"The Map of the Interior World", by Eduardo Recife

One of Eduardo Recife’s earliest artistic memories is of a robbery. One night after dark, he and a friend were midway through their first attempt at pixação, a Brazilian graffiti style, when thieves ambushed them, took their shoes and told them to run. “We were 13, skinny and wussies,” Recife says. “We ran.”

His shoes were gone, but not his creative spirit. Recife, now 29, has become a prolific illustrator, collage artist, font designer and photographer with a bevy of high-profile clients like The New York Times, HBO and Panic At The Disco. Recife is careful to delineate between his personal work and commercial work (he has separate websites for the two, and declares that his personal site “is my playground!”), but both are well-regarded in the admittedly niche world of design blogs. “What made his work stand out was the looseness and spontaneity of it,” says John Martz, editor of illustration blog Drawn! “None of his work looks labored, yet it still has a very cohesive style.”

Recife’s collages blend typography, vintage photographs and illustrations with his own drawings. The aesthetic of the latter is simultaneously lush and barren, beautiful and grotesque. He admits that images of his home country—from distressed typography on signs to vernacular paintings on walls—have influenced his designs. “Brazil, apart from its problems, is such a beautiful place,” he says. “It is definitely a source of influence in my work—the colors, the people, the mountains, the ocean, the bright blue sky.”

via Eduardo Recife Finds His Footing :: Features :: Paste.

Read Also:

• London Design Festival’s “Brazil Illustrated”, featuring Bruno Kurru, Wagner Pinto and Eduardo Recife
• Movements: O Gráfico Amador
• Brazilian design featured on Computer Arts Magazine’s “Viva Brasil” article
• São Paulo’s Modern Art Museum “Brazilian Design Today: Frontiers”
• Make a Virtual Trip to Brazil through “Into Brazil” Project

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Computer Arts Desktop Wallpaper: Adhemas Batista

Brazil’s creative output is currently under the international spotlight. Books are being written, exciting work is being commissioned and reputations are being made. So what’s going on? Has Brazil just been ‘discovered’, or are Brazilian designers doing something different to the rest of the world?

Brazil is South America’s largest economy. It has borders with every other state on the continent bar Chile and Ecuador, its rainforest still harbours tribes of the last indigenous Indians, and back in 2002 it elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – one-time shoe-shine boy – as its president.

Brazil is an amazing place, yet we still know it best as the home of football, bikinis and Samba – it must seem a bit unfair to the locals. “Well, we do have a lot of football, girls in bikinis and Samba!” says Danilo Oliveira of graphics co-op Base-V.

Oliveira is from São Paulo, so would the answer be different further inland? Hop north-east to Belo Horizonte and you’ll find designer, typographer and illustrator Eduardo Recife. “People see Brazil as a jungle filled with naked girls,” he says, “but we have a very rich culture.” And when the rest of the world wakes up and smells the coffee, Brazilian design will take centre stage.

Nando Costa, the man behind Die Gestalten Verlag’s Brasil Inspired, spent five years working in the US, which has given him perspective. “As long as people recognise that the country has a lot more to offer, it doesn’t really bother us.”

The world is waking up to Brazilian design. “Lately, with all the hype around Brazilian culture, more and more designers have been working as freelancers, both for the local and the overseas markets,” says Costa.

This is healthy, but it’s leading to the creative equivalent of a brain drain. “More and more professionals are leaving the country, which is really sad,” says Costa. But there is a silver lining: “It’s always really great to have the experience and then later, if they want, they can go back to their home town and help take the market a bit further.”

There are many designers doing just that. Base-V recently completed a giant wall installation in São Paulo, Eduardo Recife has just finished a series of stills for HBO’s ‘Assume the position’; and since last December Nando Costa has been busy working on a series of 30 packaging illustrations for software giant Microsoft.

The rise of street art and graffiti is nowhere more prominent than on the streets of Brazil’s cities. “The influence is big – from fashion to animation,” agrees Oliveira. And even the official art market is beginning to open up: “Spaces and galleries with a specific interest in ‘street language’ are opening, particularly in São Paulo.”

“Brazil is a place of high contrast, and that’s very inspiring for an artist,” says Costa. “Chaos has always been inspiring, but it also instigates more thoughts about what one can do to change poverty, violence and other issues.” Art can make a difference, but as Oliveira points out, “It’s a very hard struggle because artists here have to fight for their space in the market.”

Eight Brazilian design talents you should be keeping your eyes on:
Mariana Bukvic
Based in São Paulo, interactive art director Mariana Bukvic is an example of Brazil’s outward facing designers. She has worked for many prestigious clients such as Nike, Coke and Nestlé, and has been honoured with numerous awards from the Cannes Cyber Lions to the D&AD.

