The Guimarães Design Institute, in 2017, organized the exhibition “Product Design in the North”. Its purpose was to raise awareness, among the region’s public, to the value of design for business competitiveness. The event thus celebrated the dynamics of thought-out design, conceived and produced by Portuguese industry located in the North of Portugal and its importance for the national economy.
The display's identity was created from a well-defined program: a typography, a grid, a color and a graphic shape. The typography, with a modular design, represents the quality of the technical design of the exhibited works. The color, printed in fluorescent green and black on white supports, allows optimization of resources and the necessary strength to stand out in different contexts. The graphic shape, which sought to approach an arrow representing the North of the country, was designed from the negative space of the N letter. The grid, which stands out and is visible in all communication, works as a statement of graphic design regarding the exhibition's theme: product design.
The communication project, developed alongside the curatorial and the exhibition architecture projects allowed that this important event to the northern region of Portugal was disseminated in an efficient, flexible and memorable way. The exhibition contributed to reinforce the importance of innovation through design and to promote the introduction of design in small and medium-sized companies, by the disclosure of success stories.
Exhibition curator Paulo Cruz
Architecture M-AO Architecture Office
Photography Miguel Oliveira
Architectural photography Carlos Lobo (for M-AO)