amapô plataforma
amapô is an editorial publishing platform that seeks to promote the acceptance of minorities from the LGBTQIAP+ community through literature and editorial design. The purpose of this graphic design course’s final project is to present the pilot publications of each editorial line on this platform, materializing the observations obtained in the theoretical foundation of this project: an exploration of the non-stereotypical representation of dissident genres in graphic design, from a review of the cis-hetero normative historical context in which graphic design thrived. All stories edited and published by amapô are written, designed, and edited by, for, and about queer people.
Solution
We developed a platform with three editorial lines: the book club, a retail book and digital stories (available in epub format). The complete delivery of the amapô project contains a book club kit with: the book É Assim que Se Perde a Guerra do Tempo, a support booklet, bookmarks, and some gifts (eco bag and bottoms); a copy of the book Crisálida and two digital short stories in epub format (Mas… e se ele ficar?, and O Chefe). In addition to the copies of each editorial line, the entire visual identity of the platform was also developed. “amapô” is a term from Pajubá, a dialect whose origin is in the Yorùbá language, formed by slang and popular terms among the LGBTQIAP+ community, which means “woman”. From the choice of the name, the platform logo was designed, based on references from Brazilian type designers (Leluja and Lygia fonts). The color palette and textures produced by a manual distortion in a scanner were chosen to reference publications characteristic of the history of the LGBTQIAP+ struggle in Brazil and in the world, often carried out clandestinely and with very few resources other than printers and xerox machines. The textures, protagonists of the visual identity, are basic photos from free image banks depicting cis-hetero normative patriarchal families, printed in low quality and manually distorted, graphically opposing the idea that only these families are in fact, families.
Cultural context
In a professional context in which the main (and, commonly, the only) historical and contemporary references of action are mostly white, cis and Eurocentric, the amapô project seeks to investigate and offer possible ways to queerize the professional practice. It is considered necessary to queerize the design based on the subversion of the norm, as defended by Denise Portinari (2017). In accordance, b. benedicto learned from Jota Mombaça that “it is necessary to create possible worlds within the reality that is given to us” (2021, p. 211). The questions raised in this project have greater importance, answers, and ramifications than what a graduation project could cover, but in addition to starting (or continuing) a discussion that is dear to the group, it was also concluded that it is possible to use the literature and editorial design to create possible worlds for LGBTQIAP+ readers within the reality in which they find themselves.
Graduation project developed at the end of the bachelor's degree in Graphic Design with Emphasis on Typography from Anhembi Morumbi University, 2022.
Instructor: Prof. Me. Ricardo Balija.
Students team: Jess Silva, Ana Luiza Teixeira, Jéssica Ferreira, Carla Ricciotti, Gabriela Valotto e Vitória Dourado.
You can see the entire project here.