Shown above is the first page of a research carousel about onomastics, the study of the history and origin of proper names, by BlaBlaLab. The title translates to “When names cease to be names”. Plau’s Spalla is used for the title, while the secondary font is Area by Blaze Type.

Halugo is a Brazilian PropTech company that bridges the gap between traditional real estate and modern hospitality. Their current visual identity was developed by Estúdio Kimura circa 2024–2025.

While the logo features a modified version of Carbona by Carlos Mignot (Plau), the identity relies almost exclusively on Pacaembu from Naipe Foundry. This geometric sans serves as the primary workhorse, handling both display and body text duties across the company's website and social media channels.

Matria, Klub 11 and Klub 08 make the typographic palette of this rebrand for Graeter’s, a fifth-generation family-owned, regional ice cream chain based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and one of the few (if not the only remaining) small-batch ice cream maker using the French Pot method.

I was happy to see Matria in use for this project that’s rooted in tradition/history.

Quick story about Matria: I found a sample of a typeface in my birth certificate and went on a journey to find its origins and design a typeface around it. It turns out it was based on Reform-Grotesk, a typeface from the turn of the 20th century (dated 1908) that’s led to so many well-known fonts.

My spin on it was to make it into a high-waist contemporary palette that goes from very thin condensed to black extended. I was just scrolling through this beautiful case study (lured by the amazing logo) only to have my day made by seeing this use.

Weißer Sport und zweite Heimat. Eine Spurensuche nach der jüdischen Tennisspielerin Nelly Neppach (“Tennis and a second home. Searching for traces of the Jewish tennis player Nelly Neppach”) is the title of my bachelor project made at the University of Arts Bremen.

From the editorial:

A multi-perspective research on the complex topic of antisemitism with the aim of raising awareness of exclusion(s) and their effects in our society. The starting point of this project is Nelly Neppach (1891−1933), one of the first successful German female tennis players, whose biography is widely unknown. She played for Tennis Borussia Berlin until April 1933, then resigned (under political pressure) and committed suicide in May of the same year. How can forgotten traces be made visible again? How can we deal with history in an empathetic way?

The text is set in Vinila by Plau and Velos Mono by Scifipoetry.

Nuances is a playful yet serious compendium of answers to big climate questions regarding the protection of forests, indigenous people, technology and food and other related matter. The book, written by Nurit Bensusan and illustrated by Cairo Ayres and Francisco Bronze from É Grande Circular was published by Editor Mil Folhas.

The illustration style is well matched with the smoothness of Manteiga. Body copy uses Swear Text, a typeface that carries the same witty spirit of both the headline face and illustration styles.

The infographic look makes it easy for the readers to make their own path throughout the pages.

IVAÍ Gin is the first product from Água da Glória Destilaria that is “concerned with sustainability”. They are located in São João do Ivaí, a small municipality in Paraná, Brazil, and decided to honor the river of the same name that runs through the state.

How to represent the majestic Ivaí river, one of the great rivers of Paraná, in a new line of premium Brazilian gins? With the expansion of the gin market in the country and the increase in competitiveness, it was necessary to create a differentiated label, attentive to details, capable of attracting the consumer's attention at points of sale and also positioning the brand as a high-end product.

The logo is an ambigram and was developed from customizations of the Highgate typeface. We chose it for its inspiration in the traditional British stone sculpture. The reason for this is that the distillery is located above an important aquifer in the region and the master distiller, who is English, had to “sculpt” a source to use the purest water possible in the gin distillations.

We completed the identity with FM Bolyar Sans for its extended feature and display, creating a contrast with the logo. Bickham Script is used for some highlighted “handwritten” texts such as the signature of a representative of the distillery. We chose Bickham because it is based on the works of English calligrapher George Bickham.

For institutional and legal texts on the packaging, we opted for Motiva Sans, a Brazilian typeface developed by Plau, due to its good performance in print and digital media, which gives us good flexibility for applications from labels to the website and social media

We developed a bespoke bottle design with an elegant shape, embossed with the distillery’s logo, the brand’s aspirational phrase Siga o Fluxo do Rio (“Follow the flow of the river”), in addition to a graphic representation of the movement of the waters around the bottle . The label stands out on the smooth part of the glass, personifying the river, with a special wide and wavy cut that surrounds the bottle in a spiral. The choice of predominance of white over textured paper, with fluid elements in relief, stands out on the shelf and communicates the sophistication and craftsmanship of the product.

