Lush is among the best love motels in Brazil, but that is not enough to describe them. They do everything in their power to change the very meaning of love motel. A few years back they were pioneers on coining the term “Private Urban Resort", that ended up being embraced by other brands on the segment.

Now, Lush reinvents itself again, by marketing the brand as “Adult Play”, an innovative concept for the kind of service they provide. Their plan is to brand Lush as a medium for discoveries and bond making, not confined to their accommodations.

The motel is becoming a chain and expanding physically, but also their services are growing. They go from haute cuisine to digital experiences. Additionally, Lush hopes to offer decentralized accommodation with suites throughout the city, outside the motel.

If Lush's original statements as a brand tried to give it an aura of "respectable", as a strategy to remove the stigma usually attributed to love motels, their rebranding aimed to go beyond that.

Lush is already a respected brand, so now they can afford to express themselves fully. They can move away from a distant and sort of "standard" look and feel to a warmer and humanized language.

For the design, we had to portray Lush in its full power. They are premium, but also rebels. So on the one hand the visuals should put forward a feeling of elegance, but on the other, their nonconforming status.

We looked for a mix of vibrant typography, photography and colors. All the elements are highlighted on the design, but they take turns on which gets the spotlight on each piece.

Creative direction: Ana Laura Ferraz, Carlos Mignot and Rodrigo Saiani
Strategy: Aline Caruso, Ana Laura Ferraz, Carlos Mignot, Gabriel Mesoma, Rodrigo Saiani and Valter Costa
Graphic design: Aline Caruso, Ana Laura Ferraz, Carlos Mignot, Gabriel Mesoma, Gabriela Fiks, Rodrigo Saiani and Valter Costa
Photography: Katiuska Sales
Video making: Pedro Andrade

Street fairs in Brazil are a huge deal. Typically held on (but not limited to) Sundays, they are a part of millions of people’s routines. Feira Mais is a brand inspired by this cultural phenomenon. Its purpose is to encapsulate the spirit of Brazilian fairs on their kiosks. No less important is its product, a special version of pastel, a snack that is also a Brazilian icon.

But what forms this spirit by which Feira Mais is inspired? It’s all about the joy, the colors, visual patterns, abundant food, cheerful communication. As expected, then, a huge part of the project was dedicated to diving into the fairs' culture seeking, at the same time, creating something new and paying homage to what inspired the brand.

Put that all together, and we have a brand that is asking itself the question of what it means to be Brazilian. Obviously, there is no objective (or singular) answer to this, but our solution was picturing “Brazilianness” as a joyful, humorous spirit, and proud of its traditions.

Although inspired by traditions, Feira Mais has its own innovation. The brand’s promise is that their pastel is made for being a everyday snack. While the classic pastel is considered a deep-fried indulgence for weekends, Feira Mais created a balanced variant of it.

Balance is a concept we also applied to the brand’s visuals. The color and type palettes are not literal translations of street fairs’ universe. They rather play with this reference, but in a sober tone. The stencil type refers to a vernacular composition usually found on street fairs, while other fonts take care other communication layers with elegance.

Rodrigo Saiani comments on the typography:

The concept of hi-lo is fundamental to understand the type choice for this project. Short for high-low, it is a term that can fit into several categories: we can say that it is a style, a behavior or even a way of thinking. Its most common use is in the fashion world, where hi-lo means a mix of high fashion pieces with more casual pieces. Like wearing a tennis suit, you know? But hi-lo is much more than the clothes you wear. Hi-lo is also combining fair with design, it’s putting branding on pastel. That's why this concept makes perfect sense for this brand. Because you have to be a little frivolous to risk these combinations, right?

Dapifer, designed by Joshua Darden, delivers on many levels: it has a certain informality in tradional shapes, has a Stencil style that fits the Brazilian street fair references so well that it seems to be made for it.

Creative direction: Rodrigo Saiani and Gabriela Fiks
Strategy: Gabriela Fiks, Rodrigo Saiani and Valter Costa
Graphic design: Aline Caruso, Ana Laura Ferraz, Carlos Mignot, Gabriel Mesoma, Gabriela Fiks, Rodrigo Saiani and Valter Costa
Photography: Firma Criadores
Architecture: Gruna Arquitetura

We made an eclectic type palette for Peralta Supermercados, a chain of supermarkets in Brazil.

