Book graphic design – Creation, concept and execution of the entire project, including the layout of the entire book, illustrations and cover.

 

The publication bringing together articles published throughout the year by the President of the National Confederation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC)¹, organized by the CNC’s Economic Adviser, Ernane Galvêas (former Minister of Finance of Brazil (1980–1985) and former President of the Central Bank of Brazil (1968–1974 and 1979–1980) (IN MEMORIAM)).

 

 

Before receiving the material for the book’s layout, I had been called to a meeting with the CNC’s Economic Advisor, Ernane Galvêas, who was responsible for organising the publication. He had showed me a newspaper clipping featuring a photo of a train emerging from a tunnel, with very little depth and no perspective; this was the proposal for the cover, it was the choice of the entity’s President, and all that remained for me was to improve upon the idea. The title has set against the photo, the briefing of the project that been better times ahead for the entire commerce’s sector, as it was the President’s book – the highest authority in a sector that accounts for a significant proportion of the country’s workforce. This theme has chosen because Brazil had entered an economic crisis from which, in theory, it would be unable to emerge; the board’s idea has been to instil a sense of optimism in the commerce’s sector.

 

Two weeks later, I had received the full draft text for the book, sent it straight to the first round of proofreading, and after a week, I have received the revised original texts. so I have prepared and sent them again for a second round of revisions. I had already begun developing the illustration of the train for the cover, choosing colours, creating gradients and shadows to present everything as a whole to the project coordinator, the CNC’s Economic Advisor.

 

As I do with all covers, I have imported the Photoshop .psd file into Illustrator and inserted everything that would go on it (title, subtitle, front and back cover logos, spine text, barcode, etc.). I have then selected the colours that would best suit the title and subtitle and stood out against the background, after which I have been working on the varnish, aiming to maintain the style of the President’s previous book, which had been published a year earlier: a layer of spot varnish that would cover the entire cover (there is an image showing just the varnish in the image section below this text), as if waves were emanating from the train, seeking to emphasise the process of transformation that was to come in the purple night, as the color of the cover’s background. The idea was to convey, through the train and the varnish, the sense that ‘the opportunity was now’, that it was the magical moment of change. I have begun to create the texture of the varnish starting right at the front of the area where the train’s locomotive is positioned and aligned this texture with each carriage of the train, implying that the train was the driving force behind the transformation process of that moment.

 

This publication did not include graphic process work to be accompanied, as the project was carried out by a larger printing firm in São Paulo, Stilgraf, whilst I have based in Rio de Janeiro. When the work has arrived from the printers, I have known that the President had been very pleased with it and was proudly distributing the books.

 

1 National Confederation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC – cnc.org.br) – An employers’ trade union body comprising 34 federations across Brazil, 27 representing their respective states and 7 of these 34 operating at national level, representing more than five million businesses in the trade sector that generate around 25.5 million direct and formal jobs. Through its structure, it works to ensure the sector is always involved in the formulation of public policies, monitoring the progress of relevant proposals in the National Congress and defending the Constitution, always keeping a close eye on laws that may impact the sector.

 

The CNC was founded on 4 September 1945; its president is responsible for the administration of two institutions with significant operations in Brazil, which form one of the largest social development systems in the world: the Social Service of Commerce (SESC – sesc.com.br) and the National Commercial Apprenticeship Service (SENAC – senac.br), the former with social projects such as Mesa Brasil, the Ecos Sustainability Programme, etc. (operating in the following areas: Food, Social Assistance, Culture, Education, Sport, Leisure, Health, Sustainability, etc.) and the latter providing support for the training and upskilling of employees in the commerce sector (shopkeepers, waiters, chefs, hospitality staff, etc.).