In addition, hot stamping details were applied, adding elegance and an interesting light game to be appreciated when handling the packages, with six color variations that distinguish the flavors of the gins. Furthermore, inspired by the fluidity of water, the topographic and hydrographic composition of the area where the gin is produced, a series of unique textures were developed through the artisanal art of paper marbling (liquid surface design method, which can produce patterns similar to smooth marble or other types of stone). These patterns were applied on the back, on the adhesive part of the self-adhesive labels, allowing the graphics to be seen through the space between the strips of paper.

The packaging invites the consumer to explore the bottle by looking around through the label like the flow of a river and explore the touch through the tactile set of nobility and high reliefs in glass and paper. The result is a premium packaging that fulfills the objective of representing the concept behind the brand and still respecting the strategic needs of a business in the launch phase.

Uptaco is a handmade breakfast tacos brand located in New York City. Created by Dan & Derek, two childhood friends, the company spotted in the New York market the opportunity to bring something different, fresh, and tasty to the breakfast of the city. The inspiration comes from the recipes of Texan tacos, a little different from the well-known Mexican tacos and reinvented by Chef Derek, with different ingredients.

The briefing asked for a provocative yet simple and direct attitude that would work in coffee shops and restaurants but that could also be taken to groceries stores in the future. Considering a young and diverse audience, the creative process inspired by the tagline “How about a fresh start?” brings a series of connected elements to communicate the brand’s personality.

An authentic and expressive image and composition platform. The brand personality is urban and slightly cool. A positioning that should speak to the local public of NYC and at the same time the visiting public in a city that is well known for its tourism. In this project, the Vinila support typography developed by Plau delivers a diversity of weights and style differentials that make the brand stand out.

21 Princípios Para Viver o Novo (“21 Principles for Living New”) is a Christian motivational book by Talitha Pereira, published by Identitade Store.

Among the fonts that have the best contrast with the one chosen for the body – Avenir Next Condensed – two stood out: Termina and Tusker Grotesk, two more sans typefaces but with a lot of personality and style. Combined on a large scale, they make up a modern and very attractive layout. The decision to transcribe titles vertically is an alternative to depart from the standard of most books in the same segment. It is also a solution that integrates large-scale texts and allows leveling of structure for titles with different amounts of characters and balanced line breaks between words.

A big difference in each chapter are the highlighted phrases. They usually open and close chapters and need special attention. And speaking of phrases, quotes, and the like, having a more timeless and even somewhat classic look, the solution here was to combine a serif font, modern and with a lot of personality. This decision is also a response to that timeless style edge that the idea of ​​principles evokes for the book. Tenez is of Brazilian origin, but has a worldwide distribution. In addition to all its personality, it is a very exclusive font, that is, still little used in graphic projects. Undoubtedly, it is a mix of combinations that communicate more than the graphic style goals of the book, they also identify a little bit of the author’s personality.

Index Gallery started as an online gallery but it went beyond: digital and real met blurring the boundaries of what is what. With an internet aesthetics-inspired appearance, the brand makes use of a bold vibrant digital green.

For the typography, we picked an essentially Brazilian typeface. Vinila from Flora de Carvalho and Plau was chosen because of its body and quirkiness, both representing the solidity of Brasília and the contemporary boldness of the new artists. Its distinctiveness comes from having powerful ink traps that go from elegant and supple in the lighter styles to commanding and impactful in the heavier styles.

For the website, we created an experience that conveys the idea of an index, with a layout that can hold loads of information and makes use of dividers to organize the compositions, clearly inspired by the old yellow-lists books; we imagined an index from A to Z, with all artists and their works, representing the zeitgeist of the local scene, and creating a way to discover everything at once.

There is also a simple way to navigate, with a direct navigation system available at the top, allowing users to have a more traditional navigation and layouts that are predominantly white, giving emphasis on promoting the artist and their works.

For the full case study, please visit the website of Twoo®.

Visual identity created for Som Na Faixa, a free online event of classical music in Brazil.

Concept and colors were defined already for the previous event, but the use of Zenith Slab DJR (by David Jonathan Ross) for the new logo brought a fresh look. It was also the basis for creating a pattern based on its counterforms which was used in all material and motion graphics for the live tranmission of the concerts.

Guanabara Sans (by Plau) was a great choice for information because the pieces had a lot of text, but also needed some informality so that the event, and classical music itself, don’t seem too distant from people.

Watch some of the concerts and how the motion graphics make use of the visual identity:

Delights to think, create and design for chocolate. GoldKo brought the challenge of chocolates and their packaging to yet another construction of the visual identity of the Zero Acúcar (“zero sugar”) family of chocolates that just grows. The marshmallow candy box, one of the products in this line that has just been launched, is already a sales success in the brand’s e-commerce.

