Marcello Serpa, partner and general creative director, AlmapBBDO, São Paulo, Brazil, was selected by the international Clio Awards as the recipient of its distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for 2008. “Throughout his career, Marcello Serpa has clearly embodied the tradition of creative leadership, integrity and dedication to great ideas that are the cornerstones of the Clio Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Tony Gulisano, managing director, Clio Awards. “It is our honor to present him with this award.”

Companies in every industry have adopted design thinking to offer fresh insight in functions from strategy to finance. BusinessWeek selected 39 master’s and MBA programs from North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Australia that significantly integrate design thinking and business. Students in these programs take classes in art, management and science, for example, and create projects in multi-disciplinary teams with students from other schools. They aim to use design for strategy rather than merely for aesthetics and may find jobs as design managers, researchers or business consultants. These 30 programs have formally established hybrid curricula [...]

The design developed for tweens’ books “Leituras Descoladas” collection (“Cool Readings” collection), has rendered another international award for REX Design. The brazilian design agency has been selected by Communication Arts Magazine among many design agencies around the globe to be on the magazine’s Design Annual 50.

After São Paulo city officials ordered graffiti cleanup crews to leave work by Os Gemeos and other famous São Paulo street artists alone, art collective and magazine Rojo asked the city’s Urban Development Department to allow them to tap artists like Tofer and MWM Graphics to help spice up drab concrete structures across the city. “It was the first time they’ve allowed it,” says Zagg Guimaraes, Rojo’s associate director in Brazil. “We’re trying to make the city more beautiful.” Dubbing the operation RojoOut, the public art exhibit continues a similar three-year project in Barcelona that they started in 2006 [...]

What makes a world-class designer? It’s a simple question and yet once we started compiling this list we realised it’s not at all simple to answer. Is it about pushing boundaries or holding fast to traditional principles? Should the body of work be judged on aesthetics or usability? Is fame or notoriety important, or just a distraction? Ultimately, .net tried to balance all these considerations and more, and picked 20 figures who we all feel act as a beacon of inspiration to web builders everywhere: A graphic and web designer from Brazil, Fabio is co-founder of design studio, 3YZ and can also be found at www.abduzeedo.com, a blog recording his ventures through the design world [...]

By producing work rich with feeling and a growing sense of sophistication, Brazil has begun to turn up the creative heat. According to Computer Arts magazine, the world of graphic design is waiting to see what happens next [...]

Brazil’s productivity growth outstrips the US and Mexico is rivaling India for outsourcing. Rhymer Rigby says Latin America’s emergence is built on quality and creativity. Check out what else did Design Council Magazine said about Brazil’s economy [...]

The Museum of Modern Art’s Design Store has been running regionally-sourced collections in their retails shops and online. Currently they’ve got an excellent array of products from Korea, and next up they’ll be bringing work from Brazil. The collection focuses on locally sourced materials—many of them environmentally-minded—like coconut, eucalyptus, and Brazilian white clay. The objects range in scale from small jewelry and vases to stools and even a large lounge chair designed by the Campana Brothers [...]

The Brazilian Association of Digital Agencies (ABRADI) just finished its first survey, designed to measure the growth of digital agencies in the country. Brazil owns, by far, the largest digital market in Latin America [...]

Think Brazilian design and the first things that spring to mind may well be plastic flip-flops and miniscule beachwear. But there is more to Brazilian style than Carmen Miranda’s fruit basket headgear [...]