Finding information on the city hall’s current website structure is a complex and sometimes unrewarding task. There is a given set of bureaucratic rules that condition the structuring of information that ultimately generates confusion for users.
Non–verbal is a design studio, based in Porto, focused on providing custom design solutions and communication consultancy to clients looking for work that goes beyond their expectations.
Our motivation comes from our many passions and at the centre of our practice is our concern for the ways in which language is made visible – through a careful, skilled and informed use of typography. We're unashamedly dedicated to it.
We value intelligent and informed perspectives, which we support through an intensive process of research, strategy development and collaboration networks. This ensures that our response is unique to each challenge we are given. Every project we undertake is a dedicated balancing act – between craft and technology, between rationality and poetry, between expectation and surprise.
Non–verbal, formerly known as Atelier Martino&Jaña, is recognized for its particular focus on designing for cultural clients. We've developed a vast knowledge and experience working for over 10 years on multi-faceted books, visual systems for graphic identities, and posters for music and theatre events.
On 2014, we’ve changed our name to Non-Verbal Club as a result of a redefinition of our work and an integration of our studio in a global position. We’ve kept the core of our team and we are still focused on working with cultural agents and institutions, thriving for broader perspectives, bigger challenges and a stronger international position.
We’re very thankful for the opportunities we had to work with very special people over the years, particularly through the dedication of former partner Alejandra Jaña, the sheer talent and good friendship of former collaborators Oscar Maia, Filipe Cerqueira and Álvaro Martino, and the unforgettable creative energy brought by the many friends we’ve worked with.
João Martino
Art Director, Designer
Joana Sobral
Senior Designer
Miguel Almeida
Senior Designer
Susana Almeida
Project & Communication Manager
A Rua de Santa Teresa, 2C, 1º Direito Frente
4050-537 Porto, Portugal
P (+351) 917 687 938
E hello@nonverbalclub.pt
L Facebook / Behance / Instagram
Art Direction
Communication Consultancy
Editorial Design (Print and Digital)
Visual Identity
Matrix & Visual Systems
Exhibition Design
Web and App Design
Brand Activation
Design Education
Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves (PT)
Centro Cultural Vila Flor (PT)
Casa do Design de Matosinhos (PT)
Nike (USA)
NBC National Broadcasting Company (USA)
El Corte Inglés (PT)
ESAD Escola Superior de Artes e Design (PT)
Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (PT)
Fontlab, Inc (INT)
AEP Associação Empresarial de Portugal (PT)
CCDRN (PT)
Plataforma da Arte e Criatividade (PT)
Museu de Arte Contemporânea José de Guimarães (PT)
2001 Porto Capital Europeia da Cultura (PT)
2012 Guimarães Capital Europeia da Cultura (PT)
Câmara Municipal do Porto (PT)
The London Magazine (UK)
Museu Alberto Sampaio (PT)
Centro Português de Fotografia (PT)
Rivoli Teatro Municipal (PT)
Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis (PT)
Coliseu do Porto (PT)
Teatro Nacional D. Maria II (PT)
Câmara Municipal de Matosinhos (PT)
Câmara Municipal de Guimarães (PT)
Câmara Municipal de Santa Maria da Feira (PT)
Cultur Porto (PT)
ISTD 2001 Certificate of Typographic Excellence, 2001
Regular, Graphic Design Today, Gestalten, Berlin, 2009
Type Directors Club TDC56 Award Certificate of Typographic Excellence, 2010
Hong Kong International Poster Triennial (HKIPT), 2010
Communications Arts May / June, 2010
Die Gestalten, Editorial design
How Books, 2010
Gráfica.info Gráficos del Mundo
The 99%
Computer Arts, 2010
Turning Pages, Editorial Design for Print Media, Gestalten, Berlin, 2010
Computer Arts Portugal, 2011
IdN Extra 08: Typo/graphic Posters, 2012
Festival Graphics, Index Books, Barcelona, 2013
Stop, Think, Go, Do: How Typography & Graphic Design Influence Behavior
by Steven Heller & Mirko Ilic, 2013
Effective Persuasion in Advertising, BIS Publishers, Amsterdam, 2013
Best Portuguese Books Design, 2014
Design Popular Imagination Magazine, Taiwan 2015
IdN: Creative Country – Portugal, 2015
Presenting Shakespeare: 1,100 Posters from Around the World
by Mirko Ilic (Author), Steven Heller (Author), Julie Taymor (Preface), 2015
Portugal by Design, Jorge Silva (Commissioner), Marta Anjos (Edition), Lisboa, 2015
Canal 180 – Non Verbal // Analógico Humano Digital – Click to view
IdN v22n6: SuperFlat, Hong Kong, Sydney, New York, 2016
Slanted Magazine #27 – Portugal , Germany, May 2016
Interview for Slanted Magazine, Germany, May 2016 – Click to view
O processo do Design gráfico no Porto, PT, 2016 – Click to view
Art Marks, Counter Print, UK, Nov 2016
Ninety Nine U #12, New York, Jan – Mar 2017
Palette Eight: Iridescent – Holographics in Design, Hong Kong, 2018
3ª edição do DIA D, Conversas sobre Design ,2011
Comunicar Design, 2011
Portugal Criativo Porto, 2011
