Slanted #27 – Portugal

Women with baskets full of fish are old postcard clichés from the past. The cosmopolitan Lisbon is one of the last Western European capitals awakening from its deep slumber. In this three million metropole an uprising age group resists stereotypes of battered monuments and picturesque paved alleys and looks nervously to the future with a steady attempt to catch up on lost time.

Other Portuguese cities pass through a similar renaissance. Slanted’s journey took them from Lisbon to Porto with a stop in Coimbra, visiting all in all 27 studios. Some people said that Lisbon was the woman while Porto was the man. The first one more smooth and emotional while the northern one is more kind of direct and rational. For both of them, old and new seem to clash with tradition and avant-garde.

Historic factories such as Viúva Lamego (tiles) and Viarco (pencils) proved that they were able to redefine themselves without losing their souls. Same goes for the new energetic generation of designers that grew up with the financial crisis and unemployment: time has come to redefine the dramatic change of their country, influencing all aspects of cultural life.

The issue is thematically complemented by illustrations, photography, interviews and essays.

Visits and authors: Rui Abreu, Aka Corleone, And Atelier, Atelier d’Alves, Emanuel Barbosa, José Bártolo, Bolos Quentes, Bürocratik, Tiago Casanova, Joana Correia, Studio Dobra, Júlio Dolbeth, Dino dos Santos, DROP, João Drumond, Epiforma, FBA., Luis Fernandes, Charlotte von Fritschen, José Guilherme Marques, Studio Andrew Howard, küng design bureau, André Letria, Lara Luís, Ian Lynam, Dermot Mac Cormack, João Machado, Mantraste, Joana Monteiro, Mother Volcano, Musa, Inês Nepomuceno, non-verbal, Márcia Novais, Inês d’Orey, Oupas!, Pedrita, R2 Design, Mariana Rio, Violeta Santos-Moura, Ana Seixas, silvadesigners, Sonja Steppan, Studio Chris Steurer, The Royal Studio, Thisislove, Tomba Lobos, Viarco, Rui Vitorino Santos, Viúva Lamego factory, White Studio, Aaron Winters, Xesta Studio

The booklet “Contemporary Typefaces” presents fourteen recently published high-quality typefaces: FS Brabo (Fernando Mello / Fontsmith), Centro (Panos Vassiliou / Parachute), Ceremony (Studio Joost Grootens / Optimo), GT Cinetype (Rafael Koch, Mauro Paolozzi / Grilli Type), Clone (Lasko Dzurovski / Rosetta), Contemporary Sans (Ludwig Übele / Ludwig Type), Enfantine (Jean-Baptiste Levée / Production Type), Escritura (Ricardo Santos / Vanarchiv), Kairos (Terrance Weinzierl / Monotype), Logica (Dino dos Santos / DSType Foundry), Mila Script Pro (Georg Herold-Wildfellner / FaceType), Vita (Nikola Djurek / Typotheque), Vyoma (Joana Correia / Indian Type Foundry), Weissenhof Grotesk (Stefanie Schwarz, Dirk Wachowiak / Indian Type Foundry).