The simplicity of Pacaembu for text, paired with giant Acme Gothic and Graúna for punch and prices. Verveine serves as a soft, hand drawn counterpart to complete the set.

Scale and punch go hand in hand with supermarket visual communication. This one sets an active yet not as in-your-face retail tone.

See the full case study including detailed credits on Behance.

Bahia-based Baiani produces “tree to bar” chocolate: the same producers take care of everything, from the cocoa planting to the shaping of the bars. We made the first batch of chocolate packaging and recently repositioned the brand for its new phase.

The main goals were to use packaging to emphasize product quality: to show tradition carried by Bahia; and to create a versatile system to accommodate several product lines.

The typographic puzzle of the packaging had to be well balanced to create this system, and the fonts needed to express the brand’s personality at the same time.

Montecatini and Italian Plate No2 are paired, with high scale contrast. Interestingly, both typefaces have Italian inspiration but they fit perfectly in a Brazil-inspired product. In typographic selection, we can always embrace the origin of the fonts or play with it. In the case of Baiani, the historical DNA of the type was used not to simulate a location, but to create a sense of tradition and cultural heritage. In addition to these two, the quirky and unmistakable figures of Bely Display highlight the cocoa percentage – key purchase decision information.

This project also aims to show in practice “the value of multi-typographic design”, a famous Bethany Heck article on how to deploy multiple typefaces in a graphic design project. The chocolate bar lettering and Baianí logo was custom designed at Plau.

Creative direction by Rodrigo Saiani. Design direction by Ana Laura Ferraz. The packaging was designed by Aline Caruso, Ana Laura Ferraz, Carlos Mignot, Gabriel Menezes, Rodrigo Saiani, and Valter Costa, with graphic designers Felipe Casaprima, Flora de Carvalho, Gabriela Fiks, Gabriel Menezes, and Lucas Campoi.

Voa is a Brazilian chain that transforms old hotels into brand new ones with cozy spaces and ready for the digital age. We gave body to their transformation purpose by creating a logotype that can be read from multiple points of view, like magic.

Voa means “to fly” in Portuguese – so we decided to turn the letter v into a cute bird character, sketching all kinds of possibilities for it while staying at one of Voa hotels.

Tiempos Headline Black (Klim Type Foundry) and Macho (Dada Studio) compose the typographical palette. To bring more personality to the set, we created a custom set of numerals based on the logotype.

From Behance:

Young, strong and democratic. Backbone brewery comes to the shelves ready to break boundaries between craft and mass market beers. The craft beer market in Brazil is very recent and small, so the partners saw an opportunity to fill the gap between the new and expensive breweries and the big old established ones. We were responsible for the strategy, naming and visual identity, in order to create a brand that looks bold and innovative for young customers, but could also be perceived as well-structured and reliable by more mature audiences.

The symbol we designed to identify the brand is simple and strong: a sharp B with a bone inside. GT Sectra by Grilli Type was chosen as the primary typeface of the visual identity, especially because of its beautiful curves and sharp angles, balacing reliability and quality. For the logotype we modified Sectra into a “sans” version.

Pairing with Sectra, we used Knockout by Hoefler & Co. to build the seal version of the logo. And for the secondary typeface, applied in body copy we chose Joshua Darden’s Freight Micro.

The labels really needed to catch the eye on the shelves. So we chose a simple background with a pantone color to identify each beer. Since the letter B is so present on the brand name, we decided to use it to tell apart the labels. Each B is designed especially for the label it is on, telling the origin of the beer style.

On the beer label, the ber name is paired with information set in Motiva Sans by Plau.

BigBi is a carioca household name. A juice house with bright fruits hanging on the walls, tasty Açaí, and the friendliest service in the city.

We redesigned their identity using an eclectic mix of typefaces. An organized street fair vibe was our intention in the choosing of typefaces.

Starting from the body copy, Signo provided the right personality: quirkiness with the light inverted contrast yet readable and sturdy enough to carry the load. Rio is very much connected to its Portuguese heritage and the fact that it was made by the super talented Portuguese type designer Rui Abreu brought it home even more. It’s used in the big menu panel and printed matter.

