The View from São Paulo: the book designers turning heads and pages

Any foreigner entering a bookshop in São Paulo is likely to be impressed by the quality of the books on display. For a country with relatively few readers, few high quality printers and binders, and a very limited assortment of paper, the Brazilian publishing market shows remarkable graphic ingenuity, and such prolific and varied editorial production will certainly be a recurring theme in this column. However, to get started, I’ll focus this time on fiction books that are widely available – those with commercial print runs aimed at captivating the average reader. I’ve selected books in different graphic styles, but all with a high level of communication and appeal for a relatively broad audience. By the way, I’m writing this as I pack my bags for Flip, the annual literary festival held in the historic seaside town of Paraty, which draws large crowds around books.

When it comes to the quality of books published today, undoubtedly Companhia das Letras plays a fundamental role. Founded in 1986, it is one of the largest publishing houses in the country, with 22 labels, and is currently part of the global Penguin Random House conglomerate. The graphics department is headed by Alceu Nunes, who carefully selects designers for each of the almost 40 monthly releases, artists that give the books a face, following a careful and competent interior layout designed by Raul Loureiro. These are commercial books, some of them bestsellers, and all of them of a high graphic standard.

The covers for the Nobel Prize-winning South African author J.M. Coetzee are a prime example of this approach. Thiago Lacaz designed labyrinth-like graphic patterns based on typography that span the entire cover, free of any text, that catches the eye. All the necessary information is placed on belly bands, which are carefully colour-coordinated with the covers.

A significant chapter in the history of Brazilian editorial design was written by Cosac Naify, a São Paulo-based publishing house active between 1997-2015. Initially focused on art books, the publisher soon expanded into literature, and maintained an in-house team of designers. At Cosac Naify, each book was treated as a unique creation, many illustrated by artists, and featuring innovative interior designs. It was a creative laboratory where all kinds of graphic techniques, materials, formats, and binding styles were explored. This experimentation not only expanded the repertoire of local printers and designers but also deepened readers’ appreciation of the book as a physical object.

After Cosac Naify, even major publishers like Companhia das Letras began producing special editions more frequently. A notable example is the beautiful 70th-anniversary edition of George Orwell’s classic 1984, designed by Kiko Farkas and Felipe Sabatini. The silk-screened fabric cover is both elegant and understated, featuring only the author’s surname and the four numerals of the title. The emphasis is on the printed edges, which depict a graphic representation of diffusion waves. The book’s opening pages showcase a series of works by Brazilian artist Regina Silveira: faceless male figures in suits, symbolising the ambiguity between collectivism, totalitarian power, and loneliness described in this dystopian future. The edition also includes a selection of covers from various editions of Orwell’s book, a fitting tribute to a classic that has seen hundreds of editions worldwide.

In this segment of illustrated classics, with graphic design that takes into account the content, the publisher Carambaia, founded in 2014 following in the footsteps of Cosac Naify, uses graphic design as a key distinguishing feature of public domain books. A particularly beautiful project that creates a poetic relationship between form and content is White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War by Herman Melville. For a story narrated by a sailor on the high seas, Estúdio Margem proposed to produce the covers one by one in cyanotype, a photographic technique in which the image is developed after exposure to light and immersion in water, in a process that turns the paper blue. In this way, each cover is different as a result of the action of the water.

Unlike Carambaia, which sells limited editions as a feature, Antofágica, a new publisher (launched in 2019) that also focuses entirely on illustrated classics, goes in the opposite direction. It uses the commercial appeal of a more pop language to achieve a higher print run and make special books accessible, a formula that seems to have worked. Take for example Penal Colony, Kafka’s classic, illustrated by Lourenço Mutarelli, with graphic design by Pedro Inoue and art direction by Daniel Lameira. In the images, the characters always appear cut out against a white background, reinforcing the feeling that the torturous penal colony described by the author could be anywhere at any time. Inside, the illustrations are accompanied by selected quotes from the narrative, and the text is always framed by thorns, as if inside the torture machine imagined by Kafka.

Buzz, another publisher that focuses on more commercial books with large print runs, commissioned Bloco Gráfico, a trio of talented designers formerly from Cosac Naify, to design The Great Gatsby. Nathalia Navarro’s illustrations along with the typography are inspired by the visual extravagance of Art Deco, capturing the luxury and opulence of the lifestyle portrayed in Scott Fitzgerald’s characters. The design strikes a balance between sophistication and excess, with geometric patterns drawn in a single, fine white line that creates a sleek, minimalist effect on the black background. The sense of refinement is further enhanced by the hot stamping on the cover and the coloured edges.

Todavia – a publishing house founded in 2016 by former employees of Companhia das Letras, with graphic production carefully overseen by Aline Valli, formerly of Cosac Naify – recently launched a 26-volume series that brings together the complete works of Machado de Assis, undoubtedly one of the greatest writers in the Portuguese language. The collection is the result of extensive research, recovering the first editions revised by the author, combined with meticulous textual editing. The graphic design, led by the duo Celso Longo and Daniel Trench, reflects the same level of care and demonstrates remarkable consistency throughout. The design draws inspiration from the title pages of 19th Century editions, reproduced in reverse at the beginning of each book, and includes the first Brazilian typeface commissioned specifically for a single author. Additionally, they created a colour-coded system to categorise the various literary genres Machado de Assis explored.

Another publisher contributing to the high standards of books in Brazilian bookstores is Fósforo, founded in 2021, with graphic production coordinated by Julia Monteiro. The branding and interior layout were handled by Alles Blau Studio, and one of the key elements of their design is that every cover features an embossed pattern, conceived as an extension of the publisher’s identity – a subtle touch that enhances the tactile quality of the printed books. But the team didn’t stop at the tactile experience. The expert design duo also maximised the books' digital presence by creating covers that translate beautifully into motion graphics (see above).

These examples give us an idea of just how consistent and refined editorial graphic design is in Brazil. Perhaps we’ve struck an interesting balance between the European, particularly French, tradition – which used to be the main reference for Brazilian intellectuals – where books are often understated and nearly standardised, driven by the conservative belief that content is what matters and design is unnecessary; and the American tradition, where covers are treated as advertising, driven by sales metrics with little regard for the content inside.

This combination of a communicative, seductive design language (more in tune with a country that lacks a consolidated reading public) and one that remains true to the content is now reaching a particularly vibrant moment. We are experiencing a very dynamic decolonial movement, with the rise of new publishers, a surge in the works of women, Afro-Brazilian, and Indigenous authors, previously underrepresented, as well as a growing number of translations of literary and essayistic works by writers from the Global South, which were once rare here. Although the number of non-white designers remains embarrassing proportionally low, spending some time in a bookshop has become a must for any designer visiting São Paulo.

Elaine says São Paulo, like many other cities around the world, is experiencing a revival of small neighbourhood bookstores. Here’s a selection:

• In the heart of Bixiga, a traditional bohemian neighborhood in São Paulo, Livraria Simples is housed in a charming blue cottage and offers both new and used books. If you’re lucky, you might even catch a samba circle.

• Gato sem Rabo (Cat Without a Tail) is a unique bookstore that exclusively sells books written by women. It’s located in the city centre, beneath the already mentioned elevated highway known as the “minhocão.”

• Bibla, a newly opened bookstore in Alto de Pinheiros, offers a cozy cafe where you can enjoy a coffee and even settle in to work.

• Also, on 16-17 November, the Mário de Andrade Library in downtown will host a festival that includes a major book fair featuring stands from both large and small publishers. This year’s theme will be the 100th anniversary of surrealism.