Foto Ottica Randazzo, the historic Palermo camera and eyewear shop on Via Ruggiero Settimo, is remembered in design history for a complete retail environment created by the Milan-based collective Studio B.B.P.R. when the store opened in 1960. As part of that comprehensive commission, which included architecture, interiors, furnishings and displays, the brand’s logo was redesigned by Roberto Sambonet, a painter, graphic designer and industrial designer who served as art director of Zodiac magazine from 1956 to 1960 and worked as a graphic consultant for clients including Pirelli, Alfa Romeo and RAI.[1][2]
Design and History
Ottica Randazzo opened in 1960 on Palermo’s principal shopping street and quickly became a local landmark, with Domus noting in a contemporary article that “Let’s meet in front of Randazzo” had become a common way of making appointments.[1] The shop was a rare retail project for Studio B.B.P.R., the firm founded in 1932 by Gianluigi Banfi, Lodovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, Enrico Peressutti and Ernesto Nathan Rogers, best known for architectural icons such as Milan’s Torre Velasca.[1]
The multi-year project encompassed the store’s architecture, showroom interiors, administrative offices, furnishings and installations, with contributions from collaborators including displays by Bruno Munari and the brand logo redesigned by Roberto Sambonet.[1] The shop’s interiors remained largely intact for nearly 30 years. A renovation in the late 1980s by local architect Roberto Collovà preserved much of the original character, and a later intervention by Studio di Santis in 2007 completely transformed the space, removing all traces of the Studio B.B.P.R. design.[1]
The Randazzo family business was founded in 1880 when Angelo Randazzo opened a photography shop in Palermo. In 2010, the company unified its three historic brands, Randazzo, Ottica Romani and Optissimo, under the single brand “Optissimo-Gruppo Randazzo.”[3]
Meaning and Symbolism
Documented descriptions of the Randazzo logo’s visual form or symbolic meaning are not available in the research sources. What is verified is that Sambonet redesigned the logo as part of the broader Studio B.B.P.R. commission, and that he also designed the shop’s floor, inspired by Abstract Expressionist painting, featuring drops of blood-red Sicilian marble splattered on a canvas of white Venetian plaster.[1] The interior’s olive wood paneling, which covered walls and ceiling, was noted as resembling a photographic contact sheet, echoing the shop’s dual focus on optics and photography.[1]
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