Graphic Standards Manual
by ATLAS Projectos
A visual overview of the EDP Foundation awards graphic identities up until Um oásis ao entardecer – 20th Anniversary EDP Foundation Awards in 2020
Twenty years have passed between 2000 and 2020 – round-numbers that may lead to visual misreadings – with the repetitions of twos and zeroes giving way to a superimposition of the two dates. In reply to the invitation by Inês Grosso and Rosa Lleó, curators of the show Um oásis ao entardecer – 20th Anniversary of the EDP Foundation Awards, to develop the exhibition’s graphic design, we responded with an important historical examination of the different visual identities amassed over the past twenty years. For each edition of both the EDP Foundation Art Grand Prize and EDP Foundation New Artists Award different designers and studios – such as Arne Kaiser, BORN, BBL Design, Manuel Rosa, Pedro Falcão, RMAC, Secretonix, and UMA Brand/Studio – created different and mostly unique visual identities. For the exhibition, these were appropriated, amalgamated, and transformed; they were then, eventually, rubbed with great care onto the walls of the exhibition by chemical transfer by The Wallprinters, Joana and Rafael at vivoeusébio, whom we cannot thank enough for their dedication.
We went back to the way each artist, work and exhibition was originally presented and juxtaposed them together, in an attempt to respond to such questions as: in what ways have changes in a cultural institution’s visual identity been reflected in the evolution of institutional strategies and policies? And how does the concept of “identity” – and the practice of graphic design within an organization as a tool for marketing and branding – mediate the relationship between artists, institutions and audience?
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Pages from “Joana Vasconcelos: Prémio EDP Novos Artistas 2000” catalogue, designed by Pedro Falcão – Secretonix, set in Morgan Poster and Morgan Sans Condensed by Mário Feliciano – Secretonix. |
Cover for “Lourdes Castro: Grand herbier d'ombres”, published on the occasion of the EDP Foundation Art Grand Prize 2000 award. Fac-simile of the 1972 original by Lourdes Castro, set in French-style letter stencils.
Wrap-band from "Leonor Antunes: ante-sala" catalogue, published on the occasion of the EDP Foundation New Artist Award 2001, designed by Pedro Falcão – Secretonix, and set in Shaker by Jeremy Tankard.
Banner for "Vasco Araújo: Sabine/Brunilde" exhibition, on the occasion of the EDP Foundation New Artist Award 2002, designed by Arne Kaiser, and set in Schneidler by F. H. Ernst Schneidler.
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Banner and A4 hand-out for Mário Cesariny’s exhibition on the occasion of his EDP Foundation Art Grand Prize 2002 award. Banner designed by Manuel Rosa, set in Adobe Garamond typeface by Robert Slimbach; A4 hand-out, author unknown, set in Times New Roman by Stanley Morrison, and Century Gothic by Monotype Imaging. |
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Page from “Prémio EDP Novos Artistas 2003” catalogue, designed by Pedro Falcão – Secretonix, and set in Unibody 8 by Underware. |
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Cover from “Prémio EDP Novos Artistas 2004” catalogue, designed by Pedro Falcão – Secretonix, and set in BS Monofaked by Mário Feliciano – Secretonix. |
Invitation for Álvaro Lapa’s exhibition, on the occasion of his EDP Foundation Art Grand Prize 2004 award, designed by Manuel Rosa, and set in Adobe Garamond.
E-flyer for the "EDP Foundation New Artist Award 2005" exhibition, author unknown. Wall text set in VAG Rounded by Volkswagen AG, and e-flyer set in VAG Rounded and Century Gothic.
