Antípodas – Tão Distantes, Tão Próximos

Published April 16, 2026

The exhibition Antípodas – Tão Distantes, Tão Próximos (“Antipodes – So Distant, So Close”) celebrates the 130th anniversary of the Friendship Treaty between Brazil and Japan, developed in partnership between Sesc Vila Mariana and the Japan Foundation. The project unfolds as a visual identity and wayfinding system for the largest spatial occupation ever held at the venue. More than placing artworks within the space, the exhibition design and signage needed to structure, orient, and guide visitors across multiple floors and formats of artistic production.

The starting point comes from the title itself: antipodes are opposite points on the planet, connected by an imaginary line – a direct image to speak about distance, relationship, and continuity between the two countries. The solution balances references from Japanese visual culture, such as rounded typefaces and codes embedded in the kawaii universe, with a graphic logic that shifts between restraint and excess. At times, white backgrounds and minimal elements; at others, color, layering, and density. This contrast organizes the journey and creates shifts in rhythm throughout the visit, extending into the printed materials as well.

The bilingual logic is central to the system: across all touchpoints, content is structured so that Portuguese appears at the top in blue and set with Brazilian typeface Elza Round, while Japanese sits below in red set with M PLUS Rounded. The colors directly reference the national flags, but primarily function as a consistent reading code across the entire communication system.

As an extension of this experience, custom eki stamps were created for each artwork. As visitors move through the exhibition, they can collect these marks, turning the visit into a progressive physical record of the show while revealing the paths each person chooses along the way.

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FontsInUse

An independent archive of typography.