LETRAS LATINAS
Printing houses as a vehicle for Latin American identity
Cecilia Consolo
7th Brazilian Biennal of Design Fundação Memorial da América Latina. São Paulo, Brasil
In the last five years, the Brazilian press has been reawakened after nearly two decades of inactivity. Brazilian print production has received a great stimulus from the increase in type-designer courses and the presence in the country of world-famous exponents who have flocked there to take part in workshops and conferences.
In 2002, on the occasion of the Brazilian exhibition on typography entitled Tipografia Brasilis we defined an exhibition format that would put designers from the continent face to face in an event held simultaneously in various countries. Two years ago we successfully inaugurated the same show simultaneously in four countries: in Sao Paolo (Brazil), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Vera Cruz (Mexico) and Santiago (Chile).
Left: Paulisthania, Designer Luciano Cardinali, Brasil: typographical character based entirely on a handwriting outline; right:Carmen, Designer Rodrigo Ramírez M., Chile: “I don’t belong to any particular language or idealogy: I simply serve to show a text”
In Brazil we annexed the Letras Latinas Biennial to the 7th Brazilian Design Biennial, organized by ADG Brazil, with the aim of presenting Latin American production, putting Brazil into a unique category of design in which the parallels are easy to see. This scenario undoubtedly presents unfamiliar print design to an impressive number of professionals and inspires them to reconsider type-design in Brazil. Many countries are presenting consistently pure works, and the most interesting factor was the common origin of the different texts presented concerning the peculiarities of their native languages, and at the same time the new constructions that facilitate reading official languages, thus signalling new directions and possibilities for an authentically South American typography. All of this places the continent in a global scenario of the production of texts for a wide variety of uses, and principally for writing in Portuguese and Spanish.
Personalization of the type-design project, which originated and is highly concentrated in European traditions, in South American production points to extremely creative and revealing interpretations of the history of each country. The exhibit also demonstrated a consistent effort to create typefaces that would promote the writing of languages that are generally kept alive by oral tradition alone, such as Guarani and Mapuche, among others.
left: SEU JUCA # 1, 2001, designer Priscilla Farias, Brasil:originally derived from the letters of numberplates from Joao Juvencio Filho, folk drawing; right: goudald serif old style, designer Aldvs: a font that attempts to meet the cultural needs of a language
The realization of the exhibition led us to conclude that a permanent space is being consolidated for Brazilian type production, emphasizing a Latin American identity. We can consider this goal to have been achieved when European and US businesses with offices in Latin America feel the need to adapt and enrich their own communications to the reality of the special aspects of the languages spoken on the continent.
The exhibition, already concluded in all the original host countries, has now become a travelling show, and is making stops in various cities in each country. Other countries, such as Uruguay, Bolivia, and Venezuela are already gearing up to host the next edition of the Biennial, thus demonstrating that we will soon reach our goal of creating an exhibition that involves type design from all countries of Central and South America.
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ADG / BRAZIL
The ADG Brazil – Association of GraphicDesigners, founded in 1989, has as its main aim the popularization and the improvement of Brasilian graphic design, in both national and international territories.
Working as an interface between professionals, students suppliers, businessmen and the general public, its purpose is to afffirm the identity of the profession, contributing to social, cultural and economic development. Today, the ADG has more than 600 associates in over 19 Brazilian states.
In this way, the ADG Brazil creates professional follow-up programmes, exhibitions, competitions and organizes annually the biggest and only event in this field: The Biennal of Graphic Design, which has already completed 7 editions. The goal of the Biennal is to show, every two years, what is first-rate and innovative in the production of Brazilian graphic design.
