Author: Alessandro Arnold

AANT creativity continues to stand out on the international stage. Students from the Bachelor’s Degree in Art Direction, Advertising and Graphic Design, Alessandro Arnold, Carlo Renato Popescu and Matteo Sinopoli, supervised by lecturer Giulia Magaldi, received the prestigious “Merit” recognition at the Young Ones Student Awards 2026, one of the world’s most important competitions dedicated to emerging talents in creative communication, design and advertising.

Organized by The One Club for Creativity in New York, the Young Ones Awards represent a global benchmark for contemporary creativity, bringing together students and schools from all over the world every year. The awarded project, “The Epic Build”, imagines a global campaign for the launch of the first Netflix series set in the Clash of Clans universe, transforming one of the game’s most iconic elements — the famous Builders — into the center of an immersive and transmedia narrative.

The creative concept begins with an unexpected disruption: after more than ten years of nonstop work, the Builders suddenly disappear from the game. Construction sites freeze, villages fall silent, and the global community begins questioning the mystery. From this premise, a campaign unfolds through in-game activations, guerrilla posters across major international cities, social media leaks and cinematic video content, culminating in the final reveal: the Builders never stopped working — they were simply building their most ambitious project ever, the new Netflix series dedicated to the franchise.

“The Epic Build” stood out for its ability to integrate storytelling, gaming culture, entertainment and advertising into a contemporary narrative ecosystem, demonstrating a strong understanding of digital communication languages and immersive experiences.

Good job!

Case Film

On Thursday, May 7, AANT’s Aula Magna hosted the event “Speaking Out in the Creative Industry and Beyond”, a discussion focused on the transformations currently shaping the worlds of communication, creativity, and contemporary cultural professions. The event was organized with the contribution of Professor Hila Narducci and developed in collaboration with We Hate Pink, a cultural and social project committed to promoting inclusivity, representation, and critical awareness against gender stereotypes and practices of pinkwashing — a communication strategy through which companies, brands, or institutions use themes related to LGBTQIA+ rights, inclusivity, or feminism primarily as marketing and reputational tools, without implementing genuinely coherent or inclusive practices behind these narratives.

The panel was moderated by Rossella Forlé, Founder of We Hate Pink, who guided the conversation between the speakers and the audience, opening a broader reflection on the languages of contemporary communication and the role of culture in shaping collective imaginaries. Among the guests, Assunta Squitieri addressed the transformations affecting the communication sector and the challenges currently shaping creative work, including precarity, exploitation, and the urgent need to redefine new professional models.

Miriam Mastria, expert in feminist philanthropy and gender rights, as well as co-founder and director of the newly established feminist foundation SEMIA, contributed a reflection on the relationship between activism, inclusivity, and cultural sustainability, highlighting the importance of networks and collective practices within processes of social transformation. During the discussion, Barbara Centrone, PhD candidate in Didactics and Special Education at Roma Tre University, explored the representation of identities in media and educational processes, focusing on the cultural impact of stereotypes and the importance of building inclusive and conscious models of representation.

Following this, Francesco Pierri, also known by the drag name Cristina Prenestina, shared a reflection on the body as a political language and on the importance of defending one’s identity within creative and professional environments, emphasizing dissent as a daily practice of freedom and self-determination. The evening concluded with the presentation of the documentary “Real Ads”, a project dedicated to a critical reinterpretation of contemporary advertising imagery.

Can a wall become a space for storytelling, a visual device capable of bringing together art, language, and design? This question gave rise to Alphabet City – Exercises in Urban Art, an exhibition curated by Professor Giulio Vesprini, featuring a selection of works by students from AANT Academy in Rome. The exhibition will open on Friday, July 3, 2026, at 5:30 PM at the Palazzina Sud of Lido Cluana in Civitanova Marche, as part of the Tabula Rasa Visual Arts Festival.

Giulio Vesprini, an AANT lecturer, is an artist and designer engaged in research at the intersection of public art, graphics, and urban intervention. For years, he has developed practices related to typography in space and to the relationship between sign and architecture.

The project originated within the workshop of the same name, held last year during AANT’s Refresh Week, and conceived as a research lab focused on the urban poster format. In recent years, this language has emerged as one of the most dynamic within contemporary public art: accessible, replicable, and capable of activating immediate connections with the urban environment. Within this context, Alphabet City explores the poster not only as a visual output, but as a narrative and relational device.

The Alphabet City project took shape within the workshop of the same name, held in March 2025 as part of AANT Refresh Week. It was conceived as a research lab for students enrolled in the three-year courses, focused on the format of the urban poster. The starting point of the workshop was a “pilot wall” at AANT’s headquarters in Piazza della Rovere, a place understood not merely as an exhibition surface, but as a structure of meaning.

In recent years, the language of the poster has established itself as one of the most dynamic forms within contemporary public art: accessible, replicable, and capable of creating immediate connections with the urban context. Alphabet City therefore fits into this landscape as a design exercise that explores the poster not only as a visual output, but also as a narrative and relational device.

On display in Civitanova will be works by students Enrico Pezzali, Stefano Fedele, Gabriele Formiconi, Gabriele Petcu, Giulia Caiola, Giulia Trombetti, Matteo Donati, Marianna Branconi, and Matteo Sinopoli. The exhibition design, created by Giulio Vesprini and produced by Materie Unite in collaboration with AANT, the event’s cultural partner, offers a coherent vision between educational research and curatorial practice, giving the public an experience that connects education, territory, and contemporary visual culture.

On April 21, AANT Academy hosted a new appointment of Meet the Expert, the format dedicated to direct dialogue between students and professionals from the creative industries. The guest speaker was Luigi Maria Perotti, director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker, in conversation with Professor Valerio Di Paola, coordinator of the Bachelor’s Degree in Videomaking, Story, Cinema and Media Design.

The event, held within the framework of the partnership with the Libero Bizzarri Foundation, focused on an in-depth exploration of some of Perotti’s most significant works, including “L’infame e suo fratello”, “Florence Fight Club”and “La via di mio padre”. These works reflect a consistent interest in social and historical dynamics. At the same time, the evolving nature of his practice clearly emerged, now increasingly oriented towards the potential of generative artificial intelligence. Recent projects such as “Tales from Neurocene” and “The Final Chapter”, also developed in dialogue with the academic world, demonstrate a research approach that integrates audiovisual languages and technological innovation, opening new perspectives for content creation and consumption.

The event provided a stimulating opportunity for direct exchange, effectively connecting education, the creative industries and research, and offering students of the Academy’s Bachelor’s Degree programs concrete tools to interpret the ongoing transformations in the audiovisual landscape.

About the guest: Luigi Maria Perotti is an Italian director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker working in the field of documentary cinema and contemporary storytelling. After graduating in Communication Sciences, he developed a professional career between Italy and abroad, creating projects for cinema, television and auteur documentary. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with major production companies and with Rai Cultura, contributing to formats such as “Di là dal fiume e tra gli alberi”, where he refined a language that combines visual research, attention to place and narrative depth.