Lock Notes by Daniele Cima, a designer based in Milan, Italy, is a diary of 58 graphic works relating to 58 days of forced domestic reclusion, describing the moods of its author throughout part of his COVID quarantine from March 8 to May 4.
“During this long, strange period,” he chose to show and express the “interchanging rhythm of his many different sentiments, playing with shapes and colors and using the medium of graphics” to create 58 pieces of artwork. The results are all original, eye-conic and joyful.
“Limitation makes the creative mind inventive,” Cima says, quoting Walter Gropius.
Cima was born in 1950 into a Milanese family that has been playing an active part in the city's cultural and artistic scene since the mid-19th century, in particular in the areas of poetry, literature, journalism, music, painting and caricature. His book (and merch) Artphabet is an interpretive evolution of the calligram, a poem made mainly to be admired, a whimsical typographic fantasy capable of creating decorative shapes and designs or bizarre figures.
The Lock Notes diary, meanwhile, is a stimulating, energizing visual account. In addition to its artistic value, it also aims to prove specifically useful from a social perspective. The artist has donated the entire project to the association Energie Sociali, and it will be sold to raise funds for social activities aiming to help families that have slipped into poverty due to the pandemic.
