MyFonts' Creative Characters Issue #52 interviews Pintassilgo Prints

“They used to do it all: illustration, graphic design, product development, screen printing — hence the name of their company, PintassilgoPrints. Lately this young couple from the seaside city of Vitória, Brazil, has concentrated almost exclusively on type design. And quite rightly so. Their fast-growing collection of playful and informal display and script fonts has met with increasing success, and these past few months they’ve scored more than one bestseller. Don’t be fooled by the apparent nonchalance of their letterforms: technically, their fonts are painstakingly made. Meet the bird-loving, hard-working, type-enamored Erica Jung and Ricardo Marcin“.

read the full interview at MyFonts: Creative Characters interview with PintassilgoPrints, November 2011.

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• Brazilian comics in Slovakian magazine
• Paste Magazine interviews Eduardo Recife
• DINGBATS BRASIL
• Brazilian venture featured as one of “The best places to find artistic inspiration online” by TNW
• CLIO honors Marcello Serpa with “Lifetime Achievement” award

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In an attempt to spark the familiar flame of innovation, you find yourself Googling keywords like “cool artwork” or “inspiring designs”. Sadly, these desperate attempts to revive your creative juices yield regurgitated and over-promoted results that fall just short of your expectations.

If you find yourself desperately trying to get past that creative road block, look no further: among their many readers suggestions, The Next Web (TNW) picked We Heart it as one of their favorites:

We Heart It allows its community to browse through a constantly updated photo gallery where users can “heart” the images that they discover through the service and add them to a list of bookmarked favorites.There are over 10 million images on We Heart It. You can search for your favorite topics and heart the images you like the most. Just move your mouse over the image and click on the heart icon. When it fills up, you hearted it!We Heart It is definitely a site popular among Tumblr users with an interest specifically in style or fashion illustration. I have, on more than one occasion, seen images pirated directly from We Heart It with sources uncredited. While this is obviously just bad practice, it is also a testament to how popular and inspirational images on We Heart It can be. In fact, it is nearly impossible for me to scroll through Tumblr without recognizing some sort of beautiful photo or shot from this service.

via The best places to find artistic inspiration online – TNW Apps.

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• Lobo featured on Creative Review’s “The Annual”
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• Brazil featured on Advertising Age’s “The Best of Latin American Marketing in 2009″

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Covers by CasaRex for the Contemporary Art and Education" series promoted by AEP - Art Education Productions

As a winner in 2009 for the project developed for the Cool Readings book collection (Editora Biruta) and for the book “Our Movie” (Edições Jogo de Amarelinha) in 2010, this year Casa Rex has been acknowledged in the Miscellaneous Company Literature category, for the visual identity that was created for the circle of debates about Contemporary Art and Education promoted by AEP – Art Education Productions.

Casa Rex's "Contemporary Art and Education" brochure interior

In order to develop the illustrations for the programme, Casa Rex made use of seventeenth-century engravings of imaginary animals, created to play with the illusions that people often have about contemporary art: “Generally the subject of contemporary art is viewed as being almost as strange as a seven-headed animal. The concept of portraying fictional animals has been used as a way of making light of these perceptions.” says Gustavo Piqueira, head of the agency as well as the creative director on the project, together with Samia Jacintho.

Casa Rex's "Contemporary Art and Education" Poster

The project has been selected as one of the winning entries out of more than 4000 submissions and it will be featured in the September/ October 2011 issue of the Communication Arts Magazine Design Annual 52 Awards (http://www.commarts.com/annuals/2011-Design/winners).

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• CLIO honors Marcello Serpa with “Lifetime Achievement” award
• “The Soccer Museum” wins Gold Medal from IDSA’s 2010 IDEA awards

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• Brazilian illustration festival in China
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• Kiko Farkas poster exhibition in China
• Discover the Brazilian Cinema
• DINGBATS BRASIL goes to Venezuela

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Illustra Brazil is coming to China

Brought to Asia in a joint-project of SIB and the Ministry of External Relations of Brazil, the exhibition will be held from August 20th – September 25th 2011 at The Foundry Gallery in Shanghai, China. The exhibition catalog featuring text in Chinese, English, Spanish and Portuguese will be distributed during the festival.

The event also includes a series of lectures and workshops in Chinese universities, children guided tours, and meetings with Chinese professional associations. A seminar featuring Brazilian illustration, comics and animation projects for international clients will be presented on August 26th at the prestigious RockBund Art Museum by Orlando Pedroso, Marcelo Martinez and Bruno Porto, members of SIB’s Council of Directors.

