Presenting the institutional identity of the Biennale

Designer Andrew Howard was invited to design the graphic identity for the Porto Design Biennale and the 2023 edition of the event. In turn, Howard invited his design and teaching colleague, André Cruz, to join him. Together, they developed the event's overall graphic identity, following an approach that combines unlimited and diverse typographic solutions. A considered choice that reflects the exploratory and questioning nature of the Porto Design Biennale, while also conveying the feeling of plurality and joy that the event promotes.

Designing the general identity of the Porto Design Biennale
Andrew Howard & André Cruz

Most commonly, the objective of a graphic identity is twofold: to give visual form to the name of an entity or event (by designing a logo or masthead), and to create a visual language which becomes the way in through which the entity or event addresses its audience. Both of these objectives have the same aim – to produce distinctive and therefore recognisable communication.

There are two graphic identities involved in this project for the Porto Design Biennale. One is the general identity – the perpetual institutional voice, operating regardless of the particular theme of each edition. The other is the graphic identity of the specific edition – in this case the one for 2023 – which aims to express its unique theme. Here we address the general identity. The edition identity, whose 2023 theme is ‘Being Water’, is a work in progress. 

To begin, we were given a parameter – not to use the acronym PDB. Instead, we were asked to spell out the three words. So we examined the letter composition. The three words together contain nineteen letters. Thirteen of them are different, four of them are repeated.

We concluded that the variety of glyphs contained in the three words was insufficient for a typeface to really show itself, and thus become visually distinctive as a logo. Besides, we couldn’t find any interesting criteria with which to choose one typeface over another. Nor, although we considered it, could we justify designing a bespoke one. So we created our own parameter: avoiding a solution that depended on choosing a specific typeface.

Instead we began to explore the possibilities of a treatment – which we are calling a ‘recipe’ – that we could apply to any typeface. In a very handy manner, this approach suited and enhanced our design thinking because it sidestepped the self-imposed dilemma of typeface choice, and in so doing, replaced it with a plurality of choice. The result is a solution in which there are no right or wrong choices, there are simply alternatives, instead of uniformity there is variation and difference.

The recipe however isn’t solely about the wide range of type selection, it’s also about what to do with it. Conventionally type functions on horizontal and vertical axes – vertical strokes and horizontal cross pieces. It also sits in a horizontal formation. The recipe we devised involves changing the angle of the type, by applying a ‘tilt’ and a ‘slant’. We all know that human vision is particularly good at noticing differences and changing the angle of the type is a simple way of disrupting expected reading. This disruption we believe, is enough to be visually distinctive.

The complete recipe is to tilt the type by 10 degrees and to then slant it by 10 degrees. This way the type, although being at an angle, still sits vertically. To support the identity we created a palette of typefaces, including as many free or inexpensive ones as possible. This palette is not (ever) complete, being open to continual expansion.

One more element completes the parameters of the identity. Colour. Wherever possible, not printed colour, but the colour of the paper (or material subject to printing). And to begin with, the colours will be soft.

In the task of giving a (visual) voice to the biennale we were guided by a number of objectives. They were based on our perspectives about what a design biennale could or should be as a cultural and social event and how it might project itself into the imagination of the community in which it is immersed. In envisaging the biennale as explorative and questioning, we also imagine it to be positive in outlook and, proposing a less commonplace ambition, joyful too. These characteristics also embrace plurality and playfulness. 

All of this was at the forefront of our thinking. It’s why we choose a recipe above a fixed solution, its why the choice of typography is open-ended, it's why we programmed for diverse visual outcomes, and it is why we want to play and encourage others to. Whilst the Porto Design Biennale is singular in purpose, every edition contains many voices, and that’s why its identity is expressed through multiple typefaces.

Andrew Howard is a British graphic designer, educator, curator, and design writer who has lived in Portugal since 1993. He is founder of the award-winning Studio Andrew Howard that specialises in editorial and exhibition design work for cultural and educational institutions. In 2009 he devised and became course director of the MA in Communication Design at the Escola Superior de Artes e Design (ESAD) in Matosinhos, where he has lectured since 1993. At ESAD he curated the Personal Views international conference series which between 2003–2013 bought together over 50 of the world’s leading designers and design educators in a unique forum to discuss the changing boundaries of contemporary design practice. He is one of the original signatories of the First Things First Manifesto 2000, and has written for numerous international design publications including Eye magazine, Adbusters, and the design and cultural criticism website Design Observer. He is a member of the International Society of Typographic Designers.

André Cruz is an award-winning designer, educator and podcaster from Porto. His practice at andrecruz.studio has been focused mostly in designing identity and editorial work for cultural institutions. In his 20 years of experience in graphic design he has worked with Primavera Sound, Casa da Música, Teatro Nacional São João, Porto/Post/Doc and co-founded Studio Dobra in 2014. In 2021 he began teaching on the MA in Communication Design at Escola Superior de Artes e Design (ESAD) in Matosinhos. In 2020, right at the dawn of a pandemic, he began Sumo, a podcast dedicated to design and visual culture. He is curator of the Voices From the Atelier program for the 2021 Porto Design Biennale.