Get Set Festival, 2011
World Graphics Day, 2012
Wanted Instituto do Design, 2012
Plug&Play, 2013
Ciclo de Conversas Design+Multimédia Universidade de Coimbra, 2013
The Eye and the Mind, Open Talks, Experimenta Design, 2015
V Congresso Internacional de Cidades Criativas, Porto, 2017
AE ESAD — Non-verbal Club + Royal Studio, Porto, 2017
R-AVE/ESMAD — Fábrica de Santo Thyrso, 2017
Porto Academy 2017 — FAUP (Architecture Faculty of Porto), 2017
FEED'17 Foro de Edición e Deseño / DAG, 2017
Design Editorial — Manifesto, 2018
( P ) Portugal 1990/2004 Triennalle Di Milano
175 x 120 Large Format Portuguese Street Posters
O que é Urgente Mostrar, EXD’09, 2009
Revolution 99-09, EXD’09, 2009
Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño’09, 2009
Type Directors Club TDC56, 2010
Golden Bee Moscow, 2010
Hong Kong International Poster Triennial (HKIPT), 2010
Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño São Paulo, Brasil, 2013
Um Ano a Desenhar com a Cidade, Câmara Municipal do Porto, 2014
Desire, Tension, Transition, Portuguese Paths of Design Exhibition, Matosinhos, EXD’15
As Far as the Mind Can See, Porto & Lisboa, EXD’15, 2015
Analógico Humano Digital, Canal 180, 2015
Pictures and Cream, Paulo Mendes, Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, 2015
Design by Porto, Porto by Design, 2017
Casa do Design de Matosinhos
2016
Burilada – Arte-factos para a Sobrevivência
2017
Cosmicode
2016
O Tempo e o Modo para um
Retrato da Pobreza em Portugal – Catalogue
2015
Joan Miró – Materiality and Metamorphosis
2016
O Tempo e o Modo para um
Retrato da Pobreza em Portugal – Journal
2015
ursa – Art & Architecture
2015
On Ways of Travelling
Pavilion of Angola at the Venice Biennale
2015
Guimarães 2012
European Capital of Culture Programme
2012
Editorial / index /
BURILADA – ARTE-FACTOS
PARA A SOBREVIVÊNCIA
Curated by Francisco Providência and
Helena Sofia Silva, Burilada is an exhibition about objects that are
reconfiguring the contemporary material culture in Portugal, by merging
design and traditional elements of craft – such as mediums, techniques
and materials.
It also was the opening exhibition for
Casa do Design de Matosinhos, a home for an open and critical discussion
of the portuguese design culture, mostly achieved through curatorial
processes. We were commissioned to design both the identity for the gallery and its first catalogue.
Client
Casa do Design de Matosinhos
Design
Non-Verbal Club
Exhibition Curators
Helena Sofia Silva
Francisco Providência
Editorial Management
Helena Sofia Silva
esad—idea
Aknowledgements
Álvaro Martino
(Book Photography)
© 2017
Related Projects
JOAN MIRÓ – MATERIALITY
AND METAMORPHOSIS
After a long decision process, the Joan Miró collection – owned by the Portuguese State – found a permanent home at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, in Porto. It contains roughly 80 works of the Catalan artist, mostly exploring processes of metamorphosis and transformations in Miró's language and mediums.
We were asked to design a classic and low tone catalogue, and therefore went with a modernist approach and style to display the work of a modernist artist, focusing the design decisions on making room for the texts and images to be easily read and understood, providing a calm environment for the artwork to be displayed.
Client
Serralves Museum of
Contemporary Art
Design
Non-Verbal Club
Editorial Management
Maria Ramos
Cláudia Gonçalves
Exhibition Curator
Robert Lubar Messeri
Book Photography
Álvaro Martino
© 2016
O TEMPO E O MODO PARA UM RETRATO
DA POBREZA EM PORTUGAL
After designing its newspaper, the exhibition catalogue presented itself as a very different challenge. It is a mixture of long academic essays and a highly diversified body of visual materials. We’ve decided to sequence them through interconnected sections in order to create an unified narrative, instead of separating all the texts from their image counterparts. The overall graphic tone of the book is straight, harsh and clear, but still managing to never become too bold throughout its 600+ pages. It aims to make the reader navigate through an active intellectual journey, providing different moods and challenges to generate a process of questioning regarding the current situation of the country, the lessons we can take from its history and past, and most important, the evident need for action and change in order to shape a better and fairer future.
The
essays are divided in three different blocks: 1. Social Problem; 2.
Political Answer; 3. Cultural practice; and were treated with a twisted
layout in which the usual text hierarchies are reversed – what one
usually expects to be displayed in a serif typeface appears in a bold
grotesk font, and the same happens the other way around – supported by
text notes on top of the page and, occasionally, integrating related
imagery.
The image sections go through different
moments: from the assembly of the exhibition; to an historic and
iconographic timeline made with collected archive images and newspaper
clips; a catalogue of the artwork on display through the exhibition; and
finally a section of its disassembling.
