The Elsewhere is a room without walls
“It is that moment when you realize that what you saw so clearly yesterday now appears completely reversed.”
In the world of branding, we are usually working within perimeters. Briefs, projects with short-term performance expectations, internal and external standards to respect. It is an exercise in precision, stimulating, yet sometimes too geometric, where satisfaction is measured by the client’s expression or consumer data.
Then, every six months, I have a switch.
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I’m taking off my designer hat and stepping into the role of curator at the 12X6 Gallery, the project through which we at CBA open our offices to young visual arts talents. Leading this project means completely changing my approach: I don’t need to find the answers; instead, I become a facilitator of others’ thoughts, making them the protagonists of the space. And when it comes to illustration, everything turns into a playful territory, free from constraints.
It’s a different kind of satisfaction, almost ancestral: fuels the creativity of others to fuel one’s own.
In the latest edition, born from an encounter with the all-female community of Illustration Ladies Milano (an international network created to connect people from all over the world), we pushed ourselves to explore a concept close to our hearts: “The Switch - Altrove” (Elsewhere).
To me, “Altrove” is a radical shift in perspective. It is that exact instant when you realize that what you saw crystal-clearly yesterday appears flipped upside down today. It is the frightening yet thrilling decision to plunge into something you have no control over, to jump onto a moving train even if you don’t feel ready.
Moments like these have shaped my human and professional growth: when I left my hometown and loved ones behind to chase a dream, or when a major loss pushed me to change jobs to find a new course. In those moments, the “Altrove” was scary, lacking any certain boundaries as it did. And yet, it was the only path I felt I could follow.
We asked 12 female illustrators to capture this leap into the void. The result was not just an exhibition, but the discovery of a collective truth.
THE ROOM WITHOUT WALLS
From the captions of the 12 artworks, reinterpreted into a single stream of consciousness, emerges a mosaic of fragments forming one large manifesto on the courage of transformation.
If you look at the city from above, you find yourself motionless at the center of constant movement: silence, a suspension of your identity between what you left behind and what is yet to come. It is at that precise moment that you realize you must take a big step, a monumental leap. The reality you inhabited has become too cramped, and the body must grow giant to reclaim space. Finally. 1 2
But to enter certain spaces, you have to let go of pieces, beliefs, and habits. There is a subtle beauty in being lost, in no longer knowing where what you were ends and where what you are becoming begins. The truth lies in the fragments that stick to you. 3 4
From left: Handowin Xuan He, Federica Tumminello, Vittoria Coletta, Federica Cialona
When everything changes, the mind and body sometimes separate, and an orange starburst explodes: an emotional volcano, a vital force seeking an outlet to find its unity once again. It is a silent switch that takes place in perception before it even manifests in things. Welcoming it does not mean losing who you were, but opening up to what you can become. 5 6
And yet, on this journey, there always comes a moment when you stop perceiving your body as something separate from yourself. You watch your legs walking on a beach and feel a deep sense of gratitude for those details you once thought were flaws, which now appear essential. 7 8
From left: Shut-up Claudia, Alessia Zagaria, Chiara Xie, Costanza Rosi
Because who we are today is the result of all the spaces we have inhabited, even if only in passing: different walls, different lights, fragments scattered among places that no longer exist the way we remember them. 9
That is why we feel the need to create a protective microcosm, an intimate and magical universe visible only to our inner eyes, made of fluid and luminous landscapes where we can dream and breathe, balancing as if on a surfboard. It is an unstoppable and irreversible transformation, a response to love and new awareness, suspended between what we were and what we are, inevitably, becoming. 10 11 12
From left: Sofia Barbieri, Alessia Epifani, Ozkalemkas Hande, Daria Karachentseva
This issue of The Switch and 12X6 are proof of what happens when design and branding meet the pure expressiveness of independent illustration. We didn’t just want to display paintings; we wanted to build a bridge. To transform the agency into an open laboratory, free of protective perimeters.
Because, in the end, "Altrove" is not a destination to reach. It is the condition of those who accept uncertainty, let go of automation, and finally rediscover themselves under a new light.