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• Fashion, architecture and graphic design from Brazil in international forum in China
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• 9th Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial in China
• Discover the Brazilian Cinema
• International panel debates still and moving images at the 2nd Brazil Film Festival in China

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Explore Brazil, from "Into Brazil" Project

IntoBrazil is a part of a master degree research done by the designer Pedro Brêtas at NCAD/The National College of Art and Design. This website allows users to create a virtual travel experience to Brazil and explore touristic cities.

Apart from the interesting experiment of customizing trips to Brazil, the site create a pretty rich immersion experience by capturing the Brazilian culture through visuals and sounds. Please note the beautiful watercolor illustrations and the amazing background music selection.

Porto de Galinhas, from "Into Brazil" Project

Read Also:

• Brazilian design featured on Computer Arts Magazine’s “Viva Brasil” article
• Premiere Brazil Film Exhibition at MoMA, New York
• DINGBATS BRASIL
• The launching of Guarana Jesus new can wins the Gold Medal from IDSA IDEA 2010 Awards
• DINGBATS BRASIL goes to Venezuela

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"Buy Prints Online" from Galeria Choque Cultural

We dropped by, and that is quite the with-it, street-artiste, Juxtapoz-style alternative gallery. And it’s in a neighborhood that is raging with giant street murals in a high underground-comix stylee.

*With its high-tech lowlife mix of keen design sense and grungola appropriated furniture, that place could be straight out of a novel. A Brazilian tupinipunk novel, presumably.

Projected to be a publishing house, Choque- as is called, ended up as a commercial QG of Brazilian young artists coming from graffiti, tattoo, graphic design, illustration and anything that speaks urban languages in Brazil.

In fact, Choque’s artists- composed of and eclectic mix of graduated designers and school drop outs, reflects today’s urban youth view on subjects involving social awareness, religion, vintage references, consumerism and today’s mutant urban feelings expressed in varied forms that goes from sculptures, abstract expressionisms to portraits of city sceneries, its people and its inner desires.

via Culture Shock Gallery, Sao Paulo | Beyond The Beyond.

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• Gráfica Fidalga produces artwork for Creative Review magazine
• Born in Brazil issue @ Wallpaper*
• Roots: ADG Brasil (Associação dos Designers Gráficos)
• Trabalho Gráfica Urbano para o Bairro do Bixiga wins Gold Medal from IDSA’s 2010 IDEA awards
• “Brazil Contemporary” Exhibition opens in Rotterdam, The Netherlands

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Slovakia's magazine Stripburger #54, cover by Daniel Bueno

The interview can be heard in http://www.ljudmila.org/stripcore/stripburger/sb54/dsalete_ang.html. More information here.

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• Daytripper is a stunning one way ticket to Brazilian stories, lifestyle and souls
• Brazilian venture featured as one of “The best places to find artistic inspiration online” by TNW

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Tupixel

Tupixel is a web-search tool for Brazilian and Brazil-based illustrators: it’s a starting “pixel” for those looking for drawings made in Brazilian lands. A work-in-progress (open to collaborations), the site covers a diverse and wide period of Brazilian visual arts, from Comics pioneer Angelo Agostini, who lived in São Paulo in 1860s, to the current generation of “100% digital” graphic artists.

Resulting from 12 years of research by graphic artist and illustrator Faoza, its database – the largest of its kind in Brazil – already has over 1,600 names. Among them, great masters of the past, professionals from many different styles and beginners of this art form so present in our day to day through newspapers, magazines, books, the web, packaging, fashion, advertising, comics, TV, cinema and alternative medias.

http://www.tupixel.com.br/

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• Chinese design magazines will publish over 200 pages of Brazilian graphic arts in 2010
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• Discover the Brazilian Cinema
• Lürzer’s Archive features Brazilian superhero art in advertising

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NewGraphic #23 and PRO #02

Seems that after publishing the portfolios of illustrator Walter Vasconcelos and graphic designer Kiko Farkas in its bimonthly NewGraphic magazine (20 pages each, in issues #13 – 2007 and #21 – 2009, respectively), the Nanjing Arts Institute decided to make 2010 their ‘Year of Brazil’:

The #23 – April 2010 issue features over 100 projects of books, logos, packages, covers and pages of the famous Gráfica magazine designed by Oswaldo “Miran” Miranda, a “pioneer of Contemporary Graphic Design in Brazil”, as the magazine rightfully calls him in the first of the 20 pages allocated to the renowned Curitiba graphic artist.

