A noi della partita non ce ne frega un cazzo

Published June 5, 2025

A noi della partita non ce ne frega un cazzo (“We don’t give a damn about the game”) is a research-based editorial project developed as a final thesis for the Graphic Design course at IED Milan in 2021.

The book investigates the Italian Ultras movement from the 1960s to the 1980s, analyzing its origins, evolution, and visual language. It is divided into two sections.

The first part presents six key Ultras groups through historical accounts and visual analysis of their emblems, mottos, and iconography. Each chapter contextualizes these symbols within their local, cultural, and sometimes political environments, highlighting how they served as tools of identity and distinction both within and across stadiums.

The second section, titled Grammatica Ultras, explores the scenographic and performative practices of the movement, such as choreographed banners, smoke displays, and massive visual compositions that transformed stadiums into stages of collective expression. This part reveals how Ultras developed a unique aesthetic grammar that evolved alongside shifts in media, technology, and generational codes.

Through extensive archival references, interviews, and critical commentary, the book portrays the Ultras not merely as sports fans, but as a subcultural force with its own symbols, rituals, and resistance to commercialization and mainstream assimilation.

Book design and research by Giorgio Craparo, with editing by Mattia Salvia. The book was
printed by PressPoint, Milan, using CMYK plus white ink, on Fedrigoni Ispira Rosso Passione 290 g/m² and Artic Paper Munken Print White 90 g/m². The publication is in Italian, has 40 pages measuring 21×29.7 cm, and is perfect bound.

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