Client
Plano Geométrico
Paulo Mendes
Design
Non-Verbal Club
© 2015
Related Projects
VENICE BIENNALE
PAVILLION OF ANGOLA
Our design premises for the communication of the Pavilion of Angola were centred on a strong sentiment of African invasion into an established european order. The catalogue’s structure was based on a different interpretation of the same approach. What is seen as a graphic interruption throughout the communication matrix was toned down and transformed into harsh cuts throughout the catalogue’s sequence, allowing the reader to percept changes in the catalogue's subjects, layout and even paper.
The whole sequence of the book was planned according to the narrative behind the curatorial choices for the exhibition – the passing of Antonio Ole’s legacy as a leading Angolan artist and culture agent to the new generations of emerging artists and agitators.
Client
Angolan Ministry of Culture
Antonia Gaeta (Deputy Curator)
Rita Gt (Commissioner)
Design
Non-verbal Club © 2015
Related Projects
O TEMPO E O MODO PARA UM RETRATO
DA POBREZA EM PORTUGAL
This exhibition proposed a deep and serious reflection on the social consequences of poverty derived from the ever-growing unequal economic policies implanted in Portugal, warning its visitors to the urgency of becoming alert and promoting actions against an unsustainable social structure. The newspaper we've designed to be offered to the exhibition visitors is a rather unique piece. On one hand it is a mesh of contradictory graphic influences and styles from both the Portuguese dictatorial regime and the post-revolution period. On the other, it keeps a very harsh and monochromatic tone in order to reinforce the seriousness and urgency of the matters in discussion, and to mourn the economical and social situation the country has let itself into.
Client
Plano Geométrico
Paulo Mendes
Design
Non-Verbal Club
© 2015
Related Projects
HISTORY OF THE FUTURE /
HISTÓRIA DO FUTURO
More than resolving its information inconsistencies, this book confronted us with a higher challenge: the responsibility of addressing young people writing about the future. About their opinions and emotions, their hopes, fears and dreams. By drafting the history of the future, they were in fact expressing their personality and views on the contemporary world. This book is a testimony of the world voiced by the future expectations of its young generations, and one of the most surprising books we’ve designed.
Client
Guimarães 2012 European
Capital of Culture
Design
Atelier Martino&Jaña
© 2014
Related Projects
GUIMARÃES 2012 –
EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE
Guimarães 2012 commissioned us to design a piece for its opening event, contextualizing the institutional information and displaying the complete and detailed programme of events going on throughout the year.
We've responded to the brief with a 250 page Japanese binding book divided in 2 main chapters, to accentuate the idea of 'work in progress'. The first chapter – with an austere graphic look – works as an introduction to the European Capital of Culture, while the second – livelier and more energetic – presents a layout able to demonstrate a higher number of events and activities happening simultaneously.
Read more about the project in the case studies section.
Client
Guimarães 2012 European
Capital of Culture
Design
Atelier Martino&Jaña
Data Illustration
Ricardo Leite design
Developers
Nuno Baldaia
Kaué Costa developer
José Martino
Cover Illustration
Sofia Leite
Acknowledgements
Miguel Carvalhais
Fernando Cruz
© January 2012
Next Project
Related Projects
PLI MAGAZINE #2–3 ENTHUSIASM
ESAD
This magazine is the result of an exploratory exercise concerning alternative narratives in print. Format, paper and sequence were used as tools to allow different articles to be contaminated by each other, similarly to the hyperlinked structures the web brought into our reading habits. The articles become shuffled and eventually blend – united by the themes but separated by their format. Our approach was similar when style is concerned, making it possible – by the turn of a page – for the reader to transform chaos into order, a magazine pagination into a book layout, zoom in to the photographic contents or change the magazine's graphic style according to the contents of the articles.
Client
ESAD, School of Art & Design
Matosinhos
Design
Atelier Martino&Jaña
Lettering
Hugo "Xesta" Moura
© 2012
Next Project
UM PENSAMENTO DE PEDRA
Um Pensamento de Pedra is a deep
research on historical graves and tombstones of the northern regions of
Portugal, published by the Guimarães 2012 European Capital of Culture.
A serious and calm book, designed in a classic and comfortable way. Having a very limited budget to produce this book, the design accepted the terms surrounding the project, transforming its weaknesses into its strengths by carefully suiting the quiet graphic treatment to the sober tone of its contents.
Client
Guimarães 2012 European
Capital of Culture
Design
Atelier Martino&Jaña
© 2014
Next Project
Related Projects
NOVAIS TEIXEIRA
O VIMARANENSE ERANTE
Novais Teixeira was a famous early twentieth century portuguese art critic, specialized in cinema. The challenge presented by this book was to create a biographic piece, crossing inspirations and technologies from the past and present. To achieve this goal we've developed a graphic approach resourcing to contemporary type compositions, fluorescent colours and a provocative binding, yet keeping the traditional book feeling.
As far as technology is concerned, this is one of our first books where we've put to use a concept that we've baptised as “interactive printing”. Through intelligent image recognition, we were able to transport printed information into multimedia devices, transforming the book into the interface for both printed and multimedia contents.
