By Judith D'Arienzo
Being able to tell your story, tell your work and the reason that drives us to give our best every day. Juditta d'Arienzo interviewed Alessandro Ferrari, founder of Ape Social Wear.
Here are some excerpts, you can read the full article here .
"Inventing something original in this world that seems to lack nothing, turns out to be a difficult task. He succeeded Alessandro Ferrari , a Milanese graphic designer who has been developing a project for a few years now, ApE Social Wear, grown a lot in recent times. Thanks to Alessandro's imagination, who was able to give life to something new by recovering something that is being lost, but which society desperately needs. We are talking about positivity, precisely in its original definition of goodness.
ApE Social Wear, in fact, also taking part in various charitable initiatives, specializes in the creation of t-shirts, sweatshirts and accessories depicting phrases that praise positive actions and thoughts. The message is clear: it is better to provoke with positive words rather than with vulgarity. Talking about good also helps to make it concrete"
How did your passion for graphics come about?
In middle school I had developed an aptitude for technical drawing and in general for the artistic part: I liked to rely on color, being able to use it to always put something imaginative in everything I created. I then began studying advertising graphics at Caterina da Siena in Milan, where my destiny was probably sealed without knowing it: in fact, they also had a fashion major there. However, I followed the graphics path. I was passionate about designing company logos, creating something that would then have a marketing impact.
The fashion branch evidently remained among your ambitions, given your subsequent past.
Yes, but at that time I could not imagine at all what would happen next. After five years of graphics, I entered a company to continue on that path. Everything went on until I discovered that I would have liked to be a lay educator in an oratory.
And the design and the passion for colors?
It hadn't completely disappeared. In fact, at Christmas, I gave the boys at the oratory a t-shirt I had made with a paintbrush, with which I wrote a phrase that already echoed in the retreat. It was practically, without knowing it, the beginning of ApE Social Wear, which however started out as Ape Italian Style, with a slightly different philosophy.
What did it consist of?
The idea was to underline the Italian strength in fashion. I went to disco nights to promote the brand: that was what worked at the time. Some shops in the center of Milan sold my products on consignment. I realized, however, that I was clashing with a reality and a way of managing things that did not belong to me. First of all, for me, there must be humanity in things.
And so here is ApE Social Wear.
I wanted to create something that had an important meaning, also sought after in its very conception. If you use positive words, you automatically generate positivity in those who receive them.
How did that bee come into being graphically?
I wanted to ape the big brands that were in fashion at the time. So I thought: “If someone has had success with a daisy, I could do it with a bee”. I chose that insect simply because in the oratory they nicknamed me Bee following some bee stings. However, I decided to separate the letters with periods, also to make everything more intriguing: people could have imagined that it was an acronym with who knows what meaning. It didn’t mean anything specific: it was simply me and it couldn’t have been otherwise. The brand has always lived in parallel with me: even its conversion itself was mine, after all.
To sum up: first a graphic designer near a fashion address, then an educator, then an entrepreneur of ApE Social Wear. It seems that everything was written in the destiny of your story.
Every event is always related, even when we don't imagine it. That attitude aimed at promoting good has generated friendships ready to support me even in the most difficult moments. The beautiful thing is that with ApE Social Wear a real community has been created, which has understood the positivity of the underlying message. Many things have changed in my life, but it is as if the many different areas crossed should lead to a precise path.
A life in color, in short. In every sense.
Living in color it's a song that I've also used for some retreats and performances. I don't think it's a coincidence. Each of us experiences different sensations, each of which corresponds to a color. So even when I write something beautiful, the same color must transmit that message. They are a few rules that I impose on myself, but necessary.
What are the others?
At graphic design school they taught me, in addition to color matching, the importance of intuition and attention to beauty. We need to rejuvenate, to attract young people with positive messages, but how could all this be credible if aesthetically they are ugly? In short, the realization becomes important in its quality.
ApE Social Wear’s slogan is “Good begets good.” Does it really work?
I have experienced it many times in life, even with the same brand. Even in people who buy, the concept of giving back has sometimes been expressed: there is the one who proposes himself as a graphic designer, or to be a photographer. Evidently the good leads to producing more: the response of those who know Ape Social Wear is always very positive. There could be no greater satisfaction.
We thank Juditta D'Arienzo for making us relive the birth of Ape Social Wear and the values that accompany our work every day.
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