Lorena Manhães is using flexible visual systems to tell stories with a sense of rhythm

When it comes to branding, rather than thinking of identities as fixed or static systems, Lorena Manhães likes to see them as “something that can be expanded and expressed in many ways”. Coming from an editorial background, her approach to building visual narratives across design systems for print or web, art direction and campaigns is thoughtful, capturing each project’s core with a heavy dose of editing: “I focus on creating tension between elements to produce simple, impactful design pieces,” Lorena shares.

With over a decade of experience in the creative industry, Lorena now works from her base in Barcelona across the fields of art direction and graphic design. The Brazilian-born designer splits her time between working for big agencies on briefs for clients across the globe like Microsoft, and contributing to smaller design-driven companies and cultural institutions in Barcelona, tapping into her narrative-driven approach to branding. She also makes sure to carve out some creative time to collaborate with artists in her home of Brazil, diving into self-initiated projects as a way to “bring my own perspective to curation, product design and creative direction and explore ways to broaden the spectrum of Brazilian culture”, she says.

Lorena sources inspiration for her clean and colourful visual work from bookshelves — often finding herself absorbed by “the rhythmic balance of layouts, photography, and narratives” in photobooks and magazines. “More than any standalone artworks, I’m drawn to systems that are flexible and tell dynamic stories with a sense of rhythm”, she says. Something that’s always drawn the designer to the art of branding is its ability to be “endlessly collaborative”, with the joy of creating visual languages often extending far beyond just the design work itself.