Client
Guimarães 2012 European
Capital of Culture
Design / Creative Direction
Atelier Martino&Jaña
© 2014
Next Project
Related Projects
BIOGRAFIAS VIMARANENSES
This book addresses the lives of 12 historical personalities from the city of Guimarães. That makes it a book about biographies, one that remarks the role of individual landmarks in collective history, and therefore, a special piece. We took inspiration from the singular character of those stories and designed from there.
Visually, it is a false traditional book, in the way it displays an old style layout combined with a deviant fluorescent pink structure to display the notes. We’ve decided to make each book one of a kind by adding geometric compositions to the covers, directly made through the overlaying of silkscreen prints. For 1000 books there are 1000 different covers, and, in a way, 1000 different stories.
Client
Guimarães 2012 European
Capital of Culture
Design / Creative Direction
Atelier Martino&Jaña
Silkscreen printing by
Margarida Castel-Branco
© 2014
Next Project
Related Projects
GUIMARÃES JAZZ
STRESSED VS. CENSORED
The book is designed with no cover, so the reader can jump straight into its contents, and made of two different parts, glued together and converted into a single and miscellaneous object. The first part contains an explanatory text regarding the festival, on a highly mechanic and typewritten style, keeping a constant play between highlighting and censuring information. The second presents the programme and further information regarding each artist / concert. In this part, there's a constant visual tension between display (gestual) and book (mechanic), neat & tidy vs blurry, typewriter vs halftone, full bleed vs balanced and white spaced.
Jazz music is made out of tensions: between the musicians and the instruments, between the notes, the interpreters and the audience. That's what we want this book to feel like.
Client
CCVF – Centro Cultural Vila Flor
Design
Atelier Martino&Jaña
© 2013
Next Project
Related Projects
INTERNATIONAL ARTS CENTER
JOSÉ DE GUIMARÃES – JOURNAL
Parallel to the identity system, we have also designed an exhibition programme in the format of a newspaper for the museum opening. Again, white space is fundamental, and the visual elements are set on a low tone. We have resourced to a calm tension between images and type set on white boxes to add some spacial depth to this format, without compromising its etherial and light feel.
Next Project
Related Projects
GUIMARÃES JAZZ - 20 YEAR
COMMEMORATIVE BOOK
To celebrate the 20 years of the Guimarães Jazz festival, we were commissioned to design a retrospective book that would offer a review over what was achieved during that period of time, the crazy amount of brilliant artists that performed on those stages and the future expectations for the following years.
We've focused on two core features: a structure able to layout both solid blocks of text and floating points of typography (such as in the titles and pull outs); and a very flexible grid for the images, making it possible to play on a high tone with big images, or provide faster rhythms with small images, playfully placed over large surfaces.
Client
CCVF – Centro Cultural Vila Flor
Design
Atelier Martino&Jaña
© 2011
Next Project
Related Projects
GUIMARÃES JAZZ
2009 JOURNAL
In contrast to the posters we've designed for the 2009 festival, this newspaper is all about type perfection and layout control. We've created a classic revival object layed out with a bold structure and rigorous typography. Such strong pagination was softened with plenty of small details, revealing something new to the reader each time he/she decides to go through the object.
The result is a classic editorial design piece that can certainly swing to some jazz grooves, and one of our most awarded projects.
Client
CCVF – Centro Cultural Vila Flor
Design
Atelier Martino&Jaña
© 2009
Next Project
Related Projects
Related Projects
Identity / index /
CASA DO DESIGN DE MATOSINHOS
Casa do Design de Matosinhos is a design museum for exhibitions on the history and current state of Portuguese design .
We were invited by esad—idea to design the museum's identity and to develop a visual language for its communication. We believed its look and feel should be fresh and provide opportunities for experimentation, reflecting the creativeness of its field practitioners.
From the beginning we felt there was a need for an iconic mark that could act as a logo in its most traditional sense. We wanted it to have a timeless feel and to represent design as an exercise of projection. Using basic geometric shapes, we've intercepted two planes (the letters C & D) with a line, an axis that keeps it together and creates a feeling of depth.
Having stabilised the institutional identity, we went on to develop the principles that compose Casa do Design's visual language. We didn't believe there was a need to have a heavily defined matrix, but rather a set of orientations that other designers could interpret and use in future iterations of its communication.
Therefore we've defined two basic guiding principles:
1. Every piece should be designed as an open canvas where space is going to be occupied with different elements – typography, imagery, solid blocks of color, white space – either by actions of construction, occupation, interruption or deconstruction.
2. Information is contained on different stripes set across each piece, creating differentiated hierarchies and reading moments. These stripes should be able to make the structures visible or invisible, change direction, overlap and even change styles.
Client
Câmara Municipal de Matosinhos
esad—idea
Art direction & Design
Non–verbal club
© 2016
Indoor signs & Outdoor structures
Carlos Pereira
Next Project
Related Projects
COSMICODE
Cosmicode is a newborn app development company focused on projects for the web and mobile devices. The identity we've designed for them consists of two "squarish" C's, heavily influenced by the aesthetics of retro games and tech. In the print world these shapes can grow and interact with each other in different ways, becoming more compact or loose, separated or intertwined in different situations. The digital world provides better opportunities for movement, and even then it can have either very fluid ir stop motion like animations.
