Italian Disco Visual Stories: The Art of Guido Manuli

How Guido Manuli merged “fantasy animation” with the electronic and disco sounds of the 1980s

Italian music exists in synergy with visual culture, as the most prominent artists always crafted a very distinct visual identity for themselves. And while costume designers, set designers, and TV show or music-video directors largely contributed to this component, we cannot understate the importance of photographers, animators, and illustrators.

We continue our exploration of the leading visual-culture players in Italian music. After celebrating the lens of Mauro Balletti and the art direction of Luciano Tallarini, we want to highlight the animation of Guido Manuli, an animator who sits at the intersection of Italian modernism, anime inspiration, adult animation, satire, and a modicum of Disney influence, who created examples of cyberpunk and steampunk universes for artists signed to Baby Records, most notably La Bionda and Rondò Veneziano.

Indeed, Guido Manuli was a pioneer in the early 1980s music video scene, merging “fantasy animation” with the era’s electronic and disco sounds.

On…