Porto Design Biennial and the curator José Bártolo commissioned us to design the poster and the graphic identity of the exhibition “Millennials - new millennium design”. The idea was to draw up a map of communication design from three points of view, focusing on intentions (motivations, themes and values), processes (method, authorship) and the ways in which projects come to life.

The exhibition design of Millennials springs up from a conceptual laboratory of experimentation and thought which tried to bring to the discussion the several players of the exhibition from the curator team, to the creative actors, the production and institutional partners. In the gallery, a wall creates the space and offers a sequential reading of the exhibit, taking us to an idea of city through its architectural character which is the place where the daily design happens. The graphic identity of the exhibition should reflect this approach, focus on the physical side and in it’s narrative. Instead of attempting a portrait, the communication focuses on the projects presented. Using the brick as Identity that is based on the physical space, the goals was to provoque and create some tensions that is the main theme of the biennial. The brick has as well a strong metaphorical meaning. Because of its scale or apparent decontextualisation, brings up discomfort, referring to the concepts of process, reinventing, adaptation and, above all, constructive responsibility (political, social and environmental). Tweets, images, hashtags… bricks: raw materials from which to build the weight and the responsibility of these structural agents of our time.

With this approach we aim to give a perfect cycle experiencie to the public. All of it, since the design exhibition to the graphic materials and the environmental design, was connected and none of it could be tear apart. This dialog and narrative was generate in different moments, what allows the public to be in a constante learning process about the content( concept of the exhibition itself. The bricks on the posters for the ones who didn’t visit the exhibition it was “just” an object that opens a lot of possibilities and even creates a lot of interrogations. But as soon as they step into the gallery, the brick gains a specific meaning as they stand in front of the wall. It presence is massive and how the projects relate to it gives everything different visual weight and meaning, starting on the graphical materials, as the poster.