Overall this is a simple design project for a starting tech company. Time will surely provide the opportunity to further develop the visual language and principles started here.
While the complete portfolio website is still under development, we've resourced to a very simple splash page with a responsive version of the identity. The logo adapts itself to the length of your browser window and is reversed to a white version over a black background on the most vertical mobile displays. Visit it here
Client
Cosmicode
Design
Non–verbal club
© 2016
Animation
Lyft Creative Studio
Related Projects
URSA – ART AND ARCHITECTURE
URSA is an artistic studio that combines photography and architecture in the creation of buildings and objects, images, films and texts. Their interests are focused on the pursuit of alternative processes of creation – leading to the production of critical matter and thought – rather than making pretty projects.
The identity and website we've designed for URSA is based on two core principles: 1. ideas and 2. ways of connecting them. Hence, there isn't a static logo or a main version of it. There is a system in which each character of the word Ursa moves to a different position according to the format and media it is placed at, and that movement creates a line connecting it to the following character, ultimately forming a constellation like shape.
The same principle is applied when displaying content:
an image connects to a text, that connects to a video,
that connects to another idea. The website is where this
system really shines, inviting the visitor to make
his/her own connections, to overlap projects and ideas,
and to leave a trace of his/her navigation. More than an
online portfolio, the website acts as a statement, in
which rationale and process become more relevant than
final pieces of work. Click here to visit.
Client
Alexandre Delmar
Luís Ribeiro da Silva
Margarida Quintã
Design
Atelier Martino&Jaña
Non–verbal club
© 2014–2016
Logo Animation
Snack Studio
Related Projects
LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
PAVILLION OF ANGOLA
Our design premises for the communication of the Pavilion of Angola at the 56th Venice Biennale were centered on a strong sentiment of African invasion into a well established European order. To illustrate those principles, we’ve created a very strict modernist basis in which we could set the information regarding the exhibition in a calm and controlled environment, and from there, we’d start interrupting and overlaying that rigid layout with graphic elements and symbols taken from Angolan traditional handcrafted textiles, adding warmth, strength and power to the various communication materials.
Client
Angolan Ministry of Culture
Antonia Gaeta (Deputy Curator)
Rita Gt (Commissioner)
Design
Non-verbal Club © 2015
Related Projects
INTERNATIONAL ARTS CENTER
JOSÉ DE GUIMARÃES
CIAJG is an exhibition centre and a reflection platform on curating the contemporary art world. Looking for new ways to read the history of the arts, it places emerging artists side by side with traditional and popular works from different cultures. We have engaged with the design of the identity around the premises of layers, dimensions and links. Our intervention as designers and communicators should not try to translate the contents and themes of the exhibitions hosted by CIAJG into a graphic form, but rather to make room for the different artists and artwork to be potentiated by a visual structure. Its strength comes from its simplicity, in the way it allows content and curation to become protagonists.
Client
CIAJG – José de Guimarães
International Arts Center
Design
Atelier Martino&Jaña
© 2014
Next Project
Related Projects
CCVF / GUICUL – DISPLAY & EDITORIAL
MATRIX FOR REGULAR EVENTS
After the European Capital of Culture in 2012 “A Oficina” inherited new structures and venues to manage alongside CCVF. A new communication matrix was needed that could work as an index of the Cultural activity throughout the city of Guimarães. We wanted the new system to be able to communicate an overall feel of each month's cultural programme, instead of isolating highlights of the major events by themselves. To visually translate these ideas, we’ve generated a long blank strip where the information of every event (text and images) would be placed at – sorted vertically by chronological order – and color coded. This strip was the basis for the design of every single material – posters, flyers, outdoors, tarps, etc – for either individual or groups of events. A crop or frame of the original strip would display not only the selected event, but a glimpse of what was happening around the same time period.
Client
CCVF – Centro Cultural Vila Flor
Design
Atelier Martino&Jaña
© 2013
Next Project
HORTA B – ORGANIC FARM
Horta B set up a beautiful farm in the north of the country aiming to grow Alpine Strawberries and Exotic culinary Herbs through traditional and organic methods. Their main clients are chefs and top tier restaurants (mostly abroad) that will only settle for the best quality. In that sense, we were asked to design the identity, website and packaging in a clean, cool and contemporary language, focusing on transmitting the natural and organic qualities of their products, without looking pretentious.
Client
João Horta
Design
Non-verbal Club
© 2015
Next Project
A OFICINA – GUIMARÃES CULTURAL
MANAGEMENT INSTITUTION
A Oficina is a municipal entity of the city of Guimarães responsible for the management of the several public cultural venues and institutions. It is focused on keeping the city and its inhabitants integrated with a cultural programme ranging from a contemporary and international scene to the local traditions and crafts. It is also responsible for a theatre company (Teatro Oficina) whose plays are frequently exhibited across CCVF and other local venues.
Client
A Oficina
Design
Atelier Martino&Jaña
© 2004
Next Project
INDUSE – PRODUCT AND
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Induse is a product design studio highly connected to the use of cutting edge technology in industrially produced products and objects. Its work is mostly focused on designing equipment for urban and public environments, having won several innovation and design awards through their futuristic yet friendly approach to objects and materials, and a serious preoccupation with an ecological and sustainable production.
