Omertà | Box kit design on the code of silence

box editorial graphic design kit omerta Packaging print print design silence visual identity

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"Omertà" is a project that uses graphic design and printing production as a way to conceptualize and visually explore the code of silence and honor that rules over criminal activities and any other demeanors that must not be informed to authorities or outsiders involving the classic italian mafia.

A box kit is designed, which includes a series of different graphic pieces that serve distinct purposes, but work together under the same cohesive visual system in their form and packaging (away form the collective imagery traditionally linked to the mafia) in order to narrate many of the inner mechanisms and repercussions that living in silence within a family can carry.

Piece 01. Omertà publication.

Omertà is the law of silence, the law of laws, is the law everyone must obey. There's three concepts highlighted in these pages: family (the most important thing for them, what glues everything together, what they live and fight for), justice (the violent settlements that replace the normal law enforcement, the taking of matters into their own hands, the respect they earn from it) and power (the control of the territory, the favours to royals and aristocrats, the vote buying).

Piece 02. Cascittuni publication.

When someone breaks the rule of silence, they automatically turn into a traitor, a snitch, an informer. In the italian mafias, this is known as a cascittuni, and this book reflects the antithesis of the values the first publication represents. A cascittuni experiments regret in the await for revenge. They know that if they come clean to the police, they will face death or something worse eventually. There's a few famous cases depicted in these pages, focusing on the horrors of betraying the silence but also on the start of the end, even if it's this hard.

Piece 03. Brochure.

To give a general idea of the main actors that make sure the omertà is obeyed, an asymmetric four-page brocuhre is presented. Here, the reader will gain insight on how La Cosa Nostra controlled different countries leaning on a distinct family tree dictated rank, as well as who were the biggest capos in history.

Piece 04. Poster.

“Those who are silent and those who bow their heads die every time they do so. Those who talk and those who walk with their heads held high only die once." The poster illustrated visually what's like to be a cascittuni.

Piece 05. Matchbox.

Mobsters are traditionally linked to an everlasting cigar between their fingers. But those aren't the only fires they start. The molotov cocktail was one of the most used weapons to serve justice. This is why a matchbox could come in handy.

Piece 06. Shot glasses.

In the same manner as tobacco, they drank a lot of alcohol, or at least that's what's in the collective imagination. However, they did more with it than just drinking a whiskey on the rocks. During the 1920 US' "Dry Law", they took over an erased market and started smuggling, making a lot of money from the huge illegal industry. With these shot glasses the user can recreate some of the cocktail recipes famous at the time, written in the bottom of the packaging.

Piece 07. Gag.

A gag is a piece put on someone's mouth so that they won't speak. The omertà is like an invisible gag that those involved burden around their whole lifes. In the kit the reader finds a screen printed gag tied with a "silence" wrapper.

Piece 08. Box.

All of the pieces above are contained within a box, also designed following the same visual codes. Unless looked at it carefully, it appears to have nothing on it, just a plain white box. However, when picked up and turned to the light, the word omertà appears in a transparent glossy UV application. Just like the law itself, it's always been there, you just had to be observant enough to notice it.

Inside the box, one's greeted with the quote "It is better to remain silent and let them suspect your foolishness, than to speak and remove all doubt from it". There's also an insert that displays the two publications first to get a first contact with the subject and its duality.