BRAZIL: TEN YEARS AND TWO GENERATIONS OF DESIGNERS

Brazilian design: a beautiful and courageous adventure. But was characterizes it, what is the identity of Brazilian design? Universal or regional? Industrial or handmade? Produced with synthetic or natural materials? Wood or plastic? What is the path? “Traveler, there is no path, you make it by walking.”

Maria Helena Estrada
Freedom and diversity. Those would be fitting words to define our times. Therefore, we will use freedom and diversity, together with quality, as criteria to select this sampling of Brazilian production 2000/2001, which will be developed in the next three issues of ARC DESIGN.
Quality? What does that mean? For us, conceptual and/or formal innovation; technology; choice of material; quality of execution; ecology (that it is, at least, a small preoccupation); some poetry.
Despite certain confessed preferences by the editors of ARC DESIGN, our principal selection criteria for this series is the quality of the work. Already tired, exhausted by ego trips and other reveries, ARC DESIGN is anxious, hoping to receive and publish high quality work and products!
Our intention with this series of articles is to try and break out of the monotony and travel with you, designers, delineating the diverse paths of Brazilian design. We want the testimony of the designer, that is, clearly, of the person who designs something for someone, for some sufficient reason: from innovation to necessity (even if subjective), to bettering life on the planet.
On the other hand, at a time when the badly delineated “Great Exposition of 500 Years (?) of Design” was just shown, (see commentary in the section Facts with Photos in this edition) it seems to us useful to draw borders, establish limits, to define the type of creation that refers to the small and confusing word – design.
The limits are, many times, permeable, but some certainly exist. Having arisen from the term “industrial design”, design was born (obviously) with industry. What that tells us, by definition, is that while pre-industrial objects can be charming, perfect, marvelous creations, they can’t be included in the category “design,” despite how much certain curators love indigenous headdresses!
But times of freedom are times of contaminated borders. So, the limits between art and contemporary design have become tenuous – principally in the 1970s and 80s, and, today, in countries where industry still doesn’t absorb the work of the designer. But one clear definition survives: design refers to utilitarian objects, which are able to be reproduced and are, preferably, innovative. And it is these objects that we are going to talk about. Products related to habitation, whether they are the result or not of an industrial process; products in wood, paper, plastic, fiber, metal, and glass, without prejudice.
We defend plastic materials because they are of our time: because of the capacity they offer to create a new language for traditional utensils. But we don’t reject wood, nor could we, because of the question of coherence with the country we live in. We will continue, however, to criticize the esthetic of waste, a result of ignorance in relation to nature and the potential of the material with which one works: in this case, wood. Numerous countries or designers, like the Scandinavians, for example, or others, developed techniques for the parsimonious use of wood: we need to better our production and make it more intelligent and adequate to times (actual and future) of scarcity of raw materials and excess of garbage on the planet.
It is not on accident that we emphasize the necessity of a professional to be able to confront the challenges of industrial work, which is destined to large-scale production: this is the reality of the globalized world. On the other hand, the more globalized and heterogeneous production becomes, the more there grows, in each country, in each community, the desire to personalize, regionalize. Therefore, we believe that semi-handmade design will become more and more valued, although it may be almost impossible to resolve the price/quality equation when the pieces are produced manually, or in a significantly reduced scale.
However, even with all of the difficulties with production that professionals confront in Brazil, in the last ten years a first generation of designers has gained notoriety, captured space in the media and stimulated the opening of channels of distribution – principally in Sao Paulo – and in stores spread throughout all the capitals and bigger cities in Brazil. “Designer” objects now have a guaranteed market.
Fernando and Humberto Campana are, without a doubt, the pioneers. Until now, they have been the only designers to achieve success and international recognition. But a growing number of professionals are making a living with design. When we talk about Campana, we are referring to a specific branch of design that, whether by virtue of the success that they achieved, or because of the difficulties that still exist for a designer to be introduced into industry, created a school and is becoming one of the “Brazilian identities.” In this issue, we publish some products of students of the course/workshop that Fernando and Humberto Campana hold in the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture in Sao Paulo, which can be found in stores in Sao Paulo.
The cross over of the use of industrial materials or products – which is the creative base of this group of young designers – gives birth, at first reading, to a childlike universe, filled with a beautiful and poetic simplicity, that was perhaps one of the elements that most called the attention of the international public to the work of the Brazilians.
In respect to popular furniture, the opposite of authored design, a new reality is taking form alongside the diverse poles of furniture makers that use the MDF, with the hiring of designers who, little by little – after they prove that they can bring profit to the companies – are succeeding in implanting contemporary esthetic criteria.
Other ways of working are also gaining stature and significance in Brazil, principally work for industry. Here, solo work doesn’t exist. Instead, teams develop projects in studios that are autonomous or directly attached to the industry. In Rio de Janeiro, Angela Carvalho with NCS Design, which already received innumerable awards, including one from the Hannover Fair, is designing works for industry (Aliseo fan, Enxuta washing machine) and for corporate identity (Caixa Econômica and Lloyds Bank); and Guto Indio da Costa, specialized in urban design. In Santa Catarina, Mario Fioretti, from the design team at Brasmotor, won an international competition sponsored by Whirlpool with the microwave oven Micro Mobile (see ARC DESIGN issue 16).
he industry. In Rio de Janeiro, Angela Carvalho with NCS Design, which already received innumerable awards, including one from the Hannover Fair, is designing works for industry (Aliseo fan, Enxuta washing machine) and for corporate identity (Caixa Econômica and Lloyds Bank); and Guto Indio da Costa, specialized in urban design. In Santa Catarina, Mario Fioretti, from the design team at Brasmotor, won an international competition sponsored by Whirlpool with the microwave oven Micro Mobile (see ARC DESIGN issue 16).