Las Azores

This university project consisted on choosing any place on earth, in my case Las Azores, and conveying its identity (or part of it) through the design of different elements. Each of the supports had to be cohesive with the message that we wanted to portray about the chosen place and with the other pieces of the set.

In my case, I chose the Autonomous Region of the Azores, an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands that belong to the country of Portugal. It is better known for its diverse wildlife and jaw-dropping landscapes and become increasingly popular amongst tourists of the Mediterranean region. My intention throughout this project was to portray the wildness of the land and how, even though tourism is growing, humans will always be the intruders there.

Set piece 1: Bottle & Packaging

The first piece that was developed was a bottle and its corresponding packaging as a supporting element. The silver of the bottle wants to act like a mirror, as if the nature was pointing at the person looking at it as someone that does not belong there. Meanwhile, the packaging wants to portray the natural habitat of the wildlife of the islands and act as a complete opposite of the bottle.

Set piece 2: Street Sign

The second part of the set consisted on creating a street name sign of the chosen place. The aim of this part of the project was to learn about and how to use different materials as another fundamental aspect of design. We got introduced to many possibilities to develop the street sign.

Given the nature of my choice I went for wood as the main material in which to develop my whole project and deemed it only appropriate to use it as my street sign as well. So, I chose a big log and cut part of it roughly in order to be able to engrave the words «Rua da Ladeira» with a laser engraving machine on that side.

Set piece 3: Poster

The third part of the project consisted on developing a poster that portrayed the chosen place in the way that you wanted it to be understood. I chose a very natural paper with a lot of texture to it and with bearded edges that furthers even more the perception of it being natural. However, given the nature of this paper, I got limited in terms of printing methods as it is very difficult to print on textured paper and not many places offer the option in such big sizes [70x100cm]. For this reason, I opted to do so with a stencil method and imprinted the letters on the paper with spray paint.

The chosen type for the poster was «Amethysta» a pointed serif font with contrast that was tampered with in order to make it look more uncontrollable and wild. The aim of it was to emulate the wilderness of the nature in the islands.

Set piece 4: Photographic booklet

The last piece that we were asked to develop for the project was a photographic booklet of the place. In this case, I also chose wood as my medium. I opted to portray scientific illustrations of plants with their scientific names; plants that you could find in the Azores Islands. The booklet was designed to resemble a travel journal were one could sketch and easily replicate the nature around, hence the chosen small size.