Buraco de Bala
This studio has come a long way since its launch back in 1999 – always striving to develop the best solution within its powers, no matter what technique the team uses in order to accomplish its goals. Buraco de Bala works are mostly fuelled, “by craftsmanship and a special taste for the classic techniques and references.”

reismagos
Reismagos is a graphic design studio created by Alline Luz and Daniel Gizo. Since 2004 the pair have worked on commercial and experimental projects for national and international clients. Although this piece is about the 2006 World Cup, “Now we’re into designer toys – something quite unknown in Brazil,” says Gizo.

Flávio de Almeida Hobo
“My approach is analogical plus digital,” says Flávio de Almeida Hobo. Humans are “analogical beings” using digital tools. “The lack of money spent on projects here makes creativity essential. Less business, respect for nature and do the work with sincerity. Design can save the world.”

Yomar Augusto
Graphic artist Yomar Augusto has been published around the globe. From Brazil to China, The Netherlands to Russia, his work is highly respected. In 2004, Yomar was involved in two Rojo Magazine ArtStorm projects, where 18 artists from all over the world brainstormed a huge project based in Barcelona and Berlin.

Rogério Lionzo
Brazilian designer and illustrator Rogério Lionzo is making the world a better place with the gift of colour and form. The young artist is chuffed with his progress so far: “I am lucky enough to have great experiences and opportunities so far in my career.”

Nitrocorpz
The four founders of Nitrocorpz have been working together since graduating in 1998. “We do interactive media, illustration, print and motion work. Most of our work is done through email/IM.” Other projects include www.mixtape.nitrocorpz.com and www.neuralbrand.org.

Andre Matarazzo
Born in São Paulo, Andre Matarazzo travelled extensively throughout the world for 12 years, got upset with the state of online design in Brazil and decided to move back and launch gringo.nu. He is focused on online branding solutions.

via Computer Arts – Viva Brasil.

Read Also:

• International panel debates still and moving images at the 2nd Brazil Film Festival in China
• Discover the Brazilian Cinema
• Chinese design magazines will publish over 200 pages of Brazilian graphic arts in 2010
• Roots: Wollner, Alexandre (1928)
• Brazilian posters for the Green Movement in Iran

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Poster of "Brazil Illustrated: Bruno Kurru / Wagner Pinto / Eduardo Recife" exhibition during London Design Festival

Part of this year’s London Design Festival, the exhibition Brazil Illustrated does not aim to create a geographical representation of the practice of illustration in Brazil today, but brings together three individual artists — Bruno Kurru, Wagner Pinto and Eduardo Recife — whose work synthesizes the numerous possibilities of the medium in its multiple variations. All three artists incorporate a variety of media and materials in their work, whilst still maintaining drawing at the very heart of their practices, comfortably accommodating seemingly disparate visual elements such as line drawing, photography, painting and collage.

The exhibition, curated by João Guarantani, concentrates on the possibilities of illustration outside its applied state, before it is appropriated by design and visual communication, and presents an exploration of the most expressive qualities of the medium in its raw state through site-specific installations.

via Brazil Illustrated: Bruno Kurru / Wagner Pinto / Eduardo Recife | London Design Festival.

Read Also:

• Paste Magazine interviews Eduardo Recife
• Brazilian designer featured on Coroflot Genius Gallery “Eyes On the Prize”
• Brazilian illustration festival in China
• Movements: O Gráfico Amador
• Brazilian design featured on Computer Arts Magazine’s “Viva Brasil” article

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"Dream" by Eduardo Recife

With Brazilian designers and companies like F. Akasaka and Melissa helping to put Brazil on the map for design (not just street art), there’s a lot of talent that’s on the brink of making it big, which is the subject of the exhibit “Brazilian Design Today: Frontiers.”

Interest in Brazil’s arts outside of the traditional cultural symbols is relatively recent, so to celebrate and showcase the variety and contributions of Brazilian design in the 21st century, the show focuses mostly on industrial design but also takes a look at digital mediums.

There are gems aplenty among those 90 picked for the show, from Eduardo Recife‘s handmade cut-and-paste fonts (like “Dream“) and Fernando Prado‘s “Bossa” adjustable lamp.

Also worth checking the pieces of Alexandre Wollner, Claudio Rocha, Tony de Marco, Rogério Duarte, and Tipos do Acaso.

via Brazilian Design Today: Frontiers.

Read Also:

• Paste Magazine interviews Eduardo Recife
• Roots: Wollner, Alexandre (1928)
• Alexandre Wollner featured in the “Distinguished Lecture Series” of the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• London Design Festival’s “Brazil Illustrated”, featuring Bruno Kurru, Wagner Pinto and Eduardo Recife
• DINGBATS BRASIL

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