Client
Induse
Design
Atelier Martino&Jaña
© 2008
GUIMARÃES 2012 — EUROPEAN
CAPITAL OF CULTURE
OFFICIAL PROGRAMME BOOK
We were commissioned by Guimarães 2012 – European Capital of Culture to design a piece for the opening event, revealing the entire cultural programme happening throughout the year, plus their institutional information.
Due to the urgency of this project, and the extremely short amount of time we had to make it happen, we had to find ways to quickly sort and insert the vast quantity of information into the design document. Therefore, we've built a database containing all the programme information, allowing us to fetch it in record time. With the help of a few good friends, we've also designed and programmed a couple of software applications that, when connected to our database, could automatically generate and output a part of the pagination, abstract illustrations (based on real data) and navigation details.
Due to structural changes in the direction of the Guimarães 2012 (late September 2011), we've diagnosed some dramatic difficulties that could prevent us from responding to the brief in time.
1 DIFFICULTIES
2 AS A PROCESSUAL SOLUTION WE'VE
3 CONCEPTUAL SOLUTION
We've chosen “work in progress” as the core inspirational idea. The book should primarily look like a dossier, and, at the same time, behave like there is more information to it than the one that actually exists. Its main aim would be to provide an overview of the cultural programme, and more importantly, to engage the city and its inhabitants with the list of events set to happen.
We've responded to the brief with a 250 page japanese binding style book, divided in 2 main chapters, plus an 80 page section printed in the interior of the pages.
The first chapter works as an introduction to the european capital of culture – with an austere graphic look. It addresses the political articles and provides profiles of the event programmers and their agenda according to its intervention area – either oriented to the arts, public spaces and so on…
The second chapter is livelier, energetic and has a festive tone to it. It lists – both chronologically and in an agenda style – all of the predicted events and projects for the whole year. Each month has 4 or 5 highlighted events, displayed in red typography, alongside the rest of the others.
We've tried to accentuate the idea of 'work in progress' and continuity throughout the second part of the book, designing a layout able to somehow demonstrate the very high number of programmed events happening simultaneously.
This bulky 2nd chapter is subdivided in 4 periods of time (seasons), each initiated by an introductory text and an infographic illustration, where both the number and shape of its lines provide a visual idea of the amount of events happening in relation to the geographic place of the various venues.
Last, we wanted to give the readers a special treat. In order to do so, we've decided to resort to a japanese book binding style, allowing us to print a few interesting texts and poems about the city of Guimarães literally "inside" the pages, that can only be read when you tear the pages open!
We've noticed that despite the linear way time would be represented on this second part of the book, that is from January to December 2012, its structure would not be split into equal parts, as a certain month could naturally be represented throughout an higher number of pages than the previous one, depending on the amount of events scheduled for it.
We wanted to show this in a precise and interesting manner, so we've added a timeline – a visual map – to the top of the page layout. In this navigation tool, each event that lasts more than one day is represented by a waving line – as if we were talking about frequencies – handling two different variables: time, or the actual duration of each event, and space, or the length occupied by each event on the book's very own structure.
All these elements combined create a mesh of lines where one can have an immediate visual perception of the amount of events happening simultaneously in a given period of time, as well as the overall duration of each individual event (by the frequency of the line's wave), and the ones that are ending and/or starting.
Book Design
Atelier Martino&Jaña
Data Illustrations
Ricardo Leite design
Kaué Costa developer
Timeline
Nuno Baldaia developer
Database
José Martino
Cover illustration
Sofia Leite
Acknowledgements
Miguel Carvalhais
Fernando Cruz
PORTO / CITY IDENTITY AND
BRANDING PROPOSAL — INVITATION
FROM PORTO CITY HALL
In June of 2014 we were invited, along with two other studios, to conceive a new visual identity for the city of Porto. We were given just 18 days to prepare a proposal, yet despite this, we responded to the opportunity with great enthusiasm and motivation. Firstly, because we’re very passionate about Porto – it’s our hometown and the place where we truly belong. Secondly, because we believe that design is capable of making a much stronger and more intelligent contribution to the city. We believe that visual communication can surpass the sometimes expected aesthetics of branding, and that it has the capacity to help create and to frame dialogue, acting as a mediator between a city and its inhabitants. What we show and explain below is our response to this challenge.
1 THE BRIEF
2 THE CHALLENGE IT PRESENTED
3 THE TEAM
We love to work collaboratively. It runs in our blood, and has been one of the core premisses of the studio throughout the years. Working on such a big project involves spreading talent and thought through different areas and different problems. This provided the perfect opportunity not only to put us to test, but to work with some creatives and friends we’ve wanted to collaborate with for a long time. Therefore, we assembled a very talented multi-disciplinary team who worked tirelessly on the proposal. We are very grateful for the amount of effort and dedication each of them has put into this project, and are absolutely thrilled by the quality of the outputs we’ve produced together.
