As part of our ART OF THE EUROS feature in Issue 030, we wrote about Piero Gratton—the man whose designs in the 70s and 80s changed the visual identity of clubs like Roma, institutions like UEFA, and the beautiful game itself. Enjoy the piece, and subscribe to read lots more like this four times a year in the magazine.
“This is how I was born,” read the article in Rome’s daily newspaper Il Messaggero. The fans were unsure about what they had seen, about what they had been told was now theirs, and so the club had published an editorial in one of the country’s oldest newspapers to settle them down. “I am the pure son of the female wolf … I tell you, from the heart, that I am not looking to obscure our legacy, that of our mother; I am just younger. Give me time, and I will earn your affection.”
Those words were spoken by AS Roma’s new logo, the now iconic Lupetto wolf’s head, formally registered on July 30th 1978. The Ministry of Industry described it as "Two dark concentric shapes create the schematic representation of a wolf's head with its mouth slightly open, and a large clear oval eye.” However, the new look wasn’t immediately popular. The same thing happens now; you have to blink and relearn who and what your club is when new logos, crests and visual identities are unveiled, but Roma were confident that this would grow to be loved. When the team wore both the new badge and the new ghiacciolo shirt (the famous “ice lolly” design that looks like a rocket lolly with colour blocks going from red to orange to yellow) for the first time that December, beating Juventus one–nil in it, the tide turned. And pitchside that day, beaming, was the man who had designed the lot: Piero Gratton.
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Born in Milan in 1939, Gratton worked in a creative role for Italian broadcaster RAI straight out of college, designing the visuals for everything from news bulletins to the broadcast for Yuri Gagarin becoming the first man to orbit the moon. By the early 70s, Piero began applying his visuals to more and more sports, designing mascots and medals at the 1974 World Athletics Champions and the intros for shows on the telly. His beloved Roma would be next.
Working with club president Gaetano Anzalone, Gratton designed everything from new season tickets with AS written in red and yellow and ROMA written in black to suits, kits, and, of course, the Lupetto—a crest so vital that you’ll still see the flags of the Curva Sud billowing with it today. His work is simple, bold, iconic, and later in his career, he was looped in by clubs like Palermo and Udinese to grasp their identities by the collar and bring them forward towards the 21st century. And it was by the late 70s, around the same time as Roma’s Lupetto unveiling, that Gratton got to work with UEFA.
The EURO 1980 matches were scheduled for Turin, Rome, Naples, and Milan: an identity needed forging, and Piero was the man given the crayons. His creation—a glowing Mario Kart-style Mediterranean flower representing a ball through 12 pentagons, two petals, and a booming EUROPA 80 logo—was actually the second attempt at the design. The first, an anthropomorphic mascot made of wood with an Italian flag nose and a little white hat that bore a striking resemblance to Pinocchio, was canned after a complaint from Disney. The flower looks cult, looks futuristic, looks niche, and yet here it was, representing a country and a tournament.
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For France, four years later, Gratton was trusted again, and his work wouldn’t just dictate the present and the future, but the past too. His wavy UEFA logo, flag colours of the host country and year lodged into a linear wave effect above, was so good that UEFA added it retrospectively to every tournament prior to 1980… and kept it all the way until 1996. It meant Gratton had designed the logo for 36 years of tournaments, and it’s a logo so good that our art director Alex essentially wanted to make this whole section dedicated to it.
After Gratton died in 2020, his family donated around 1200 items, from the initial sketches of Pinocchio and the Roma identities to animations and films, to the AS Roma archive. “Today is a sad day for all Romanisti,” an official statement read. “Piero Gratton, father of Lupetto and author of pages of history linked to our identity, has left us. Piero will always have a special place in the heart of all of us”. From the pure son of the female wolf that was written about in the newspaper to designing logos that look like they were drawn today, the influence of Gratton will be visible on flags, walls, and institutions forever.
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The final word can come from Valerio Curcio, a journalist and Romanista since birth:
“Gratton's Lupetto was both ingenious and avant-garde, and something that stunned fans because it represented a total twisting of the AS Roma crest. However, besides being undeniably a masterpiece of design and synthesis, it had the good fortune to coincide with a golden era for the Giallorossi. And so, despite the fact that in the 1990s Roma fans asked and were granted a permanent return to a more traditional crest as the main logo, the Lupetto is now part of AS Roma's identity and is a lovemark for much of the Roma fanbase. When a logo is drawn on the school diaries of children of three generations, as well as on the walls of the city, it means that the impact has been disruptive and successful.”
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The rumours are true. You’ve heard correctly. For the first time in its 60-episode run, there was no Seb White in the studio for the most recent Reminding You Why You Love Football record. It was a bit like Liam Gallagher’s no-show for the MTV Unplugged recording in 1996 when Noel ended up doing something different, but crucially, it ended up being just as brilliant. In ‘The Mousa, the Myth, the Legend’, Tommy Stewart ended up being Noel on a stool, with James and Asad offering considerable and amazing orchestral support. They chat about all sorts, including Marco Tardelli, Tommy’s epic trip to Gelsenkirchen and the tremendous freshly squeezed orange juice at Spiritland in Kings Cross.
In Seb’s absence, there is some involvement from a Mr White—former Maccabees, current Tailender, and all-round good guy, Felix White. The Fulham fan gets all dewy-eyed about Mousa Dembélé and his brief but beautiful spell at Craven Cottage. All in another instalment of the audio periodical that will remind you why you love football. Tell your mates and leave a review if you’ve not done so already, for goodness sake. |
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The third party of our Daily Paper collaboration is this Sunday in New York and good grief what a line up. Hosted by 5ASIDE MEDIA, we're screening both the Euro and Copa America finals and have food like shrimp kabobs and salmon with grits from Home Maid. It's going to be magnificent, and you can sign up here.
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SUMMER HAS BEEN ALL ABOUT SHOWERS. UNSTABLE AIR. EVERY TIME YOU THINK YOU’VE GOT A SUNNY DAY, BOOM, MORE CUMULONIMBUS ON THE HORIZON AND DOWN THE RAIN COMES. STARTED THINKING ABOUT LONG SLEEVES AGAIN. THIS NIKE GOALKEEPER TEMPLATE, SPECIFICALLY. HAS THERE EVER BEEN A COLOUR AS NICE AS THIS? THERE’S ONLY ONE. BUY IT BEFORE BIRDO DOES.
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