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Invitation postcard for EDP Foundation New Artist Award 2007, author unknown, and set in Helvetica Neue by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann. |
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Frontispiece from "Eduardo Batarda: Outra vez não", published on the occasion of Eduardo Batarda’s EDP Foundation Art Grand Prize 2007 award, designed by Manuel Rosa and Pedro Serpa, and set in Palatino by Hermann Zapf. EDP Foundation Art Grand Prize logo, author unknown, set in Pistilli Roman by Herb Lubalin and John Pistilli. |
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Invitation card for the "EDP Foundation New Artist Award 2009" exhibition, designed by RMAC, and set in VAG Rounded. |
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Invitation card verso for Jorge Molder’s exhibition, on the occasion of EDP Foundation Art Grand Prize 2010, designed by Pedro Falcão, and set in Akkurat by Laurenz Brunner, and Mercury Text by Jonathan Hoefler. Falcão updated the EDP Foundation Art Grand Prize logo, although the old version can still be found on the e-flyer featured below, author unknown. |
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Invitation for the "EDP Foundation New Artist Award 2011" exhibition, designed by BORN, and set in Bryant by Eric Olson, with a custom typeface developed for the title. |
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E-flyer for the "EDP Foundation New Artist Award 2013" exhibition, design by UMA-Brand, and set in DIN by Deutsches Institut für Normung, with a custom typeface developed for the title. |
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Media clipping for the EDP Foundation Art Grand Prize 2013 awarded to Ana Jotta, with its visual identity stabilizing around Pedro Falcão’s 2010 design. Featured again in the 2016 edition awarding Artur Barrio. |
Facebook banner for EDP Foundation New Artist Award 2015. Visual identity rebranding by UMA Studio (having previously designed the identity for the 2013 edition under the name UMA-brand), returning in the following 2017 and 2019 editions.
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Fast-forwarding to 2020, a section of the invitation folder for “Um Oásis ao entardecer – 20th anniversary of the EDP Foundation Awards” exhibition, designed by Lisa H. Moura, and set in Helvetica Neue. Developed at the same time as our own proposal for the exhibition graphic design, it bookends 20 years of those same awards, and more or less the same number of visual identities employed. |
Views of the exhibition “Um oásis ao entardecer – 20th Anniversary of the EDP Foundation Awards”. Details of the wall print with the exhibition title by ATLAS Projectos.
“Um oásis ao entardecer – 20th Anniversary of the EDP Foundation Awards” booklet by ATLAS Projectos. Photo by Bruno Lopes.
Preceding this note is a visual timeline, ranging from the first two editions of the EDP Foundation Art Grand Prize and EDP Foundation New Artists Award in 2000 up until Um oásis ao entardecer in 2020. All of the samples collected, scanned, photocopied, or transferred from CDs and DVDs at the Centro de Documentação EDP (CDEDP). We thank Fátima Mendes, CDEDP caretaker, and Elisabete Sá for guiding us through twenty years of archives, from analogue to digital and back.
ATLAS Projectos (Gonçalo Sena and Nuno da Luz)
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ATLAS Projectos is a publishing collective and design practice founded in 2008 and currently run by artists/designers Gonçalo Sena and Nuno da Luz. As a publisher, ATLAS edits, designs, produces and distributes, circulating of resources and helping the progression from private to public. To publish is to render public. Each volume has its own logic of production and print run. As a design studio, ATLAS has created publications and visual identities for various authors and artists, such as Arthur Jafa, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Filipa César, Joana Escoval, Margarida Mendes, and Tomás Saraceno, and has teamed up with institutional partners, such as the Aerocene Foundation, Archive Books, maat, Museu Coleção Berardo, Museu Serralves, and Sternberg Press, among others.
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The exhibition Um oásis ao entardecer [An oasis at sunset] — a commemorative overview of the EDP Foundation awards’ last twenty years — is also a reaction to the current state of affairs. An unprecedented exhibition which brings together all the winning artists from the two awards, the New Artists Award and the Art Grand Prize, like Álvaro Lapa, Ana Jotta, André Romão, Artur Barrio, Carlos Bunga, Diana Policarpo, Gabriel Abrantes, Joana Vasconcelos, João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva, and Leonor Antunes, among others The exhibition is curated by Inês Grosso and Rosa Lleó with scenography by Diogo Passarinho Studio and exhibition graphic design by ATLAS Projectos.
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