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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CR January: Made in Brazil

There’s a feature in our January/2010 issue (out 18 December) about São Paulo gallery Choque Cultural and its attempts to keep the tradition of letterpress Lambe-Lambe posters going by using Gráfica Fidalga to produce books and prints.

We thought it would be interesting to ask the workshop to create the artwork for our cover. Choque’s Baixo Ribeiro designed a layout using text supplied by us. We also gave him an EPS of the logo which the guys at GF made a stencil from and then routed out of a piece of wood.

For prints by Choque Cultural artists, check out the UK website here.

via Creative Review – CR January: Made in Brazil.

Read Also:

• Rogério Duarte exhibition in Australia reviewed by UK’s Grafik magazine
• Movements: O Gráfico Amador
• For the 3rd consecutive time, CasaRex Receives a Communication Arts Award
• Galeria Choque Cultural featured on Wired Magazine
• Roots: J. Borges (1935)

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Lürzer’s Archive features Brazilian superhero art in advertising

Art directed by Ricardo Peroza and copy written by Marco Pupo, the ads were illustrated by Brazilian comic book artist Joe Bennett. Born in Belém, Bennett has been working for Marvel Comics since 1994, on characters such as Spider-Man, Captain America, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, X-Men, Thor, Hulk and Conan the Barbarian, as well as for other major publishers such as Dark Horse, DC Comics and Vertigo, on characters as The Green Hornet and Teen Titans.

Lürzer’s Archive features Brazilian superhero art in advertising

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• Roots: J. Borges (1935)
• A Brazilian talk about Asian design

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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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Milton Viola "Millôr" Fernandes

Milton Viola Fernandes (Rio de Janeiro RJ 1923). Satirical cartoonist, caricaturist, illustrator, writer, poet, playwright, translator. First drawing published in O Jornal, in 1934. At the age of 13, he was hired by the magazine, O Cruzeiro, where he carried out a variety of journalistic tasks: writing captions, pagination and working as office boy. In an attempt to improve his skills, he attended the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios [School of Arts and Crafts] of Rio de Janeiro from 1938 to 1943.

In 1939, after winning a story competition promoted by the magazine, A Cigarra [The Cicada], he was invited by Frederico Chateaubriand to write for the same magazine. He then created the Poste-Escrito [Written Post] section, writing under the pseudonym, Emmanuel Vão Gôgo, which he also used to write a column in the Diário da Noite, subsequently directing A Cigarra for three years. He also directed O Guri [The Kid], a magazine in comic strip format, and O Detetive [The Detective], of crime stories. In 1945, he produced Pif-Paf, the humour section of the magazine, O Cruzeiro, with articles by himself, also written under the pseudonym of Emmanuel Vão Gôgo that were initially illustrated by Péricles (1924 – 1961), and subsequently by himself.

In 1964, having already left O Cruzeiro, Millôr Fernandes edited the magazine Pif-Paf, which only ran for eight issues. From 1964 to 1974, he wrote a weekly column from Portugal for the newspaper, Diário Popular. From 1969 to 1975, he took part in the Rio de Janeiro-based weekly, O Pasquim, together with Jaguar (1932-), Tarso de Castro, Sérgio Cabral (1937), Henfil (1944 – 1988), Paulo Francis (1930 – 1997), Ziraldo (1932-), among others. In addition to his output in the printed media, Millôr has presented TV programmes on TV Itacolomi of Belo Horizonte, and on TV Tupi, of Rio de Janeiro. He writes poems, articles, adaptations and translations for the theatre and screenplays for the cinema, having also published dozens of books.

via Fernandes, Millôr (1923).

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• Roots: Ziraldo (1932)
• Luiz Carlos Barreto lifetime achievements highlighted in the New York Times
• Movements: O Gráfico Amador
• Roots: J. Borges (1935)
• Roots: Câmara, João (1944)

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Wallpaper's "Nascida no Brasil"

“For a few magical weeks, Wallpaper* magazine shifted its operational HQ to Brazil (…) to produce as true a portrait as possible of an extraordinary country at an extraordinary moment of transition”. Its printed “Born in Brazil issue has finally hit the shelves” but according to the editorial team “the pace of change in Brazil is too great to be pinned down in a single issue” so “over the coming weeks, Wallpaper.com will be keeping track by adding more news, videos, interviews and insights, to give you as wide a view as possible of the most exciting country on earth.”

Featuring the Campana Brothers, graphic designer Felipe Taborda, jewelery designers Antonio Bernardo and Livia Canuto, fashion designers/stylists Lenny Niemeyer and Oskar Metsavaht and architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha, among others.

Check out http://www.wallpaper.com/borninbrazil

(via Wallpaper*)

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• Felipe Taborda’s “Kabum! Mix” poster exhibition in Warsaw featured on Wallpaper.com
• Kiko Farkas poster exhibition in China
• Chinese design magazines will publish over 200 pages of Brazilian graphic arts in 2010
• Discover the Brazilian Cinema
• “Brazilian Design Classics”, according to UK’s the Guardian

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"FedEx", by DDB Brasil

Communication Arts Magazine announces the winners of its 2009 advertising competition. Now in its 50th year, the prestigious competition selected 155 projects, representing the work of 97 firms, for inclusion.