Art direction, project management and design
Atelier Martino&Jaña
Alejandra Jaña
Filipe Cerqueira
João Martino
Joana Sobral
Miguel Almeida
Oscar Maia
Consultancy
Andrew Howard
Miguel Carvalhais
Collaborators
Ana Areias, Designer
Ana Ferreira, Designer
Carlos Meinedo, Motion Designer
João Castro, Designer
João Novais, Designer
João Santos, Designer, Video Editor
Nuno Leites, Motion Designer
Pedro Cardoso, Designer
Ricardo Leite, Designer
Ricardo Melo, Web Designer
Acknowledgements
Pedro Augusto (GhunaX)
Fernando Cruz (Forward)
Rodrigo Affreixo
Jorge Guimarães Silva
Catarina Azevedo (Alfaiate do Livro)
César Moura
Ana Machado
Bárbara Silva
Hélder Sousa
4 THE PROCESS
Having such a big and talented team we encouraged ourselves to simultaneously explore a variety of approaches whilst establishing common visual areas of interest. All ideas were tested visually and discussed and those that showed promise were fine-tuned for further discussion.
4.1 A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
The city of Porto dates back to the Bronze Age, and has been a key location throughout the history of Portugal.
Having been through a lot of different stages and influences since its foundation, its physicality clearly reflects its origins on the banks of the Douro river, cascading all the way up to its high points. The city itself has approximately 200.000 inhabitants, is the capital of its district, forming — with its adjacent municipalities — a single urban area with 2 million inhabitants, the largest in the northwestern part of the peninsula.
It is known as the “capital of the north” for its history, its entrepreneurship and work capacity alongside a tradition of underground cultural movements and activism. Porto takes pride in its city, its inhabitants and its tittle of “Undefeated, Highly Noble and Always Loyal”, being a good example of history and modernity, tradition and hipness blended together.
4.2 APPROACH #1
Despite our high interest in this concept and the powerful graphics we were generating, we felt the connection between the visual language it was producing and its conceptual source of origin could be difficult to comprehend without the unique insight we had as authors.
4.3 APPROACH #2 – THE HERALDIC LEGACY
Again the graphic results were interesting. But we feared it could project an erroneous view of the city, not simply because Porto is known as a Republican bastion but also because the coat of arms as a visual form carries too much historical and cultural weight.
4.4 APPROACH #3
Many were pleasing as simple graphic forms. But we soon realized however that we had inadvertently been drawn into a graphic Disneyland, where the complexity, variety and dynamic discourse of our city had been reduced to a homogenised, stylized and almost infantile banality. We discovered that an attempt to impose a graphic order resorting to the use of pictograms had in fact robbed our desired identity of any ambiguity – and the loss of ambiguity is inevitably accompanied by the loss of interpretation. Furthermore, we felt that the fixing of meaning that such a literal and conceptually reductionist system constructs would become tiresome, unable to reflect the richness of representation and reflection we desired.
5 THE SOLUTION
Deep into our development of the concept it became clear to us that our exploration extended beyond the specific goal of creating an identity for Porto. It inevitably involved asking in what ways is was possible for visual communication to reflect and represent a city – any city.
We had embarked on a journey – a journey that implied more than choosing what vehicle to use – but thinking about the very nature of transportation.
That questioning led us to a philosophy – how we understand identity. In turn the philosophy suggested a methodology – how we have chosen to assemble the visual components for an identity by creating a graphic vocabulary. Finally, the strategy – how we propose to use that vocabulary.
Those three elements: philosophy, methodology and strategy, form the basis of our approach.
Our idea of a visual vocabulary consists of a rich and diverse graphic lexicon that can be expanded and used in a diverse number of ways. It deliberately embodies a degree of abstractness. It forms the basis of the identity, and addresses all the constituent parts of the city.
We divided its usage into two different voices that the city uses to speak with its citizens.
1 For the Câmara Municipal and its elected body
1.1 For the services it offers
2 For how the city speaks about itself, from the inside and from the outside.
Even though both types of communication resort to the same visual vocabulary, whenever the City Hall communicates, its graphic mark displays an organized layout framed by a shield protecting the city core. On the other hand, whenever the City of Porto communicates, its identity no longer displays the shield, and can resort to a dynamic and multicolor composition system.
5.1 CM PORTO / INSTITUTION
5.2 PORTO / CITY
We have also developed an application that is able to automatically choose which graphics of the alphabet to use or overlap and color scheme depending on the category and season of the year.
We have designed a box set containing some elements of the new identity, where the City Hall and the City of Porto blend in a single object: a book with the graphic vocabulary; a set of letterpress printed postards; and a set of personal cards.
5.3 WEB / MOBILE COMMUNICATION
This organisation format is key for the new web navigation and codification, leading to a solution where a search bar becomes the core component of the page – as if the city hall had its own private google – supported by a hidden option of traditional menu navigation. In this way, we managed to eliminate most of the superfluous information, enabling users to encounter the content they desire.
The same concept and navigation premises were used for mobile devices, with an obvious design adaptation for smaller screen sizes.
