Both share the surname Schiavon, yet they named their studio Van Orton. The reason? David Fincher’s *The Game* (1997) and its protagonist: “A movie that made a huge impression on us and one which we’re very attached to. It was a psychological thriller with a twist that, for us, is one of the finest we’ve ever seen.
The protagonist, played by Michael Douglas, is called Nicholas Van Orton. So we decided to call ourselves Van Orton,” says Marco Schiavon, 43, who, with his twin brother Stefano, founded the Van Orton studio, an international benchmark in the world of illustration and graphic design, based in Turin.
Marco and Stefano both graduated with a diploma in advertising graphic design; they share the same passions and even followed an identical career at the same communications agency. They resigned in 2013 to launch their own studio, which immediately stood out for its linework and colours that blend pop culture with references to Gothic stained-glass art.
Clicking on their website’s Work tab reveals brands such as Marvel, Disney, Armani, Sisley, Colmar and Foot Locker, as well as BMW, Mercedes and Ducati, alongside figures like Pearl Jam, Bon Jovi and Jovanotti, who have also chosen Marco and Stefano’s style to promote their tours.
“Over the years, with the Van Orton project,” explains Marco, “we’ve created a recognisable stylistic signature. We’ve collaborated with brands to combine our style with theirs. For Ducati, we wrapped the new Scrambler and created all the graphics and illustrations for the bike’s launch tour.
This included a limited-edition cover kit and a capsule collection. For Bon Jovi, we developed the digital images and visuals that animated the giant screens on stage during his shows. We come from graphic design but we operate in a more illustrative, artistic sphere, so there’s a mix, a balance between our graphic design expertise and our passion for drawing.
We aren’t designers; we’ve never designed objects, even though we’ve worked with them. Like the water bottle we designed and illustrated for 24Bottles, a brand committed to reducing the impact of single-use plastic bottles.”
You do need to understand the physical characteristics of an object in order to “wrap” it, however…
“Exactly. As well as knowing what story you want to tell. Like for Francesca Clapcich’s new boat.”
Team Francesca Clapcich’s IMOCA Powered by 11th Hour Racing is not your first collaboration with the 11th Hour Racing Team.
“No. It was during the Covid lockdown that Alessandra Ghezzi (vice-president of 11th Hour Racing, ed.) got in touch to involve us and other creatives in a tender to design the graphics for the boat that would be competing in The Ocean Race 2022-23. There were various stages, but in the end we secured the project”.
Was this your first experience with a boat?
“Yes. We don’t own boats, we don’t sail. We do enjoy the sea on holidays, so the subject wasn’t entirely unfamiliar. However, even though we had designed Mercedes’ AMG GT Coupé4 livery at the 2019 1000 Miglia, working on a boat was a new experience entirely. It was very interesting, even though we went a bit overboard with our designs, not knowing how to allocate space for sponsors on a boat.”
But the work was so well received that you were brought on board for a second project…
“As well as better understanding the technical aspects this time, the briefing was clear. We had access to a brand book and guidelines for Francesca’s current graphic design, and the slogan: Believe, Belong, Achieve. We started from these words. In about ten days, we developed three very different proposals, which we submitted to the team.”
The design chosen moved away from the black outline on the previous boat; the images blend seamlessly around a face’s silhouette…
“They liked it so much that no changes were needed. We just had to choose the 11 colours. The decision also gave us the chance to showcase a new stylistic approach.”
And the next step?
“Unlike with the first boat, we liaised directly with Jean Baptiste Epron (a French sailor, artist and graphic designer who has decorated hundreds of large boats, ed.). We even met up and provided him with the vector file of the chosen design. After that, he adapted the design elements as best as possible, particularly on the hull, incorporating parts of the face at the centre of the design, harmonising the overall composition into a series of proposals for the boat’s graphics. In October last year, we met up in Le Havre with Jean Baptiste and Francesca. After choosing one of the proposals, he began the livery application independently.
After a boat that won the round-the-world race and one that will be a key player in the upcoming major oceanic events, has anyone asked you to design another boat?
Yes, a private client. They don’t have a boat like the 11th Hour, but they wrote to us. We’ll see…
Let’s move on from boats. Is there a graphic trend that’s really taking off?
Trends come up every year, and there are websites where you can see and understand what they are. Each year certain colours work best, or certain fonts have more of an impact. And when searching for references, there’s AI…
Sorry to interrupt: do you use artificial intelligence?
Yes. But personally, when you see that even the big networks are making ads with AI, something that is now instantly recognisable, it starts to bother me. All innovative tools, when used consistently, can provide the right kind of help. But if I write a prompt and the image is generated automatically, that’s a bad thing. Especially for communication experts who can easily spot AI now.
Last question. What project would you like to work on?
As children, Stefano and I were passionate about shoes and trainers. We would love to get involved in that world. Our school notebooks are filled with shoes we used to draw and invent.
Emilio Martinelli
