Nuoro is defined by a set of unique, tangible characteristics—its geography, urban layout, historic districts, squares, and the Ortobene mountain. Yet these features alone cannot fully express the city’s identity, which emerges from a complex weave of intangible elements: cultural heritage, historical depth, social richness, and culinary traditions. In fact, Nuoro’s richness resists a single, unified narrative.
Rather than adopting a traditional “representative” approach—selecting a single architectural or landscape element to stand for the whole city—our proposal seeks to visually translate Nuoro’s multifaceted story. The idea is rooted in the city’s strong literary tradition and takes the form of an alphabet.
Multiforme designed a graphic system that replaces Latin letters with custom signs inspired by local elements. These forms loosely reference architectural and cultural symbols such as the Séuna Arch, Piazza Sebastiano Satta, Nivola’s Grande Madre, filindeu pasta, the Church of Solitude, and a visual interpretation of The Day of Judgment by Salvatore Satta. Their stylization moves toward abstraction, allowing the signs to combine into a unique graphic language that reflects the layered identity of Nuoro.
The name Nuoro, with its root nur, carries the ancient meaning of dwelling and home.
This meaning embedded in the name, along with the city’s rich literary heritage and strong narrative inclination, makes “House of Words” a fitting and poetic description of Nuoro. It serves as the payoff created to accompany the visual identity and promote the project.
Composed using the signs from the new alphabet, the payoff itself can generate a shape or a letter—creating a dialogue of correspondences between drawings and phonemes.
IL PASSATO NON MUORE MAI DEL TUTTO, RESTA COME UN’OMBRA SUL PRESENTE
Salvatore Satta, Il Giorno del Giudizio
LA VITA PASSA E NOI LA LASCIAMO PASSARE COME L’ACQUA DEL FIUME E SOLO QUANDO MANCA CI ACCORGIAMO CHE MANCA
Grazia Deledda, Canne al vento
