I spent most of my summer back home in Brazil. Being the only Brazilian in my college class, I felt that I could bring a unique view to the assignment by making a poster about my country. However, I didn't want to rely on Brazilian clichés. For that, I started taking inspiration from the the things around me. 

My first inspiration was my hometown Brasilia. Brasilia has a very unique style as it is a planned city, designed by the architect Oscar Niemeyer and the urban planer Lucio Costa. The design consists of inventive geometric shapes, while the map of the city is shaped like an airplane. I thought this could be an interesting connection, since flying from SIngapore to Brazil also meant that a big part of my Holiday was spent in a plane. 

My second inspiration for the poster was the Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral, known for the Brasilidade of her paintings. In my visit to São Paulo this summer I was able to see the biggest exhibition of her works at the MASP museum. 

Amaral became famous abroad for her ability to show Brasilidade in her works not only through her subjects, but her use of the colors: green, blue, yellow, pink and red. I liked the way her Brasilidade were able to represent Brasil without staying limited to the colors of the Brazilian flag, which was something I wanted to incorporate into my own design. 

The drawing of the airplane was made by tracing over Lucio Costa's original sketch with Adobe Illustrator, curving the sharp lines of the original sketch making the lines more fluid. This choice was made in order to ensure that the drawing depicted the map that looks like an airplane, instead of just an airplane.  

The colors used take inspiration from Tarsila do Amaral's Brasilidade using bright blue, blue, yellow, red and pink. Proximity is applied on the wings, concentrating most of the colors near the body of the plane. 

The font used takes inspiration from the simplicity and effectiveness of the blocky letters used in Brasilia's street signs, and Bonfim Ribbons. Bonfim Ribbons come from the northeast of Brazil, where I also traveled to in that break. Although they are not from the place being depicted, I felt drawn to them because of their colors, which reminded me of Tarsila do Amaral's Brasilidade. After taking a longer look at these letters around me, I felt that by using big and boxy letters I would be able to get my message across without taking the attention away from the colors and design.