opening—it really begins after the inauguration, and that’s when all the communication work takes place.

If you had to explain, how did you, as a graphic designer, take in these stimuli, absorb them, and then express them through your own personal language?

Creating an exhibition is a bit like making a film: you need to bring together many different skills, from the photographer to the installer, to the people working on-site. You become a kind of alchemist who has to make everything coexist. The most important thing, I repeat, is to get in sync with your client and establish a shared graphic language and a distinctive visual identity.

What elements inspired the graphic design as we see it in the final product today?

The project was naturally influenced by Salvatore Ferragamo’s work: his shoe designs are extraordinary and are the primary source for the exhibition’s visual language. Another fascinating element is that we worked with materials from Lucio Venna, a post-futurist designer who handled Ferragamo’s communication. Naturally, the graphic style of the 1930s became the main reference.

Do you think that graphic or typographic elements can influence the visitors’ experience within an exhibition?

Absolutely. Graphic design accompanies the exhibition in every aspect. The beauty of graphic design is that it doesn’t need to shout—it should explain. It shouldn’t force people to read or make mental leaps to understand things. It should guide visitors, making their experience in the exhibition smooth and enjoyable.

Finally, after so many years in your career, if you had to pick one piece of advice you received early on that proved most useful or effective, what would it be?

The advice I always give to young designers is this: if you want to be a musician, you study music; if you want to be a graphic designer, you must study the history of graphic design. You can’t do this work without knowing the past. Graphic design is like a set of seven notes: your skill lies in how you combine them, but the underlying mechanisms are always the same. I believe that paying more attention to the history of graphic design would be invaluable in a world where everything increasingly looks alike. I used to be able to recognize different styles, like Swiss or American design; today, there is a global design, certainly more sophisticated, but one that, in my opinion, risks erasing individuality.

INFO

This interview is part of a special series based on the podcast Museo Ferragamo: Dietro le quinte di una mostra, which explores the creative voices shaping the museum’s latest exhibition.

Want the full conversation? You can listen to all episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and YouTube.