“I want a new mistake, lose is more than hesitate. Do you believe it in your head? I can go with the flow”
Illustrator: Handowin Xuan He / Artwork Title: Kaleidoscope
A top-down view of Shibuya Crossing. At the center, a girl stands still, a newcomer surrounded by constant movement, her face intentionally invisible, her emotional state readable only through her posture. Her stillness is inner transition: a quiet pause within overwhelming change, where identity is suspended between what was left behind and what is yet to come.
Illustrator: Federica Tumminello / Artwork Title: Io sono Viaggio (I am Journey)
I imagine “taking a big step” as something monumental. It means walking out of a door that has become tiny—not because it shrank, but because the reality we used to inhabit has become too cramped for our new inner stature. Necessary disproportions, achieved without loneliness: a familiar gaze watches over us as we step out. The body growing giant to reclaim space, finally.
Illustrator: Vittoria Coletta / Artwork Title: Forma di passaggio (Passing Form)
We never arrive whole where something awaits us. To enter certain spaces, we must let go of pieces, beliefs, and habits. There is a subtle beauty in being lost: no longer knowing where what you were ends and where what you are becoming begins. Right there, where outlines blur, a new possibility of self is born.
Illustrator: Federica Cialona / Artwork Title: Il Duomo non si vede da casa mia (You can't see the Duomo from my house)
You imagine Milan from the Duomo, but when you actually live here, you don’t see it. You live on the outskirts, among boxes waiting to be unpacked and a Sicilian cat eyeing pigeons on the windowsill. The Duomo in the background is flat, just an idea of a city. The only real things are what you brought up from the South, between the homemade olive oil and the Asian mini-market.
Illustrator: Shut Up Claudia / Artwork Title: Altrove (Elsewhere)
After a separation where the mind is disconnected from the body, one searches for a way out to reunite them. At the center of this fracture, an orange starburst explodes: an emotional volcano symbolizing internal pressure and a vital force seeking an outlet. Because after every separation, there is always the will to reunite.
Illustrator: Alessia Zagaria / Artwork Title: Un battito di ciglia (A blink of an eye)
Change happens in the blink of an eye: planned, unexpected, or unwanted. It is a silent switch that occurs in perception before it even happens in reality. Welcoming it means making room for new ways of feeling, seeing, and being. It is not the loss of who we were, but an openness to what we can become. It always starts within us.
Illustrator: Chiara Xie / Artwork Title: Opportunities to thrive
The artwork reflects on a moment of transition linked to migration, not as a fixed narrative, but as an inner transformation. The figures move between different spaces and roles, suspended in an intermediate state where the familiar fades and a new identity is still in the making. Between departing and becoming, the switch happens.
Illustrator: Costanza Rosi / Artwork Title: Casa mia (My Home)
The illustration captures the moment I stopped perceiving my body as “separate from me.” On a beach, I watched my legs walking and felt a profound sense of gratitude. Those details I used to perceive as flaws appeared to me as essential parts of an organism, and so I began to feel a deep affection for it.
Illustrator: Sofia Barbieri / Artwork Title: Ogni parete mi appartiene (Every wall belongs to me)
Who I am today is the result of all the spaces I have inhabited, even if only in passing: different walls, different lights, different views. Not a single, stable identity, but many fragments scattered among places that no longer exist the way I remember them.
Illustrator: Alessia Epifani (Supercandy studio) / Artwork Title: Magic Aura
Magic Aura is my inner self growing, protecting me from what oppresses me. A non-physical, intimate, and magical universe, visible only to my “inner eyes”: fluid and luminous landscapes that tell the story of my utopian vision of the world. Far from the cruelty of the present, I felt the need to create a microcosm entirely my own—a boundless space where I can dream and breathe.
Illustrator: Ozkalemkas Hande / Artwork Title: Threshold
A solitary figure moves above the city on a surfboard — inner flow rather than physical stability. A cat, a quiet fragment of familiarity, accompanies the journey. Surrounding flowers envelop the scene, transforming it into a dreamlike landscape where the external world gives way to inner experience. Not rupture, but continuous movement: the threshold between departure and becoming.
Illustrator: Daria Karachentseva / Artwork Title: Mai come prima (Never like before)
“Mai come prima” portrays motherhood as a gradual switch toward something profoundly new. A continuous and irreversible inner change, a response to love, responsibility, and new awareness. Suspended between what one was and what one is becoming. Not an interruption, but an unstoppable transformation and a source of inspiration.