6. CAMPAIGN SLOGANS AND POSTERS
What we are presenting here is not a final piece
of work. It is a visual concept that proposes a new way of organizing the communication of the city and city hall, one that we believe is suited to Porto’s personality, history, and most importantly, its future.
x
Book collection for a project titled “Raízes” (roots) – a series of anthropological, ethnic and sociological studies debating the issues of poverty derived from the precarious conditions lived by the working class in the surrounding areas of Guimarães. The result were five different – yet related – softcover books. Each book is able to live independently, but becomes more appealing when connected to the rest of the collection.
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The proposed briefing for this project was to design a photo-biography of Alberto Sampaio, a well known 19th Century Portuguese historian.
The available images were mostly from written records, such as letters exchanged with renown personalities from the same period, the photographic material was very limited in quantity, and the written information difficult to layout, being mainly based on little transcriptions, thus impossible to handle as a continuous text thread.
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A visual essay made from the documental photographs of the most relevant activities that took place during Guimarães 2012 European Capital of Culture.
Photography © Álvaro Martino
The project “Editoria, design, craft, and industry” proposes to relate the tangible and intangible heritage of Vale do Ave - a region particularly characterized by a pluralistic triangle between industry, agriculture and housing activities - with the contemporary cultural scene. Such synergies are generated by the gathering of the involvement of artisans, designers and the industry, putting them at the service of the production of objects with an high formal quality and aesthetic.
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Posters for the dance event “Guidance” and for the theater cycle “Teatro Gil Vicente”
Guimarães 2012 European Capital of Culture programme newspaper for January and February. The design is based on a custom code, designed to be recognised by mobile and web applications and provide links to extra information regarding the events and venues.
Teatro Oficina is a theatre company focused on the promotion of national contemporary theatre. We've developed a series of street posters promoting theatre plays hosted by Teatro Oficina and have also designed the graphic identity of the institution.
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Newspaper design for the 2011 edition of Guidance, a contemporary dance festival that takes place every year at the city of Guimarães.
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Journal design for the 2011 edition of Guimarães Jazz, to top all the communication materials we've also designed for the festival.
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Journal design for Festivais Gil Vicente, an annual contemporary theatre festival organised by CCVF at the city of Guimarães.
T-shirt illustration project commissioned by Nike USA/Fédération Française de Football.
Series of posters designed together with the very talented Marcelo Oliveira and José Cardoso for the space renovation of Café Concerto, in order to host experimental concerts. Each month had a unique poster design, limited to 20 hand printed silkscreen copies.
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Journal design for the communication of the 2010 edition of Guimarães Jazz festival, to be distributed during the concerts.
Journal design for Festivais Gil Vicente, Contemporary theatre festival. An editorial pieced focused on the fundamentals of space division and information organisation, drawing inspiration from old architectural plans, where the Mecanorma patterns where used to indicate different materials and divisions. Aesthetically we chose delicacy over strength.
Visual system design for CCVF (from 2010 to 2012). The design's extremely balanced nature made it work flawlessly and support multiple interpretations and variations throughout the years. Both an instant and a long lasting success.
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Guimarães Jazz is an annual festival hosted by Centro Cultural Vila Flor, Guimarães — the most renown of its kind in Portugal. For the 2009 edition, we aimed to create a series of images that could make the viewer feel the music just by looking at the posters. We wanted people to connect to the way Jazz musicians and performers blend themselves with their instruments and get the vibe that flows out of that fusion. Using hand drawn illustrations and lettering added character to it and helped bringing out the groove, ambiance and expression. Even a simple glimpse should trigger saxophones and double basses playing in the back of your mind.
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Teatro Oficina is a theatre company focused on the promotion of national contemporary theatre. We've developed a series of street posters promoting theatre plays hosted by Teatro Oficina and have also designed the graphic identity of the institution.
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EXD'09 challenged our studio to design a poster in confrontation with one of the posters of Ernesto de Sousa collection on Portuguese colonial war. The poster tries to translate the abandonment of former colonies after the Portuguese revolution. The symbol of the April revolution becomes a harpsichord that merged with the map of Africa.
Lura is a quarterly journal created to communicate Centro Cultural Vila Flor's educational service's programme.
Institutional modular website for the CCVF Centro Cultural Vila Flor. It was created with the intention that the raw information would produce the final look of the platform.
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Journal design for Guimarães Jazz festival in 2008. A harsher approach in contrast with the very friendly set of posters we've designed for the same edition of the festival.
Series of 120 x 170 cm street posters designed to promote the 2008 edition of Guimarães Jazz. We've referenced our graphic approach on the look and feel of the cheap old jazz posters and flyers, mixing them with a slight comtemporary touch.
Visual system for the cultural programme of Centro Cultural Vila Flor. This was the first matrix we've designed for CCVF. (collaboration with Tiago Carneiro)
Poster designs for the 2007 & 2008 editions of Festivais Gil Vicente, an annual festival for contemporary theatre. We've developed all the graphic image of the event to go along with the street posters. (collaboration with Leticia Caldas, Ricardo Leite and Nicolau)
Catalogue design for the Verbal Photography exhibition, that took place in 2004 at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, one of the most important art institutions in the country. Sample spreads of the 356 page book for the exhibited work of Ilya Kabakov and Boris Mikhailov.
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Non–verbal club is a design studio based in Porto focused on providing custom design solutions and communication consultancy to clients looking for work that goes beyond their expectations.
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