Estúdio Lógos

to launch a line of decorative panels, oca brasil organized an exhibition of 8 designers. we featured alongside cláudio novaes, estúdio campo, guto lacaz, kiko farkas, ps2, quadradão and vicente gil.

the oca brasil panels were made up of small colored mdf modules with different reliefs. each designer was invited to produce a panel no larger than 140 x 140 cm using these modules, plus an a1-sized poster (594 x 840 mm).

the death of oscar niemeyer during that period inspired us to shift away from the geometric abstraction suggested by oca brasil in order to pay a direct—and figurative—tribute to the architect.   

We recalled the famous statement by andré malraux, which captures the universality of niemeyer’s work – ‘the columns of the alvorada palace are the single most important architectonic element since greek columns’—and created a fusion between the niemeyer column and those of the parthenon.

on the panel, we used slanting modules so that the two images would blend when seen from the front, but stand out individually when viewed at an angle. of all the available colors, we used just three tones of grey, creating simplified black-and-white images.

we had no way of knowing if this ‘kinetic’ aspect would work until the panel was complete, but we were very pleased with the result, as it turned out. unfortunately we don’t have any photographs of these side views.  

for the poster, we fused the two images in black and white and reduced the result to three tones—white, 50% grey and black.