In this issue, the publication also initiates a series of six articles that will present portfolios of Brazilian design companies and professionals with different styles and business models. Written and produced by Brazilian designer and educator Bruno Porto, each article will focus a specific theme. The first one, “Pop”, introduces over 80 projects of editorial design studio Laboratório Secreto and design agency Boldº_a design company in another 20 pages. Issue #24 will carry projects by eg.design and Tecnopop addressing “Identity”.

The Nanjing Arts Institute has also designated 42 pages of its new publication PRODESIGN to the Brazilian graphics. Its first two issues feature the illustration works of São Paulo’s (and Barcelona resident) Flavio de Morais and Rio de Janeiro’s Lula Palomanes, as well as the complete projects and texts of the two graphic design exhibitions presented by Bruno Porto in China in 2009, “DINGBATS BRASIL” and “One Year in Posters“. While NewGraphic is published in Chinese only, PRODESIGN is bilingual (Chinese / English). Pages of both publications can be seen in http://www.seecoo.com.cn/

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• Kiko Farkas poster exhibition in China
• A Brazilian talk about Asian design
• 9th Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial in China
• 9th Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial goes to China
• Brazilian Posters in Warsaw International Poster Biennale

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"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.

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

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Ziraldo's poster for "Discover the Brazilian Cinema" exhibition

Ziraldo Alves Pinto (Caratinga, Minas Gerais, 1932 – ). Draughtsman, caricaturist, cartoonist, illustrator, journalist and writer. He presented his first drawing at the age of 7 in the newspaper Folha de Minas, in 1939. In 1949, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he contributed to the children’s publications Vida Infantil, Vida Juvenil and Sesinho, and began to publish works in the magazine, A Cigarra. In 1952, he entered the Faculty of Law of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais [Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) ] and contributed monthly to the magazine, Era uma Vez.

In 1954, he replaced the caricaturist Borjalo (1925 – 2004) on the daily Folha de Minas and contributed to the magazine Binômio. In 1957, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, and in the following year, began to work on the magazine, O Cruzeiro, where, two years later, he created the character, Pererê. With the success of this character, the company O Cruzeiro began to publish a monthly magazine consisting exclusively of his stories.

In 1963, he began to work for the Jornal do Brasil, and in 1964, for the magazine Pif-Paf, edited by Millôr Fernandes (1923-). In 1967, he edited the Sunday supplement, Cartum JS, of the Jornal dos Sports. In the following year, he gained international recognition and saw his drawings published in foreign magazines. He became a member of the founding team of the magazine, O Pasquim, launched in 1969.

Since then, he has devoted himself to the publication of children’s books, with many titles, most notable among which are Flicts (1969), O Menino Maluquinho [The Crazy Kid] (1980) and O Bichinho da Maçã [The Little Apple Worm] (1982). In 1982, he left the editorial of Pasquim to devote himself mainly to children’s literature. In 1999, he founded the magazines Bundas [Bums] – a parody of the society magazine, Caras and Palavra. In 2002, he began to publish a new magazine called Opasquim21.

via Ziraldo (1932).

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• Roots: Fernandes, Millôr (1923)
• Discover the Brazilian Cinema
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• Roots: Monteiro, Vicente do Rêgo (1899 – 1970)

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J. Borges and his "Folhetos de Cordel", by LOST.ART

Artist and poet José Francisco Borges (J. Borges) was born in 1935 in the village of Bezerros, Pernambuco state, in Northeastern Brazil. Today Borges is Brazil’s best-known folk artist working in the woodcut medium, and his work has been exhibited all over the world. But he comes out of a long tradition of folk poet/artists who publish their own work in the form of small (generally about 6″ by 9″) cheap chap-books or pamphlets written in verse, known as folhetos. They are also known as literatura de cordel after the way vendors sell them in the marketplace, hanging over a string. This tradition (including the work of Borges) is described in detail by Candace Slater in her book Stories on a String: The Brazilian ‘Literatura de Cordel’.

