Please tell us about the history of graphic design in Brazil. When was graphic design established both academically and professionally?
Graphic design was established in the early sixties in a single school in Rio de Janeiro, with teachers from the Ulm School of Design in Germany. This was the only school in Brazil until mid-eighties when other schools opened. Nowadays there are more than 380 design schools in Brazil, in the areas of fashion, product design and graphic design. There is also a movement in the Brazilian congress to create a law requirement to regulate the design industry.
Out of the two cities, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, which one is more important? How have they each influenced graphic design? What are their current roles?
Rio de Janeiro was the Brazilian capital before Brasilia was built. It had all of the important companies and government infrastructures. However, after the capital changed, it lost most of its importance. Today, it is still the center of Brazilian entertainment industry. It houses TV network stations, Rede Globo – which has a big drama productions, studios, writers, and actors –Brazilian cinema, and the music industry.
São Paulo is one of the most important cities in Latin America. It is the headquarters of major companies like banks, automotive, mining... you name it. São Paulo also sells all of the major luxury brands, like Louis Vuitton, Montblanc and Gucci. Most of the art institutions and major museums are in Sao Paulo, thus, I believe that cultural life is much more vibrant in my city. There is more work for designers in São Paulo compared to Rio, but this may change because of the Olympics.
Can we say that Latin America has its own specific graphic design? Also, why did you say that “Being a designer in Brazil means working for the minority, the very few”?
I don’t believe that Latin America has its own specific graphic design. When I said that, I was referring to the fact that our country is mainly musical. Western design has a minimal, or functional approach, which does not come naturally to our culture. So, design is not an intuitive practice to Brazilians as it is to Japanese and German people, for example.
Please tell us about your studio – Maquina Estúdio.
Máquina Estúdio is the place where I work with my two assistants. We do everything ourselves: finances, commercial proposals and other planning. We work mainly in the cultural scene, with an emphasis on publishing. We do everything from annual reports to children’s books. We also do identity work, posters, and signage. I like to work on my own and allow my assistants to work independently, with my direction. All of the projects are credited with shared authorship.
I strongly believe that my personal approach to my work is the best way to create an effective relationship with clients and the market. It is also my favorite way to work.
Your work seems to be influenced by art, architecture, literature, music, and the folk-art of Brazil. Is that right?
I studied architecture, I do love to read – I love books and paper. I also used to play the guitar in a group until I realized that I would never be able to play as good as I wanted to. But music has always inspired me. I wouldn’t say that Brazilian folk-art is very present in the work I do. I see myself as a designer with lots of influences, and surely living in Brazil is a strong influence. I could say the way I use colors is perhaps “tropical” or Brazilian.
Color, form, layers, geometrical patterns, rhythm, and hand-drawn elements are present in your works. What is the source of these?
I like patterns, tiles, rhythm, sequence and motion. I think maybe there is a kind of subtle underlying movement in everything that I see or listen to. I try to capture this movement and express it in the form of an image. It’s like a game for me.
You bring your sketchbook with you everywhere. How does this affect your works?
My sketches are a relaxing exercise. I really don’t use my drawings as a source for works. Sometimes when I have a specific illustration job, I start out sketching. However, most of the time my sketches just reflect the desire to register a specific detail of a tree or of a silhouette in the street. As I said before, I like to draw a row of windows or some combination of lines that have been extracted from reality.
What does it mean to design for music? How did the weekly and monthly poster designs for the Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paulo begin?
When I started with these posters, I wanted to challenge myself to do something different from all existing classical music imagery that I had seen. The client was the maestro and musical director of the orchestra, and he told me he wanted a modern and contemporary visual signature for the institution, so my challenge fitted perfectly with his requirement. We did more than 300 posters in a four year period, almost one poster per week, and that was a good setup. Although there was very little time to think, it encouraged and freed us from excess of criticism and kept us taking risks in every possible direction to express musical emotion.
What does it mean to design for literature and poetry? You did dozens of different book cover designs for Enrique Vila-Matas, a Nobel prize winner, J. M. Coetzee, and George Orwell. Please tell us about more about these works.
Designing book covers is a mix of poster and packaging design. The message has to be at the same time abstract enough to let the reader imagine what is inside, but also catchy to get his attention among thousands of covers in a bookshelf. Most of the time we have to capture the “spirit” of the book or author. Sometimes when it’s a best seller we have to go really commercial. Covers for books that have a film adaptation most of the time must have a picture of the film. We always work with the editor’s support, and of course we can’t read them all. I like to have book covers in the studio because it’s fast and the assistants can do a really interpretive work and sign it.
Do you use your illustrations and drawings for your designs? What is the boundary that separates illustration and drawing from design for you?
Drawing is my primary way of expression. It’s always through drawing that I think visually. I can’t have a conversation on any visual subject without a pencil and paper. It’s the way I can show my ideas or comments about a particular issue. Sometimes drawing is the best way to say what I want.
How much are you involved in design and illustration of children books?
I love to illustrate for children’s books. However I don’t do it often because I take too long to do a book and it doesn’t pay that well. I do maybe one every two years. I like to draw funny and crazy impossible things that children look at and understand very well.
Please tell us about your branding for international Brazilian tourism.
Nothing is as representative of Brazil as a curve: the sinuosity of the mountains, the waves of the sea, the soft outline of the clouds, and the undulation of the beaches. The joy of our people is permeated with subjectivity, and subjectivity is curved just as objectivity is straight. The curve envelops and snuggles you; it is receptive. Those who come to Brazil immediately feel at home. Brazil is also a bright, luminous and colorful country. It is said that the astronauts circling the earth noted that Brazil is the most luminous sight on the planet. Whether it is a myth or reality, it is well known that Brazil has a special energy that attracts and fascinates visitors. It is a joyful country. Foreigners often say that Brazilians are always merry-making! And this facility for being merry, even when things are somewhat difficult, is impressive.
The fact that Brazil is a melting pot of races and cultures has made it into a “mestizo” country. This is in regard to the strength and resilience of all that is hybrid. All those who land here contribute to the cultural and affective heritage. We are a land that is accepting and generous “where all that is sown grows”.
Perhaps because of all this, Brazil is a modern country in the most up to date meaning of the word: a country with a great capacity for adjustment, in constant mutation. But if Brazil is joyful, welcoming and exuberant, it must also demonstrate that it is serious and capable. It must show that it has structure and is earnest when required.
The “Marca Brasil” was built considering the following: Joy, Sinuosity or the Curving (of nature, of the people’s character), Luminosity or Brightness or Exuberance, the Meeting of cultures or the Blending of races and Modern or Capable.
I watched a short film of you playing football with your colleagues in studio. How does football play a role in your life and work?
We have an old football half-filled in the studio. It just sits there but sometimes we end up playing with it for a while. Then, it hits a computer or a cup full of pens and we stop. I always liked and played football, and it also has an important place in Brazilian culture as it is very spontaneous and reveals our true spirit. I was very happy illustrating Jorge Amado’s book a bola e o goleiro because I really had to study football.
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