The skies have been the house of gods and ancestors; the keeper of secrets and our future. In Egypt, the sky is the goddess Nut covered in golden stars, today the sky is a beautiful muse inspiring unique design prints, the ‘Almagesto’ made in Italy…
Almagesto is a stellar project to renew any home spaces, made in Italy by two friends, Flavio and Massimo. It combines graphics and mathematical accuracy in one-of-a-kind prints; the name surely rings a bell…
Almagesto: the indie project in short
You see the sky every night, but the planets draw incredible patterns in the sky you can’t see. This is what Flavio Grandin and Massimo d’Ambrogio found out and the result was so stunning they have been playing with design and calculation programs to make the invisible visible and nice to have on the wall! Almagesto is your universe in a frame!
Behind Almagesto: the Almagest
Almagesto is backed by astrophysics and history for the project takes its name from the Almagest. This title may sound familiar: it’s an astronomical volume compiled in the II century AD. Its writer, Claudius Ptolemy, described the universe with the Earth at its centre, the sun and the moon with the known planets evolving around it and rotating on themselves. Ptolemy’s system influenced the way people imagined the sky for centuries until Copernicus’ observations! The actual name comes from Arabic ‘al-majisti‘; as such, this ancient volume has stretched for more than a millennium and fed Coptic, Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Western cultures.
Almagesto: the project
Flavio and Massimo are from Biella and their hunger to discover how our universe looks like in motion from another point of view rather than the Earth’s kickstarted everything. The two friends developed software to see the trajectories in our solar system. They loved the design and decided to make something out of it!
I forgot to mention, Massimo is a graphic designer…
The Almagesto printed…
Flavio and Massimo didn’t simply want a nice-looking astronomy print but they also wanted their creation to be 100% accurate. Flavio teaches physics in high school! I forgot this important note. The team combined two sets of data, the ephemerides published by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the AstroPy database to trace the journey of each planet in any period you can imagine. The latest softer gives the exciting opportunity to travel as far back in time as you want. Then, the two developed their know software to make these celestial trajectories neat and beautiful as artwork. Indeed, every Almagesto will be a masterpiece, your own and unique. Here’s why and how.
Why so unique?
Almagesto blooms in infinite OOAK posters. Every and each Almagesto is unique because as you choose your reference planet you have a different view of the universe. By choosing two important dates in your life, your Alamgesto timespan, you eternalise your life in a beautiful design as no artist can do with pen, brush, paper, or screen!
How to make your unique Almagesto?
Flavio and Massimo developed a configurator with which you can select:
- your planet, maybe the celestial body ruling your zodiac sign;
- the zoom or how many planets to include in your view;
- a starting and ending dates for your planet’s journey;
- your Almagesto design…
Your first three choices create the core of your original print, but the fourth choice will reflect your taste. As mentioned above, the Almagest was born in Greek Egypt, later it was adopted by the Arabs to pass to the Western world; hence, the Almagest ‘spoke’ Greek, Arabic, and Latin. You can choose among three thematic design groups inspired by these three cultural heritages. Each group has characterised by different colour combinations and fonts, and each one has three versions to choose from. The variety of choices will easily restyle any room of your house, from your studio to your bedroom!
How to make all of this with a couple of clicks? I bet you are curious. You can see and have your go as well as going beyond and help Almagesto officially land on planet Earth. Flavio and Massimo launched a Kickstarter campaign to get closer to their goal: having their website and shop running. With your donation, you support the project while getting full credits on the Almagesto website, an astronomical T-shirt, or earlier access. You can have a 61X91 poster printed and shipped to you. You can have all of them if you are very generous.
Away from me another cliché about Italians! But… Flavio and Massimo prove to have that unique taste for fashion and exploration that made Italian famous across the globe. Their ‘Almagesto‘ is a fantastic journey through space, time and imagination like nothing before did. Having your past and your universe in your living room is a kind of a dream and you can make it with a click!
Please, support indie by either following Almagesto via socials or funding the Kickstarter campaign.
Valentina Chirico aka Valens
Sponsored, paid READ DISCLOSURE
