Final Fantasy art legend's poster for Lucca 2024 is a stunning tribute to the city's most famous son

The Lucca Comics & Games festival has revealed the first of a trilogy of poster designs for this year's event, and it was designed by none other than the Japanese manga legend Yoshitaka Amano. The sumptuous illustration is a tribute to the Italian city of Lucca's most famous son, the composer Giacomo Puccini.

Amano has designed three posters for Lucca 2024, each inspired by a Puccini opera. The first, dubbed OUVERTURE, is dedicated to Tosca. Subsequent pieces will take inspiration from Madame Butterfly and Turandot (see our pick of the best poster designs for more inspiration).

The theme for Lucca 2024 is The Bufferfly Effect, and the festival says the colours of Amano's first poster captures the energy of the event and the thousand colors of its audience of butterflies, which come from disciplines as varied as comics, games, cinema, literature and music. The work depicts an embrace between two characters, intended as a meeting between physicality and imagination.

"In the year of the Puccini centenary, it is only natural to think that Lucca Comics & Games would present a contemporary version of that synesthetic ideal which, a century ago, was represented by opera, a combination of literary invention, scenic wonder and musical magic," the organisers say. A short video has been released showing some of Amano's process in making the poster.

Lucca 2024 will run from 30 October until 3 November and will feature an exhibition dedicated to review of Amano's work. Other highlights will include Netflix bringing news on Squid Game 2, One Piece director Tatsuya Nagamine and animator Kenji Yokoyama, celebrations of 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons and 40 years of Tetris and premiere of the new card game Star Wars: Unlimited.

Amano's career began in the 1960s with work for the Speed Racer anime franchise. He was a character designer for shows such as Time Bokan, Gatchaman and Tekkaman before concentrating on science fiction and fantasy works in the 1980s and expanding into theatre set design in the 1990s. He is widely known for his art, character design and graphic design for the Final Fantasy video game series.

Amano's poster dedicated to Madame Butterfly will be unveiled in September followed by the final poster on the opening date of the festival itself.

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Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.