Picchio Rosso Music-hall

The Picchio Rosso opened its doors on March 13, 1976 in Formigine, in the province of Modena. The club was born from the vision of local entrepreneurs such as Mauro Boni — entrepreneur and owner of the Picchio —, Mauro Marchi — who later became the director —, architect Lugli, who designed the exterior, and architect Silvestro Lolli, responsible for the interiors. The building stood out for its unusual shape which, when seen from above, resembled the stylized silhouette of a woodpecker. This detail deeply influenced both the name and the visual identity of the venue, which soon became a landmark of Emilia’s nightlife.

Over the years, Picchio Rosso hosted international stars such as Ray Charles, Donna Summer, Tina Turner, and many others. Alongside these global icons, major Italian artists also performed there, including Renato Zero, Mia Martini, Loredana Bertè, Lucio Dalla, the Pooh, Zucchero, and Vasco Rossi, strengthening the club’s ties with the national music scene.

This research focuses on the visual communication of Picchio Rosso, particularly on printed materials — flyers, posters, invitations — conceived not only as promotional tools, but as active elements in shaping the club’s identity. These visual languages tell the story of Italian graphic design away from the advertising of big industry and the modernist corporate identity manuals of the 1980s and 1990s: a free, hybrid style, often self-produced, far from academic circuits but rich in cultural references, stylistic contaminations, and formal intuitions.

One of the most iconic elements of the club’s identity is its logo, inspired by the poster for the film Rollerball (1975), designed by Joe Caroff, as confirmed by Mauro Marchi. The film’s lettering strongly reflects the MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) aesthetic, in particular the E-13B standard developed in 1958 for the automatic reading of bank checks. This technical and modular style later inspired typefaces such as Countdown (1965) by Colin Brignall and Moore Computer (1968) by James H. Moore, helping to define a retro-futurist visual grammar. Another case of appropriation of Rollerball’s lettering, far more famous on an international scale, is that of the German rock band Scorpions, who in the same year adopted a new logo characterized by a similar font, designed by Peter Bielous, from which Larabie later took inspiration. At the end of the 1990s, Larabie would go on to found the Typodermic Fonts foundry, which digitized Lady Starlight — the band’s unofficial font — and other typefaces inspired by this retro-futurist style.

The printing of materials was initially entrusted to Tipografia Golinelli, and later — following a dispute among its partners, which led to a split — continued by G2 of Carlo Andreotti, also based in Formigine.

A distinctive element of the club’s visual communication was the use of a mascot, a drawn woodpecker, which changed depending on the event, evolving into a true graphic character. The idea of the woodpecker came from a photo found on Wikipedia, later transformed into a cartoon-like style, reflecting Marchi’s passion. It was therefore not a fixed logo, but a narrative figure able to adapt to each event, accompanying the club’s identity night after night.

The visual design of Picchio Rosso, however, went beyond print: the logotype was projected into the club’s space, contributing to an immersive, multisensory experience. In this context, light became a narrative and competitive element, as also documented by the exhibition Night Fever (Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, 2018), which dedicates a section precisely to lighting in clubs. At a time when nightclubs competed to distinguish themselves through scenic technologies, light was a central part of the visual project.

The identity of Picchio Rosso extended beyond the dance floor: in 1984, the club launched its own record label, producing Eve of Destruction by Vivienne Vee. The cover of the single represents one of the very few existing visual sources of Picchio Rosso, which was later demolished in the 2000s.

In those years, clubs in the province of Modena — such as Kiwi and Picchio Verde — drew on a zoological and symbolic imagination to build their identities. Many were inspired by existing logos or by cinematic and musical aesthetics, reinterpreting them in a local key. Picchio Rosso fits perfectly into this visual genealogy, but stands out for the coherence and continuity of its image, which still today represents a vivid testimony to the intersection of graphic design, architecture, and club culture.