marzia ricci

Plinio Il Vecchio, Historia Naturalis, XI:30, 36-37

“Casca questo miele dall’aria e massimamente nel nascere d’alcune stelle, e suole specialmente intervenire questo nel tempo della Canicola: ma non mai avanti al nascere delle Vergilie, poco avanti giorno, di modo che nella prima aurora si ritrovano le fronde degli alberi cariche di rugiadoso miele; onde coloro, che in quel tempo sono fuori all’aria, sentono le vesti, ed i capelli uniti per tutto di questo liquore. Sia adunque questo, o sudor del cielo, o saliva di alcune stelle, o umore, che si purghi nell’aria, volesse Iddio, che fosse egli così puro, liquido, e di sua natura, come egli era nel suo primo cadere.”

Manna days. Quando sudano le stelle. Field research, 2023
Marzia Ricci
UNIPA
Tesi di laurea – prof.ssa Cinzia Ferrara

This study aimed to investigate and deepen the agribusiness product manna, in terms of content, rhetoric and iconographic representation, to understand the opportunity to make territory out of this product. The product is a product-landscape, but it is also a complex system whose cornerstones are ash trees, ash farmers and the territory of Pollina and Castelbuono.
Content research investigated the topics of ash tree botany, agronomy, etymology of ash trees and manna, relevant historical issues, and areas of consumption and trade.
An iconographic analysis was then developed to define the visual landscape of manna representation. In parallel, the textual apparatus concerning manna was collected and analyzed.

From the research emerged the multidisciplinary and multidimensional nature of the substance, the immense know-how of the ash farmer who, moreover, becomes a landscape gardener in the ash grove . The intangibility of the product, its exclusivity and the need to experience it – visually, gustatory, olfactory, tactile, auditory, culinary, etc. – are crucial aspects torward the developement and design of an event based on the manna product.

Manna days. Quando sudano le stelle
^ a 3-day agro-gastronomic and cultural festival
+ diffused between Castelbuono, Pollina and the ash tree fields
^ the last weekend of July

Manna days. Quando sudano le stelle. Visual identity, 2023
Marzia Ricci
UNIPA
Tesi di laurea – prof.ssa Cinzia Ferrara

The visual identity designed is a fluid, playful, and affordable imagery. Crucial elements of the graphic grammar used are the manna font developed (a featured typography of the Google Lato font), the family of figurative elements designed, and fields of colors, from a palette based on nuances and contrasts.

A further composition is from protagonist images, in this case, using a single image of relevant size, juxtaposed with the informational text. Direct communication traced back to the contrasts between a few backgrounds, conceived within of a versatile system that adapts to the medium and to multiple uses.

Manna days. Quando sudano le stelle. La giornata a Castelbuono, 2023
Marzia Ricci
UNIPA
Tesi di laurea – prof.ssa Cinzia Ferrara

Manna days. Quando sudano le stelle. La giornata nel frassineto, 2023
Marzia Ricci
UNIPA
Tesi di laurea – prof.ssa Cinzia Ferrara

Manna days. Quando sudano le stelle. La giornata a Pollina, 2023
Marzia Ricci
UNIPA
Tesi di laurea – prof.ssa Cinzia Ferrara

The contribution of this thesis aims to give back to the area, ash farmers, interested parties, explorers, and tourists a moltitude of experiences, in order to enhance and promote the territory of Pollina and Castelbuono, and its communities, since manna, as a representative product of a territory, is the key element within the developement and growth of the system ash trees – ash grower – territory, in a glocal scale.