Marion Oettinger, director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art, describes these folhetos in his book The Folk Art of Latin America: Visiones del Pueblo: “Brazilian chap books deal with popular poetry, accounts of local catastrophes, popular legends, famous crimes, and infamous love affairs. The Man who Married a Donkey, The Son Who Murdered His Parents in Order to Get His Hands on Their Retirement Benefit, The Football Game in Hell, and The Overturned Bus Disaster are examples of the alluring titles found in a typical marketplace. The front of these pamplets usually contain wood-block illustrations of the book’s contents, and they, in themselves, form a special type of folk expression…. Frequently, chap book vendors sing the songs in their books or read aloud the contents of their books to market crowds, many of whom are illiterate, and their voices usually draw enormous gatherings.”

José Francisco Borges began writing verse for folhetos in his 20s, and soon also began to operate a printing press to produce woodcut prints for their covers. “When I was a kid, the only leisure activity we had was to read cordel literature,” recalled Borges. “The way people watch telenovelas today, we read cordel booklets.”

While working as a salesman, Borges decided to try his hand at writing a story. He showed it to a veteran “cordelista,” who encouraged him to publish. It took eight years for Borges to save up the cash to self-publish his first edition. With nothing left over to pay an illustrator for the cover, which needed a requisite black-ink woodblock print, he had to produce his own artwork.

Now he has authored over 200 chapbooks and says that he’s lost count of how many he’s illustrated for less graphically-inclined storyteller-poets. His press Borges also prints booklets. “I get lots of orders of cordel booklets,” he said – including some that serve as company training manuals or that teach the basics of things like how to take out a bank loan. “Country hicks don’t like to read magazines, but if you give him a cordel booklet he’ll read it – and enjoy it,” Borges said.

"The Arrival of the Prostitute in Heaven", WoodCut, J. Borges

Working with just a knife and a chunk of wood, Mr. Borges proves that ”low-level technology often yields very powerful, moving and sophisticated results,” said Marion Oettinger, ”Thanks to Borges and others like him, the popular graphics tradition is alive and well in Brazil in a way that you don’t see in other countries.”

In the 1960s his woodcuts came to be recognized in their own right. According to Ariano Suassuna, writer, poet and a leading figure of the Armorial Movement, the Brazilian Cordel could be divided in the following cycles: the heroic, the wonderful, the religious or moral, the satiric and historic. J. Borges says that Ariano once told him “I was the best in the Northeast. Now he says I’m the best in the world,” noted Borges with a smile.

Borges followed the advice of some admirers to produce folio-sized stand-alone prints. Often in color, they depict the same fantastic and folkloric rural characters as the booklets: The Hangover Bar, The Cowboy Mass, The Girl Who Turned into a Snake, and The Macumba Ceremony. These have attracted the attention of museums and collectors. But even in larger formats, his prints reflect the same popular themes, such as The Honeymoon of Matuto (an archetypal back-country bumpkin), The Monster of the Backlands, The Woman who Put the Devil in a Bottle, The Arrival of the Prostitute in Heaven and many tales of the legendary bandit Lampião.

Borges’ work has now been exhibited all over Brazil as well as in Paris, Zurich, Buenos Aires and in Germany and the United States. The Louvre, the Smithsonian and the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe have exhibited Borges’ work. UNESCO has honored Mr. Borges with awards for his contributions to world culture. They also commissioned him to illustrate the cover of the United Nations 2002 calendar. The United States Library of Congress has preserved a body of Mr. Borges work in its’ permanent collection.

via Indigo Arts Gallery | Brazilian Folk Art | Jose Francisco Borges.

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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.

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• 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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"Aniki Bobo", by João Cabral de Melo Neto

Aloísio Magalhães, while still attending law school in Recife (the capital of Pernambuco), had already begun to show his fascination with graphic arts by skillfully illustrating a poetry book written by a colleague of his from the university, José Laurenio de Melo.

After graduating, he traveled to Paris to study painting and engraving at the Atelier 17, an important European center of engraving. Once back in Brazil, he met with Gastão de Holanda, a former classmate from the university, who had also been in Paris, studying literature.

Coincidentally, a famous cousin of Magalhães, the renowned Brazilian poet João Cabral de Melo Neto, moved to Recife at that time. This cousin strongly encouraged the two young artists to open their own private print shop, similar to the one he himself had had in Barcelona. It was in that print shop that Cabral de Melo Neto had produced his own books through craftsmanship, while he was in the town occupying the post of consul.

Magalhães and José Laurenio became excited about the idea of setting up a print shop and they sought other former friends from the university who were also involved in literature and graphic arts. Among the main names of those who founded O Gráfico Amador in 1954, it is worth mentioning Ariano Suassuna, José Laurenio, and Orlando da Costa Ferreira.

