Luca Barcellona, born in Milan in 1978, is a freelance graphic designer, artist, and calligrapher; he is a leading figure in modern calligraphy. Trained as a graphic designer and graffiti writer, he was part of the 1990s hip-hop movement, contributing to several genre classics and to Italy’s graffiti scene.

A lifelong writing enthusiast, he entered professional calligraphy in 1999, tackling every facet of lettering—from type design to letterpress and engraving, even venturing into virtual-reality experiments. Letters are the cornerstone of his practice, and his aim is to fuse the handcraft of this ancient art with the languages and tools of the digital age, broadening and diversifying calligraphy’s potential across graphic design, packaging, education, and both artistic and performative contexts.

By skilfully combining his study of classical styles with his background in graffiti writing, he has inspired new generations of calligraphy enthusiasts. For him, writing is a deep meditative act—a means of reclaiming human rhythms and gestures amid the frantic tempo of daily life. Many top brands in fashion, apparel, music, and publishing have commissioned his lettering (the script on Absolut’s packaging is his), and he has also carried out significant projects for major museums.

He has been teaching calligraphy since 2007 with the Italian Calligraphic Association and at leading design schools (IED, NABA, Domus Academy), and since 2017 he has been a lecturer in lettering and calligraphy at Raffles Design Milan. Over the past fifteen years he has conducted workshops and lectures around the world to promote calligraphic culture and his writing practice—including in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, Brazil and Argentina, Mexico, and Turkey. He has exhibited in numerous European galleries in both solo and group shows, and his works are held in the permanent collections of the Akademie der Kunst in Berlin and the Harrison Collection at the San Francisco Public Library. His most recent solo exhibition is ‘Lost in Strokes’ (2021) at Galleria Patricia Armocida in Milan.
An important part of his work lies in large-scale live writing performances, which he began in 2003 with the Rebel Ink collective alongside Rae Martini and Marco Klefisch, later taking them to the stage with pianist Cesare Picco and multiple-time world karate champion Dario Marchini.

He is an avid collector of vinyl records—from jazz to library music and the rarest, most obscure, sought-after soundtracks—which he showcases in his DJ sets and in the selections posted on the Wax Up! project blog, a community of collectors, DJs, and vinyl enthusiasts that began with Radio Raheeem in 2014.
With Lazy Dog Press—the publishing house of which he is also a founding partner—he released his first monograph, Take Your Pleasure Seriously (2012); curated the Manual of Calligraphy (with the Associazione Calligrafica Italiana, 2020); and designed the covers of popular volumes such as L’Italia insegna, Pittori di Cinema, and the discographic monograph on Morricone. In 2021 he published the essay Anima & Inchiostro for Utet. He lives and works in Milan, along the Navigli, where he has had his studio since 2007.