Design by Colletivo Ltda. The typeface is Vinila by Flora de Carvalho & Plau.

Tipoversos is a series of posters that began to be produced by Vertentes Coletivo in 2018. It presents lyrics of popular Brazilian songs illustrated by geometric lines. The 15 songs were initially chosen based on personal taste, but they all talk about subjects related to Brazil’s recent past and current times. They bring a mix of critique, protest but also a little bit of hope that the country and its people will get through this very difficult time.

Due to the fact that this is a project focused on Brazilian music, it was decided that it would be better to only use fonts created by Brazilian designers. The posters had a few very specific requirements, for example, condensed fonts, a comfortable x-height and good optical balance in terms of weight of the font. Also, we were concerned with choosing fonts designed by both male and female designers. There are a lot of Brazilian women designing excellent typefaces and we thought it was important to showcase at least one of them through our work.

With that in mind the fonts selected were Silva Text Medium (by Daniel Sabino / Blackletra) and Vinila Condensed Regular (by Flora de Carvalho / Plau Design), two excellent examples of high quality typographic work recently produced in Brazil.

Staples recently revamped its identity. The supporting typeface chosen to carry the tough task of displaying vast amounts of information, printed, digital, constructed and everything in between is Plau’s Motiva Sans. Motiva is used on everything at Staples, from website to office signage and The Loop, its product catalog. The complementary script is Rocket Clouds (Wacaksara co, 2018).

It feels pretty crazy to see the first typeface I’ve ever designed be used for such a household brand. Yet when I think of it, my thoughts when designing are a good match for the job.

My reference in type design during my early efforts were Neville Brody, Erik Spiekermann and Adrian Frutiger. Because of Frutiger the typeface, I wanted to design a family that I could use on a daily basis without getting tired, one that could set my personal view on sans serifs, which back then I considered the ultimate challenge (a little too early for that I should advise my younger self, but still). One that could solve multiple problems while keeping a friendly demeanor. Motiva's lowercase a may be the most important point of personality, where the round bowl drops to the connection in a friendly way. When comparing to other more popular choices, such as Gotham or Proxima Nova, Motiva feels like it doesn’t take itself as serious (at least to my very biased pair of eyeballs). Even though it isn’t used in the identity, the italics are quirky – I decided I wanted true italics – a concept I didn’t quite grasp in the beginning. For that reason, there’s stuff in the italics that I wouldn’t do today – and I think that’s ok, it’s kind of a timestamp of an earlier time.

Since it was selected for brands as varied as Steam (the operating system, by Valve), a children’s hospital, and now Staples, it may have proved itself as a worthy effort!

Anyhow, Motiva is now almost 10 years old. Last year I partnered up with Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer (aka Mekka Blue) to improve Motiva on commission by Valve, extend its character set to Vietnamese, and hint it. I’m really glad we did it. If Motiva gives me as much joy out in the world as I had after releasing its very first version – only one weight and 5 bucks back in 2009 – ten solid years await.

The Loop Issue 1, Spring/Summer 2019 (cover)

The Loop Issue 1, Spring/Summer 2019 (opening spread)

Website detail (The Loop page)

Website detail (About page)

A two-and-a-half minute type animation about the daily routine of my life – as a student at Belmont University, and as a freelance animator outside of class.

I went through several fonts in the beginning stages. I finally landed on a monospaced font, so words of the same length could stack neatly. I picked Odisseia Bold by Rodrigo Saiani because of its humanistic features. The zero, for example, is not slashed. Since the entire animation is only type, the visual language of the type was important. I chose to only use lowercase letters for readability and looks. I knew I wanted to use one single case to have an even balance. All capitalized words looked too blocky and started to feel the same. The descenders and ascenders in the lowercase fit that bill.

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.

From TRÜF's website: “Zag needed an identity that would echo their technical prowess and creativity.”

That’s exactly the purpose Plau was designed for. It is inspired by coding and monospaced fonts, but made to work with normal spacing as a branding typeface with strong personality and unapologetic forms such as in the ‘A’, ‘V’ and ‘W’.

Book jacket designers Jason Booher and Helen Yentus needed “something vaguely digital” for the book debut of Nate Silver – author of The New York Times’ FiveThirtyEight blog. They opted for Plau, a sans-serif that has round corners and deliberately digital inspired shapes, such as in the ‘w’, ‘v’ and ‘A’.

The concept and signal vs. noise is solved through the use of print production techniques, in this case embossing for the main title (signal) and the use of a slightly darker than background yellow for the noise.

Inside the jacket Plau is used for emphasis giving way to a more editorially suited Baskerville.