Brought together by their passion for books and their quests in philosophical and aesthetic issues – which were connected to Modernism, a Brazilian art movement – these individuals produced grand experimental works that combined poetry, illustration, a bold typographical style, an alternative and informal use of paper and elements in relief printing. All these ingredients greatly contributed towards creating a more pleasing relationship between text and image.

O Gráfico Amador was being closely followed by Le Courrier Graphique, from Paris, as well as by the Curwen Press, from London. Additionally, several intellectuals and artists from Pernambuco and people from the artistic milieu also contributed to the magazine.

This undertaking was a key factor in Aloísio Magalhães’ career, for he later became a pioneering figure in the history of Brazilian graphic design. Let us not forget that benchmarks were scarce at that time, especially outside of the region linking Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo. Moreover, Magalhães became a leading pioneer in the history of Brazilian typography, as he was acutely aware of the profound relationships between artistic and industrial production.

O Gráfico Amador revealed itself as being a reference in the scenario of Brazilian culture and it was displayed in an exhibition at the Brazilian National Library, in Rio de Janeiro, in 1959.

The magazine closed its doors in 1961. It had issued altogether 20 publications, including the first edition of the poem Ciclo, by Carlos Drummond de Andrade – a renowned Brazilian poet. Its patrimony was donated to Escola de Belas Artes do Recife (Recife’s Fine Arts College).

via :: REDE DESIGN BRASIL ::.

Read Also:

• Roots: Magalhães, Aloísio (1927)
• Roots: Monteiro, Vicente do Rêgo (1899 – 1970)
• Roots: Câmara, João (1944)
• Roots: J. Borges (1935)
• Roots: Fernandes, Millôr (1923)

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"Aloísio Magalhães", by Mônica Fuchshuber

Aloísio Magalhães took his first steps in the field of graphic design took place while he was still attending law school in Recife. In 1950, during his last year as a student, he made illustrations for a book of poetry, Palhano, written by a friend of his the university, José Laurenio de Melo. Having finished his course, Aloisio headed for Paris, where he intended to study painting and engraving with Stanley Hayter at the Atelier 17 studio, an important European center of engraving.

In 1954, influenced by the renowned Brazilian poet (and his cousin) João Cabral de Melo Neto – he set up, together with some friends, a modest print shop called O Gráfico Amador that, during the eight subsequent years that it was operating, published 27 books, 3 sets of fliers, 2 bulletins and a theater program.

In 1960 Magalhães founded a design office whose name was originally Aloísio Magalhães. In 1976, PVDI became its official name (this original office is still functioning, carrying out projects in the area of visual identity systems and product design).

It is only in 1970 that his office develops its first large design project in Brazil for Petrobras, the giant state-owned Brazilian oil company. The scope of the project ranged from the design of a symbol that would be stamped on oil packaging to the entire system of visual identity that would be displayed both at distribution points and on gas pumps at all of the gas stations run by the company.

In 1976, Brazil’s Central Bank commissioned him once again to render services to the institution (in fact his office had already carried out a few jobs for it in 1967 and 1972). This assignment comprised redesigning Brazil’s units of currency. Thus the project encompassed the task of defining a complex system of creation, including aspects such as selecting the most appropriate graphic motives to be used as well as key decisions regarding the technology to be adopted – amongst the types of technology available at that time. The project, as a whole, aimed to make Brazil self-sufficient in the production of its paper bills and coins.

In 1979, Magalhães takes on the post of administrating the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional – IPHAN (Brazil’s Institute of Historic and Artistic National Patrimony). His ideas regarding the management of this institution had a lot in common with the ones advocated by Mário de Andrade 50 years before. Hence, he proceeded to promote a revolution in the institute’s policies, when compared with the long-lasting, deeply ingrained policies that the IPHAN upheld at the time. His broad vision, which embodied the concept of what a cultural asset should be, and his philosophy that the custody of the shared patrimony should be transferred to the community that is primarily concerned with it, set new and unprecedented paradigms in the handling of the national memory. At that time, Magalhães — taking advantage of his talent as a designer – begins drafting a new layout for the institutional framework connected to the cultural issue in Brazil.

As the outcome of intense political maneuvers and persuasiveness, IPHAN finally becomes a Secretariat directly subordinated to MEC (Brazil’s Ministry of Education and Culture) in January 1980 and soon later the Fundação Nacional Pró-Memória (Pro-Memory National Foundation) is created. Consistent to his efforts to reorganize the infrastructure of state agencies with respect to their form of handling issues related to culture, he takes up the presidency of the Fundação Nacional de Arte (National Art Foundation) and is later invited to become Brazil’s Secretary of Culture.

