When we discovered the project Velocipedia by Gianluca Gimini we were captivated by how creativity can offer pure beauty. A designer and visual artist, since 2009 Gianluca goes around equipped with paper and pen, asking friends and complete strangers to draw him a bicycle from memory. Since then he has collected hundreds of drawings, most of which are completely "wrong" even if in his research error is the key element, which has allowed him to amass an incredible array of new types of velocipedes. We decided to interview him to let us know the origins of this project.

Gianluca Gimini: A life dedicated to creativity

The first thing we asked Gianluca is what three adjectives he identifies with: the first word he used is "methodical", because for many of his personal projects the definition of the method and the process are the most important part.

He has also defined himself as an anxious-natured person and this, although it is a hindrance in many things, is very helpful for productivity, both when working on commissioned projects and when working on personal projects.

Lastly, the last adjective that he thinks sounds horrible, but well summarizes the following concept is "spurious". Perhaps because of his training path, far from being focused on a single discipline, he carries with him a sense of being an eternal outsider, which, while on the one hand does not make him feel fully legitimized neither as a designer, nor as a graphic designer, nor much less as an artist tout court, on the other allows him to be extremely free to hybridize, experiment and use unorthodox methods that probably a purist of the discipline would reject.

His passion for art has always been there: he has many vivid memories of visiting museums as a child with his parents while traveling. After every museum, he was always inspired to take on some children's projects in the wake of his excitement for what he had seen, whether it was a medieval armor in tin foil or an attempt to reproduce the style of some painter. The designer, however, started doing it much later.

After high school, during his architecture studies, he discovered design and, along with some architecture friends who shared this interest, he began buying books and going to exhibitions and events.

In 2005, during his third year of architecture, he deposited his first (and to date only) patent: it was a transformable chair; so this is the date he associates with the beginning of his designer activity which then continued after his graduation with a brief apprenticeship in a studio and then as a freelance.

Velocipedia by Gianluca Gimini: When the bike becomes art

Velocipedia by Gianluca Gimini is a project born back in 2009 when he was at the bar with a friend and shared some embarrassing adolescent memories. Here are his words:

I was reminded of an episode from middle school when a classmate, who was failing miserably at a technical education examination, was taken aback by the teacher with a question about how a bicycle works. The escalation of uncertainties culminated with the teacher asking: "But at least do you know if the chain is attached to the front wheel or the back one?" The student hesitated and replied: "to the front one". The story made my friend smile, but then he started to mentally review the bicycle archetype. He then tried to draw one on a paper napkin and failed miserably. From that day on, I started to pose the question to friends and family, collecting many results completely deviating from reality: it's absolutely normal not to remember what a bike looks like! I soon extended the survey to strangers that I would stop on the street, causing surprise and annoyance. Meanwhile, I started to develop the idea of ​​creating photo-realistic images based on my favorite bikes that I was collecting. I waited so many years to carry out the project because for a long time I did not have the technical skills necessary to create beautiful renders.

A project born almost by chance, but which has led many people to question the structure of the bike and also its meaning. According to Gianluca Gimini, in fact the bike is a wonderful means of transport and is also the object that he would like to collect more than any other. Very fascinated by the small Italian productions of the first (but also second, via) half of the '900, he is less interested in competitive cycling and the search for sensational performance. Gianluca's first bike vacation, was between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with his partner. Besides his passion for the Netherlands, he would gladly go back to visit Copenhagen, but he is very clear: he does not imagine leaving from Italy by bike, but renting one on the spot!