Graphic design work to challenge and empower the reader

Author Susana Cardosa Ferreira has collaborated with art director Sérgio Alves, of Porto based graphic design studio atelier d’alves, to create illustration and type led book, Bartolina Busca-Pé… E o Zé!

Positioning itself somewhere between a book and a graphic novel, Bartolina Busca-Pé… E o Zé! cohesively merges words, illustration and typography to present a literary narrative while employing visual ambiguity to jump-start the reader’s imagination. Many of the book’s pages see abstract type arrangements overlay partial illustrations of characters’ limbs and movements to unveil aspects of the story while encouraging the reader to visualise their own version of Bartolina’s world. Other pages see traditional copy layouts interspersed with visually expressive type layouts.

Sérgio’s unconventional art direction of Bartolina Busca-Pé… E o Zé! may represent an intentional passing of the creative baton from author to reader in building an environment around the book’s protagonist, redefining the role of the audience in the creation of a story.