Our own Manteiga was used as the main display typeface, for setting titles in the menu, posters and elsewhere. Then we threw some ingredients to the juice, adding the usual suspects for this type of work, like the House Signpainter collection (Showcard for numbers, Casual for the small dotted lines), Felipe Calderón’s Hollie Script, Erik Spiekermann’s HWT Artz, as well as some other 80s inspired graphics, set in Skia, which has a Lithos vibe, a typeface that was overused in Rio’s late 80s/early 90s scene.

The logo is the main element and provides contrast. We wanted the remaining elements to vibrate, feeling like they belong to the same idea but not being the same at all times.

Creative Direction: Rodrigo Saiani
Design: Rodrigo Saiani, Lucas Campoi, Carlos Mignot, Ana Laura Ferraz, Felipe Casaprima, Gabriel Menezes, Aline Caruso, Valter Costa
Architecture: Davide Dulcetti, Daniel Fernandes, Tiago Tasca, Nicolle Prado (Plano Arquitetura e Design)
Lettering: Felipe Casaprima, Carlos Mignot, Rodrigo Saiani
Photography: Tomás Rangel

Manteiga Gorda, Signo, and House Showcard (not Slant).

How to translate architectural parameters into graphic design language? That is the question we asked ourselves in designing the brand identity for Leblon Arquitetura, a Rio de Janeiro based architecture firm.

As a constant battle between dark and light, filled and empty, architecture and typography are a game of balance and form. This relationship became the basis for our solution.

The counter forms (the white areas of the letters) of the word “Leblon”, set in Avenir, were made into a system of interchangeable symbols to be used as avatars for digital and physical applications. We created a custom monospaced typeface — later released commercially as Odisseia — that provided structure and gave a rhythmic voice to all graphic communication by the firm.

Freight Text and Knockout (28, 48, 68) are the foundation of the identity for the first capsule coffee subscription service in Brazil.

The identity is complemented by a custom stencil typeface inspired by coffee grains and designed exclusively for the brand which is used for the logotype and as a basis for the visual language of the illustrations as well.

www.moccato.com.br

Amsi was instrumental in the making of Estácio de Sá University’s flagship Welcome Center in their brand new building in São Paulo.

We were asked to design a space to emphasize efficiency, collaboration and agility in service for staff, students and future students alike.

The environmental graphics used throughout the space needed to be crisp and unobstrusive. The DNA of the font being Berthold Block made it simple to undergo fabrication peculiarities such as block-letter (pun lightly intended). It helped the environment look informational and futuristic yet warm and somewhat familiar.

Oh, and FF Market made a quick cameo in the space’s entrance.

Nicho de Bichos is one of the oldest petshops in Rio. 20 years old this year, but brand spanking new with a new identity designed by Plau with the help of Fabio Corazza, an amazing illustrator from São Paulo.

The logotype is hand-lettering inspired by the multi-functional Neutra, which we used for the text.

Even though the illustration sets the retro-modern tone, the typeface Neutraface (as always) lends just the right touch for the communication and complements the illos ever so nicely.

On the store’s interior decor, we used Filmotype Brooklyn, adding a touch of casual/handmade to an otherwise geometric look.

Estácio University planned a new flagship innovation floor at their main headquarters.

Our challenge was to unify different purpose spaces in one unique design voice. We did that by using a single typeface, the excellent Torque by Type Supply and keeping the color palette simple and on brand.

We designed information graphics, pictograms, quotes from known educators and innovators in a way that either grabbed attention or receded, depending on each room's objective. All based on the shapes and personality of Torque.

YouWorkForThem received a request from the video game development company Valve Corporation to create a custom license for their digital distribution service, Steam. YouWorkForThem worked closely with Valve to write a simple, affordable Custom Application License covering cross-platform embeds for the font Motiva Sans, from the Brazilian foundry Plau.

The project then evolved to cover custom emoji that were created for the Steam instant messenger by the original font designer, Rodrigo Saiani. The beautiful Steam interface showcases the clean power of the Motiva Sans family across game consoles, PC’s, smart televisions and mobile devices alike.

PNM, a Brazilian law firm with offices in São Paulo and Brasília, went through a rebranding process after going through restructuring in 2012.

They needed their identity to reflect their new positioning as an strategic partner in business legal affairs.

Locator was chosen as the corporate typeface, being a particularly modern sans serif with beautiful figures and capable of looking good in small and large sizes.