Poster triptych designed for an apartment installation in lisbon.
The Ritz Club was a mythical nightspot for the Lisbon Bohemian crowd. Found at Rua da Glória (approximately 20 meters from the aforementioned apartment block), it began as a cabaret during the old regime. After the Revolution in 1974, it became one of the most eclectic spaces in the city, featuring pop/rock, jazz, Portuguese and African music concerts. The Ritz club has been closed since 2000 for refurbishing.
This series of fictitious posters aim to evoke the memory of such a place, within the framework of Lisbonaire/Experimentadesign.

Client: Lisbonaire/Experimenta design
Graphic Design: António Silveira Gomes, Claudia Castelo
Foto creds: (cc) ottoman lego by dunechaser; tesselation
by origamijoel, particle Mask by Marshall Astor – Food Pornographer
Text: Portuguese translation exerpt of Lewis Carrol’s poem – “Jabberwocky” by Augusto de Campos.
Screenprinting: Mike Goes West
Poster man: Gustavo Sumpta

This catalogue mimics an illustrated history book, aiming for an organic relationship between text and image, and compiling the work’s descriptions and captions on a separate, technical section. The book’s cover is a speculation on a specific shade of green that Columbano used for the idealization of the Portuguese Republican national flag, still in use today.

Curator: Maria de Aires Silveir
Art direction: António Silveira Gomes (designer) e Cláudia Castelo (projecto manager)
Graphic design: Patrícia Maya
Produced materials: catalogue, invitation, poster and exhibition signs

Is the name of a gypsy commune founded by a family – The Monteiros – that bought a plot of land near Sanguedo, Santa Maria da Feira. They set permanent camp at this location thus interrupting their nomadic nature.
The film director, Marco Martins invited us to create the visual identity for a collaborative cine-theatrical street performance that would take place in this commune. The event had various participants such as coreographers, actors and vídeo artists and was integrated in a street performance festival.
The contents were quite powerful: incredible photography and uncanny poetic vídeos that revealed the cultural autonomy of the community – the people. For the web site we decided to emphasize the visual richness of the commune by combining various portraits and interiors with a naive lettering culled from the walls of the precarious housing.
The catologue is very site specific, so we integrated a programe in the form of a map. The central image of the unfolded cover is a genealogical tree arranged in a wheel structure re-appropriated from the Romani ethnic group flag. This idea of autonomy is reinforced by the chakra shaped tree in a back drop of sky and land. Thus revealing one of the many geographic origins – Índia.

Art Direction and production: António Silveira Gomes, Claudia Castelo.
Graphic Designers: Patrícia Maya e Alexandre Castro (web).
Printing: Maiadouro

Direct mailing for the 5th anniversary party for the delicatessen with the best view in Lisbon. The party was sponsored by two classics: Perrier Jouet – Belle Époque Champagne and Michel Cluziel Bombons. We decided to use the delis previously printed paper bags as support. And threw in a third ingredient the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano in Iceland that was still actively regurgitating lava during the production of the Invitation. The information prepressed into a rapid prototyping cliché and the bags were printed on a windmill letterpress.

Graphic Design: António Silveira Gomes
Production: João Regal
Printing: M2
(original paper bag pattern by Manuel Távora)

Proposal for the rehabilitation project of Santos garden in Lisbon.

Drawing upon “tree carving”, this intervention forsees inscriptions painted on the tree´s bark by using a mixture of iron phosphate and calcium oxide (materials commonly used in horticulture to protect the tree´s bark). The contents include, information about the tree, simple orientations or fragments of visual poetry.
The tattoo artist is a Modern Shaman, a protective divinity and an ally to the tree nymphs, (The Hamadryads); by casting a spell he helps protect the tree with an inscription. Whoever harms this tree is cursed.

Project coordination: Experimenta Design
Landscape architecture: João Gomes da Silva
Product design: Fernando Brízio, Pedrita
Sound design: Rui Gato
Lighting: José Álvaro Correia
Graphic design: António Silveira Gomes (barbara says)

Motiongraphics and CD for a solo concert. “Acção” is a project developed by composer and interpreter Joana Bagulho. It is a harpsichord re-interpretation of Carlos Paredes Portuguese guitar compositions and performances.
We looked into the construction and history of the harpsichord and learned that in the XVII century some instruments were decorated with a landscape scene or a phrase in the interior lid. This can be seen in numerous Vermeer paintings. We drew upon this and other visual aspects related to the instruments sound properties, like – scratching and pinching on lacquer surfaces – to create a visual score and lettering for the different themes throughout the concert.

