Riccardo Cambó Redesigns Italy's Driving License for Wallet and Phone

Italian designer Riccardo Cambó, publishing as Breccia, has redesigned Italy's driving license and ID card as a matched physical-and-digital set. The project began when Cambó noticed that the current ID card format works well for wallets but not for phones, as Italy's public app for storing documents exposed a mismatch. The redesign demotes numbered field references to superscripts, placing the name at headline size. The physical license remains landscape for wallets, while digital versions rotate to portrait for phones, adding live data like points balance and violation history. The branding was commissioned from Aperto, an Italian communication design studio. A key element is the use of Italia Turrita (Turreted Italy), a national personification older than the country itself, chosen over symbols like the strawberry tree or Savoy blue because she has a living personality. The turreted crown originates from the goddess Cybele and appears on a coin from 91 BC during the Social War. The redesign is speculative, done over a weekend, with Aperto hoping it encourages people to see documents as designed objects.