Brazilian design selection update
SuperPop Washing Machine, Chelles & Hayashi Design for Mueller Electrodomésticos
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SuperPop Glass Washing Machine, Chelles & Hayashi Design for Mueller Electrodomésticos
House Type
During my first week in São Paulo last July, I couldn’t help but notice how so many residential buildings in São Paulo had their names set in the same typeface. I found it really intriguing, and it also reminded me of a blogpost architecture critic and D-crit teacher Alexandra Lange had written a few days earlier about house numbers in her Brooklyn neighborhood. I failed to take any photos of the said typeface during that week or on my second visit to the city. But when I came back to São Paulo last November, I made sure I took as many photos as I could of names, numbers and stylish building entrances in the Jardins and Higienópolis neighborhoods. There are a few more photos after the jump. For more, visit the set on my Flickr page. If you know what this typeface is or why it’s São Paulo’s typeface of choice, I’d love to find out. Feel free to comment or write me at frederico[at]05031979.net. Read the rest of this entry »
Beyond Ipanema
I saw the great, inspiring documentary “Beyond Ipanema: Brazilian Waves in Global Music” last night at the 92Y TRiBeCa. After the screening, director Guto Barra went up on stage for the Q&A.
I really appreciated when he said he didn’t want to restrict the film to the history of Brazilian music (from Carmen Miranda to Bossa Nova, from Tropicalismo to Baile Funk), but rather on how what David Byrne calls Brazil’s main export for decades has been influencing so many other creative expressions around the world.
Back in São Paulo
The invitation email to take part in TEDx São Paulo last Friday. This was very good news: not only I was one of about 700 people to be selected for this very exciting event, I had finally a reason to go back to Brazil.
I’ll be arriving in São Paulo Tuesday, November 11th and will be coming back Sunday 15th; I’ve already started writing to some of the people I didn’t meet in July and August, or didn’t have a chance to properly interview, to schedule appointments and interviews for my thesis. Can’t wait.
Proud Mineiros
Patrícia and Renato
After meeting Patrícia Naves in New York during ICFF, I decided Belo Horizonte had to be a stop in my itinerary. After 4 days and also thanks to her, BH became my favorite Brazilian city – even if Rio would win the “where would I live were I to move to Brazil?” contest.
At the table with Heloísa Crocco
Heloísa Crocco and Normélio
I got to know Heloísa Crocco and her work through Adélia Borges, whom I met the day before I left to Porto Alegre. I was going to stay in a hotel there, but Adélia called Heloísa to ask if her “wooden box” studio on the outskirts of Porto Alegre, by the Guaíba river, would be free the next 2 days. This is where she welcomes friends, artists and curators there as a sort of informal artists’ residence. Lucky for me, it was free.
Flip-Flops for Sale
In dowtown Recife.
And in Óscar Freire, São Paulo (Havaianas store by Isay Weinfeld).
A vote for South America’s design capital
I only saw the sun for three hours during the six days I spent in Rio de Janeiro last August. My one and only stroll down Copacabana beach took place under a rain storm, while three-meter waves pounded the shore. I was lucky to even get a view of the city (above) from the top of the Corcovado. The last week of my one-month research trip in Brazil may have been anything but sun-kissed, but I didn’t need to get a tan to think Rio de Janeiro is today in a great place to become South America’s main design destination.
