A dancing typeface for Rio Carnaval
By Abigayle White • February 23, 2023
When it comes to distinguishing a brand, type is one of the most important elements. It’s among the first elements people notice when they come across a logo or a website. It’s important to get right. When your event draws millions and lasts only one week, making a memorable impression is never an easy task. This was the challenge for Plau and identity agency Tátil Design.
Capturing the spirit of the people that attend, perform, and make Rio Carnaval possible requires an extensive amount of research and discussion. Rodrigo Saiani and his team wanted to encapsulate the energy and strength of one of the festival’s main highlights: the samba schools.
Service: Custom typeface development, variable fonts
Partners: Plau in collaboration with Tátil Design
Date: 2022
The goal was to create a vibrant, type-centric brand identity that would stand out against the city’s dynamic visual culture and resonate with typical attendees. This typeface had to be suitable for a variety of media, including billboards, posters, transportation, merchandise, and more. It had to communicate the festival’s history in a modern and unique way while maintaining the traditional essence of Rio Carnaval.
The team discovered their solution by interviewing some of the festival’s most established samba dancers. Through this, an idea blossomed: They needed to add the movement of samba to the typeface. Rather than trying to emulate the dancers themselves, Plau decided to evoke the flags they held, each identifying a different samba school. Saiani took it one step further and invited the flag dancers to his creative studio, where he filmed them executing their routines. He analyzed the footage and started to draw letterforms to match the dancers’ key movements.
Music sparks conversations, brings people together, and moves ideas forward. So does type.
Using a variable font design created a lasting identity without losing the essence of Carnaval. Overall, it was a great success. Plau, and type designer Rodrigo Saiani, made the typeface dance through their variable brand voice.
In order to breathe life into type, what we need to do is something I call the variable brand voice. It’s thinking about type in terms of animation: How to go from point A to point B using code. Infusing life into the type also makes it more innovative.
To get international audiences involved, Plau and Tátil Design created an interactive logo generator. Extended from Saiani’s variable font, the tool allows anyone to experience the samba dance in font-form.
If your company or organization is considering rebrand, a custom project, or any type-need, Type Network is the perfect partner. Our international roster of expert designers—including Plau—is well-suited to the task, and our art direction and project management services make the process easy. We understand the importance of type in creating a strong brand identity and we’ll work with you to create a typeface that’s unique and memorable. Contact us to start the conversation.
In Rodrigo Saiani’s survey of identity design, brand cultivation, and type design, he reveals not only that the fields are increasingly linked but also that they’re evolving towards a variable future.