He dies from a stroke in Padua, Italy, in 1982.

November 5 – Aloísio Magalhães’ date of birth – has become Brazil’s National Designers Day, a homage paid to the contributions he made in the profession.

via :: REDE DESIGN BRASIL ::.

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• Roots: Duarte, Rogério (1939)
• Roots: Wollner, Alexandre (1928)
• Schools: Escola Superior de Design Industrial (ESDI)
• Roots: Gilvan Samico (1928 – )

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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.

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Dingbats Brazil goes to Venezuela

DINGBATS BRASIL is an exhibition that features the first decade (1996-2006) of Brazil’s production of digital pictorial alphabets – the dingbats – through thirty-five projects by 22 prominent contemporary designers. The fonts can be seen in its +dingbatsbrasil) and related matters (in the dingblog).

The themes of most of the exhibited projects emanate from a broad cultural sphere, and they are carried in a comprehensive bunch of languages and styles – which reflect the diversity of Brazilian contemporary graphic arts. The initiatives of rescuing and registering aspects of Brazilian culture – music, religion, art, sports, culinary and even design itself – could be understood as a premeditate or unintentional way of popularizing the Brazilian-way-of-life through graphic design

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• Roots: Tupixel (Brazilian Illustrators Index)

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_original logo (2009) designed with Brazilian typefaces Brasilêro (2001_ Crystian Cruz), Cantador (1997_ Daniel Morena), Folk (2009_ Marcelo Magalhães), UnB Pro (2008_ Gustavo Ferreira) + Samba Expert (2003_ Tony de Marco & Caio de Marco)

Authors

Bruno Porto is a graphic designer, educator and consultant from Rio de Janeiro. His work has frequently been awarded and exhibited in the Americas, Europe and Asia, where he had two solo shows of posters he’d designed. He is one the two Brazilian professionals listed in the Atlas of Contemporary Graphic Design by Harper Collins in 2008. He is a member of the Society of Illustrators of Brazil (SIB) – where he currently serves in its Board of Councilors – and the Brazilian Graphic Designers Association (ADG Brasil) – in which he has acted as a member of its National Board of Directors (2004-2006), Rio de Janeiro Board of Coordinators (2002-2004), Ethics Committee (2009-2011) and as its liaison with Icograda. He has also been deeply involved with the Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial, being President of the Jury of its 7th edition, member of the Curatorial Commission of its 8th edition, and coordinator of the 9th edition’s international tour in Beijing and Shanghai. He has curated a dozen graphic arts exhibitions – such as DINGBATS BRASIL, that has been presented in ten cities across South America and Asia. An author of books and articles on graphic design and illustration, he holds a column in www.DesignBrasil.org.br and has contributed articles to a number of design publications in Brazil and China such as abcDesign, Art & Design, Designe, Design 360º, Design Gráfico, ??? NewGraphic, Prodesign, Revista da ADG, Revista Webdesign and Wide. He was a faculty member at the Graphic Design School of Centro Universitário da Cidade (Rio de Janeiro, 1996-2006) and at the Visual Communication department of Raffles Design Institute (Shanghai, 2006-2010), and consistently organizes and takes part in design events, lectures and juries.

Itamar Medeiros currently lives in Shanghai (China), where he works as Senior User Experience Designer at the Architecture, Engineering & Construction Industry Group of Autodesk® — and helps promote Interaction Design as a local coordinator for the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). Working in the Information Technology industry since 1998, Itamar Medeiros has developed several websites and interactive media campaigns, both as art director and, later, as creative director for several new media agencies in Pernambuco, Brazil. As an Information Design specialist, served as board member of the Brazilian Society of Information Design, and held several lecturing positions, including Lecturer of Hypermedia at the Department of Design of Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Assistant Professor of Cognition and Information Technologies at the Information Systems program of Faculdade Santa Maria,  and Assistant Program Director of the Visual Communication Department of Raffles Design Institute at DongHua University, China. He has been awarded with an MA (with distinction) in Design Practice at Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK) for his thesis “Designing the User Experience: Creating Innovative Design Software Solutions within Collaborative/Distributed Design Environments”.

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• Roots: Duarte, Rogério (1939)
• Discover the Brazilian Cinema
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• 9th Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial goes to China
• New media & semiotics lecture in Shanghai

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