DDB Brasil was awarded for several campaigns, including FedEx, in which Fedex Express service is presented in an advertising campaign in Brazil showing the personal side of its service – delivery from one pair of hands to another. Three print advertisements use boxes between pairs of hands exchanging a trumpet, a robot and a vase. DDB Brasil was also awarded for its Terra Travel, Latinstock, and Brasileiros Magazine campaigns.

via Communication Arts – 2009 Advertising Annual Winners.

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• REX Design Awarded by Communication Arts Magazine
• For the 3rd consecutive time, CasaRex Receives a Communication Arts Award
• CLIO honors Marcello Serpa with “Lifetime Achievement” award
• Lürzer’s Archive features Brazilian superhero art in advertising
• Business Week’s Bruce Nussbaum talk about the “Best Design From Brazil”

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Lifetime Achievement Prize to Marcello Serpa (from AdWeek)

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.”

Serpa, 45, is widely recognized as a driving force in bringing international acclaim to Latin American advertising. He began his career with a seven-year stint in Germany, first studying visual and graphic arts before doing creative work at agencies GGK and R.G. Wiesmeir. Upon returning to Brazil, he worked in the Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo offices of DPZ before joining DM9DDB in 1991. It was there that he made history, becoming the first Latin American to win a Grand Prix at Cannes in the Print and Outdoor category for a 1993 campaign on behalf of Antárctica soft drink.

That same year, Serpa and Jose Luiz Madeira, a senior account manager and strategic planner, both left to become partners at AlmapBBDO. The team helped transform the agency to a new level of creative and strategic excellence, and have since amassed an impressive roster of blue-chip clients including Volkswagen, Pepsi, Inbev, Bayer, Audi Brazil, Mars Brazil, Gatorade, Havaianas, Greenpeace and others.

Serpa is the most awarded creative in the history of the São Paulo Creative Club Yearbook, and been elected as best creative director in Iberian America and Brazil eight times by El Ojo de Iberoamericana. Throughout his 15 years as partner and creative director at AlmapBBDO, the agency was the most awarded agency in the world by the Gunn Report for two years in a row, named agency of the year at Cannes and by Advertising Age, and won 45 Clio statues.

“I was nicely surprised and deeply happy to learn that Clio feels my work and professional life are deserving of such a definitive award,” said Serpa.

He joins a prestigious list of past Clio Lifetime Achievement Award honorees: Bob Isherwood, worldwide creative director, Saatchi & Saatchi; Bob Greenberg, chairman/CEO, chief creative director, R/GA; John Hegarty, chairman/worldwide creative director, Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH); Lee Clow, global director of media arts, TBWA\ Worldwide; Neil French, former worldwide creative director, Ogilvy & Mather and WPP; David Abbott, cofounder, Abbott Mead Vickers, and Tony Kaye, the pioneering director and cinematographer.

via Clio Awards.

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• For the 3rd consecutive time, CasaRex Receives a Communication Arts Award
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• Brazilian packaging and editorial projects win HOW 2010 International Design Awards
• Brazilian Adman Washington Olivetto’s Life Will Be a Movie
• Brazilian CG artist nominated to Autodesk’s “Master Awards”

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Cecilia Consolo during a guided tour to ADG's 9th Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial exhibition in Shanghai

The Brazilian Graphic Designers Association, ADG Brasil – Associação dos Designers Gráficos, founded in 1989, has as its fundamental objectives to promote Brazilian Graphic Design. Acting as a channel between professionals, suppliers, entrepreneurs and the public in general, to affirm the profession’s identity, contributing for the country’s social, cultural and economic development.

At the present moment, ADG Brasil congregates the major offices and the highest regarded graphic designers operating in Brazil, aiming at spreading the profession into the market and developing the design and the professionals.

Under these aspects, ADG Brasil has developed updating events for professionals, displays, contests, and performs a biennial exhibition of graphic design showing the best there was in the Brazilian graphic production during this period of time. The Bienal Brasileira de Design Gráfico is the biggest graphic design event in South America and has been also presented in North America, Europe and Asia.

The Brazilian Graphic Design, due to its qualities, such as having an acknowledged and creative way of communication, local colors and shades, has won ground in the specialized international media, gaining space on the main pages of the German magazine Novum Gebrauschgraphic, the Japanese Idea, the Swiss-American Graphis, Chinese Art and Design and New Graphic magazines, and the American Print, Step by Step, and Communications Arts. And more, it has already been the exclusive subject on Print magazine, number XLI:VI (NY, USA).

From the social performance point of view, ADG Brasil has supported action in favor of divulging and bringing awareness to major social problems, through the organization of contests and the display of posters in support of humanitarian and government institutions, such as Comunidade Solidária (Palácio do Planalto), Incentivo Cultura – Lei de Incentivos Imposto de Renda Pessoa Física, Associação Minha Rua Minha Casa, etc.

via ICOGRADA (revised by BGD)

Read Also:

• 9th Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial goes to China
• Brazilian posters win 1st prize in Bolivia
• Brazil outsourcing industry featured in Design Council Magazine’s “The Latin American renaissance” article
• Brazilian lectures at the Taipei 2011 IDA Congress
• DINGBATS BRASIL goes to Beijing ICOGRADA 2009

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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.

Read Also:

• Gráfica Fidalga produces artwork for Creative Review magazine
• Movements: O Gráfico Amador
• Roots: Gilvan Samico (1928 – )
• Brazilian posters win 1st prize in Bolivia
• Roots: Fernandes, Millôr (1923)

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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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"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 ::.

Read Also:

• Movements: O Gráfico Amador
• 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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