Area Grafica: an idea taken... on the fly

Thirty years of activity. This is the time passed since February 1990, when three colleagues, employees of a graphic design sector company which dealt with advertising production, decided to take the big step.

“Giuseppe Aleddu and I quitted separately within a few months - says Michele Giovanardi, one of the three founding members - then we both met again to collaborate with Sergio Gherardi, the last who left the company, self-employed in the meantime. Our first job was the decoration of planes liveries in Linate airport. At the time, there were still workshops in the airport responsible for the scheduled aircraft overhaul, after a certain number of flight hours. Since they had to stand still for the mechanical interventions, there was time to touch up their decorations too: a task that was entrusted to us. That occasion, given the importance of the order, prompted us to start with the new business. And since then Area Grafica took flight...”.

However, the capital was very small and the first proceeds were completely invested in the equipment. Subsequently, the three partners began to follow jobs more related to their training: signage, creation of signs and totems, decoration of vehicles, digital printing on any kind of support and format etc. “The first customers were the same ones we had once worked for as employees, who came to look for us once they knew that we had started on our own, for the mutual esteem relationship that had been established. Basically we started without having to go looking for a job”.

In its first 10 years, Area Grafica operated mainly in the internal and external advertising sector for supermarkets and shops. Later it also developed in stands construction for fairs: a change that happened almost by chance. “Working with a Novarese stand company, which we followed for graphic jobs, we realized that its ability was limited only to carpentry. Since the strength of Area Grafica, for our training, was always the mastery in different materials transformation (as well as in signs creation, we are in fact very skilled in carpentry and structural design, using every type of material: from metal, to plastic, to timber...), we realized that, thanks to our versatility and the integration of our skills, we could formulate very attractive proposals for customers. An added value that allowed us to distinguish ourselves from our competitors and to expand our stand management activities”.

“Area Grafica’s name began to assert itself also in important squares such as Milan, where we were recognized as the experts capable of solving the most complicated installation cases. We collaborated, for example, with prof. Umberto Veronesi’s Higher Institute of Oncology, for whom we organized events and conferences. In its congress center it needed to set up a very heavy backdrop, with a window wall that had to rest on a floor slab, with the risk that it could not bear the load: we solved the problem by building in less than two days (also working at night) a bridge structure, which rested on the external columns of the room, with the carpentry and accessories that served to support the whole structure. A demonstration that our company flexibility was useful for solving any situation”. Today, with the changes in the market, the turnover of many sectors has decreased: therefore, the requests for internal and external fittings by supermarkets are decreasing, while the stand activity remains stable: being transversal to various production sectors, it continues to represent a very large part of Area Grafica activities, which collaborates with customers operating in the most disparate sectors: from the electro-medical, to fashion, to canned food.

The 30-year milestone was therefore brilliantly exceeded: a period in which Area Grafica worked for about 13,000 customers and with 1700 suppliers. However, nobody has the slightest intention of stopping, so... a big good luck and see you next anniversary!