Design is...: A Celebration of Brazilian Design in a Book

Marcelo Lopes - Merchan Design's Unique Take on Design Culture

The book's unique properties lie in its collaborative nature. Two hundred personalities, including designers, creators, curators, critics, journalists, entrepreneurs, executives, entity leaders, and cultural agitators, contributed their own definition of Design. This collective effort resulted in a rich network of meanings and proposals, offering multiple perspectives on a single theme.

The book's realization technology is equally impressive. The cube shape of the exhibition, which displays multiple faces, is represented in the book's square format. Navigation in the book is presented in eight colors, with portrait-style photos and unique, perceptive phrases about the universe of Design. The contributors each had to synthesize what design is into a maximum of hundred characters, less than a tweet. Special papers, high-print, silk screen, and die cuts give a superior result to the final product.

The book's design specifications include a width of 300mm, depth of 300mm, and height of 25mm. Different techniques of print, including offset, high print silk screen, and relief, were used in its production. The design tags for the book include book, colorful, Brazilian design, graphic design, design weekend, Sao Paulo, Marcelo Lopes design, and Merchan design.

The design team behind this project includes Marcelo Lopes, Ricardo Peruchi, Norman Michel Rodi, Charles Berkstresser, Joice da Paz, Wesley Vasconcelos, and Ivan Bertasi. The book's design interaction involves special round cuts that give depth, like a dip. While reading, each section needs to be rotated by 90-degrees, a movement that invites the reader to interact with the work.

The project began in April 2016 and ended in November 2016. The research was conducted only for the production of the book, with a focus on the study of the papers with their possible applications of special inks and how to make the 08 holes of the first pages. The biggest challenge was to transfer to the book the whole concept of the installation so that the visual language of both the book and the exhibition had the same style.

"Design is…" was awarded Silver in A' Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design Award in 2017. This award is given to top-of-the-line, creative, and professionally remarkable designs that illustrate outstanding expertise and innovation. These designs, admired for their strong technical characteristics and splendid artistic skill, showcase a remarkable level of excellence and introduce positive feelings, amazement, and wonder.