Alphabet and drawings: António Silveira Gomes
Vídeo and animation: Alexandre Castro
Software: Video Projection Tool by H.C. Gilje

Catalogue for the exhibition of artist duo João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva, as the official Portuguese representation at the Venice Biennale 2009. The project’s title is borrowed from the Joseph Priestley’s book in which the author presents a series of scientific experiments on air and gas, namely his discovery of oxygen.
The book’s colophon justifies some of the formal options: “The primary font used throughout this book is John Baskerville Text, in a version digitalised in 2001 from a collection of rare books originally printed by John Baskerville circa 1750. This typeface exudes the original spirit of Baskerville’s creations, reinforcing the strongly contrasted strokes, fine serifs and exquisitely fluid lines, enhancing the rhythm of the italics. The main physical characteristics of his typeface are the open loop of the lowercase “g”, a swash-like tail on the “Q”, the pointed apex of the “A” and a distinct cursive uppercase “J”. John Baskerville (1706-1775) was a headstone engraver, atheist and anti-clerical, master of calligraphy, typographer and printer in Birmingham, home city to the Lunar Society, an informal group of industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals whose ranks included Joseph Priestley whose work gives its name to this exhibition, and Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin’s grandfather. There is no record of these gentlemen ever having met; however, Benjamin Franklin, an associate of the Lunar Society, did meet Baskerville and greatly preferred his innovative print work to the Caslon typeface that predominated in that era. Baskerville drew upon his knowledge of printing inks and paper production to manufacture improved black ink and perfect the quality of paper. He made the most of blank space within his book layouts, and tried to keep ornament to a minimum, in his quest for austere and elegant books.”

Curator: Natxo Checa
Artists: João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva
Editor: Mattia Denisse
Art direction: António Silveira Gomes (designer) and Cláudia Castelo (project manager)
Graphic designer: Patrícia Maya
Produced materials: catalogue, posters, invitations and press ads

Art direction of the 50^th issue of Magazine, a publication of Parisian art and fashion. We have chosen the work by three Portuguese female photographers: Patrícia Almeida, with a work on the Portuguese coast’s flora and fauna, that has been brutally destroyed by the urban development policies underway since the 80s; Susana Pomba, with her obsessive snapshots of Lisbon’s nightlife; and Catarina Botelho, in a more intimate tone.

Magazine Director: Angelo Cirimelle
Art Direction and Graphic Design: António Silveira Gomes (designer), Claudia Castelo (Project Manager)
Acknowledgements: Change is Good

Visual identity for the upcoming Contemporary African Art Centre, Africa.cont. The graphic project finds a balance between the internal and the external image of the institution. Two exclusive fonts were created: Kafokolo Bantu and Kafokolo Amandla, as well as a third set, comprising of an alphabet of graphic symbols, for more specific applications. Kafokolo is a Luanda (Angola) slang word that refers to the small inside pocket found in jeans.

Art direction: António Silveira Gomes (designer) and Cláudia Castelo (project manager)
Consulting: José Albergaria
Graphic designer: Patrícia Maya
Web-designer: Hélder Barão and Romeu Cristovão
Typographer: Martijn Oostra and Space Boy (fine tuning)

Oporto is a studio and a non-profit screening room located in Lisboa. Occupying the former Merchant Sailors Union headquarters, Oporto presents from time to time a single unique experimental video or film. The space is directed by artist Alexandre Estrela, in cooperation with ourselves and artist Miguel Soares. The screenprinted posters are created specifically for the invited artists and galerists and are also sold at each venue. The flyers are produced in various media from offset printing, fotocopies, letterpress and Riso Print Gocco.

John Smith (UK), Charlemagne Palestine (US), Craig Baldwin and Negativland (US), R.Steevie Moore (US)(, John Behrens (US), Joel Singer (US), Vasco Lucena (PT),

Curator: Alexandre Estrela
Graphic Design: António Silveira Gomes
Screenprinting: Mike Goes West

Marcel.lí Antúnez is one of the main figures behind the Catalan la Fura Dels Baus performance troupe, as well as, in his own right, a performer, a total artist, a manipulator of flesh-made men and post-organic machines, himself transformed into a kind of freakish King of Spades and a two-headed beast.

Art director and graphic designer: António Silveira Gomes

Produced materials: invitation and poster