Bossa Nova Sleeve Modernism (César Villela and Elenco)

• Print with two inks only, black and red on white, and leave most of the square empty; on O Amor, o Sorriso e a Flor black alone is enough.
• Push the black-and-white photograph of the musicians, solarised or in such high contrast that the greys drop out, until faces and bodies become shapes, cut the figure out along its silhouette and stand it on the bare white field; these are techniques Pereira brought from the amateur photographers of the Associação Brasileira de Arte Fotográfica (O Amor, o Sorriso e a Flor uses a solarised photograph). Or draw the player instead in a loose, uneven line.
• Place three small red dots, four with the red dot in the label mark (Villela read in the Kabbalah that four means harmony; the dot is the lit spotlight in the N of the Elenco logo), so they balance the layout and lead the eye from the logo through the performers to the subtitle, like a syncopated beat; never on a grid. On drawn covers small red squares can stand in for the dots, as on Baden Powell à Vontade.
• Keep the lettering to one voice and handmade, large or small: cut capitals from paper with slightly slanted, uneven edges, filling the sleeve as on Noel Rosa or a quarter of it as on Um Show de Bossa, or set one bold face (a fat Didone ampersand, an extended ultrabold sans) beside a small handwritten credit. The restraint is in one face, no effects and few words, not in size; let a single letter make the pun, such as a rose for the O of Rosa or a 3 for the Ê of Bossatrês.
• Remove whatever does not carry the music: no ornament, frame or background, and no romantic or dramatic posing. Show the players relaxed and informal, seated on a stool or the floor, sometimes barefoot.
• Divide the square into unequal fields with one solid black block or with the axes of the figure itself, and knock one word slightly out of line to break the right angles; Villela counted Mondrian and Milton Luz's golden-section layouts among his sources.

Rio de Janeiro: the covers César Gomes Villela (1930–2020) designed as a freelance desenhista for Odeon from 1958, where Aloysio de Oliveira was musical director, and then for Elenco, the label Oliveira founded in 1962–63 after leaving Odeon (1962 in Montore and Umeda, 1963 in Vidal and pt.wikipedia; first LP 1963). The label was acquired by the Companhia Brasileira de Discos (Philips, later PolyGram) in 1967 according to Vidal, 1968 according to pt.wikipedia. Villela designed Elenco's first sixteen covers, many around Francisco Pereira's photographs, and named his own sources as a triangle of Mondrian (learned through Mário Salles at Rio Gráfica), Milton Luz's golden-section layouts at Standard Propaganda and McLuhan's idea that excess detail is visual noise. His Chega de Saudade cover (Odeon, 1959) is still a colour portrait; the monochrome style first appears in 1960 on O Amor, o Sorriso e a Flor, with a solarised photograph, after Pereira proposed the solarised and high-contrast techniques of the amateur photographers at the Associação Brasileira de Arte Fotográfica, where he taught. Ruy Castro notes that Elenco sleeves were almost always white (two or three exceptions) and that the high-contrast photographs became a trademark of bossa nova, copied first by Philips on the Tamba Trio's records, then by RCA and RGE

1. Marcello Montore & Guilherme Mirage Umeda, 'O design da bossa nova: visualidade sonora nas capas de Cesar Villela para a gravadora Elenco', Estudos em Design 22:2 (2014), pp. 80–97, https://estudosemdesign.emnuvens.com.br/design/article/download/165/159 (Villela freelance at Odeon from 1958; McLuhan's 'excess of detail is visual noise'; the light, partly pastel colours of Chega de Saudade read through Baudrillard; Elenco created 1962, its first sixteen covers by Villela; 'apenas vermelho e preto' and 'economia cromática (2 cores)'; Vinicius & Odette Lara the first Elenco LP, 1963, with red circles leading from the logo to the subtitle; paper-cut lettering on Baden Powell à Vontade and Lennie Dale com os Bossatrês; simplification unlike the 'rigor, a geometria e o purismo gráfico do Estilo Internacional')
2. Erick de Oliveira Vidal, As capas da Bossa Nova: encontros e desencontros dessa história visual (LPs da Elenco, 1963), MA dissertation in History, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, 2008, https://repositorio.ufjf.br/jspui/bitstream/ufjf/2936/1/erickdeoliveiravidal.pdf (Elenco founded 1963 and acquired by the Companhia Brasileira de Discos from 1967, the Philips company later called PolyGram, pp. 2, 33, 72; Egeu Laus on American jazz sleeves behind the first bossa-nova covers and Blue Note as 'a principal fonte de influência da Elenco', with Villela's and Pereira's denial blaming 'falta de dinheiro', pp. 87–96; Ruy Castro, Chega de Saudade (1990), pp. 340–341, on Elenco sleeves 'sempre brancas (houve apenas duas ou três exceções)' and on Philips (Tamba Trio), RCA and RGE adopting the high-contrast photographs, pp. 93–94; Villela's 'triângulo' of Mondrian via Mário Salles at Rio Gráfica, Milton Luz's 'proporção áurea' at Standard Propaganda and McLuhan, pp. 97–98; the solarised photograph of O Amor, o Sorriso e a Flor and the amateur photographers of the Associação Brasileira de Arte Fotográfica, where Pereira taught, p. 98; the four red dots, one of them the lit spotlight in the N of the Elenco logo, and the Kabbalah's four as harmony, quoting Villela, A História Visual da Bossa Nova, 2003, p. 31, on pp. 99–104; the dots placed 'de maneira equilibrada', not 'ao acaso', p. 104; À Vontade, dated 1964, as the first cover where other red shapes replace the dots, compared with Reid Miles and Andy Warhol's Kenny Burrell sleeve, pp. 105–106; concrete and neo-concrete traits in the Nara cover, pp. 110–111)
3. Marcello Montore, As Capas de Disco da Gravadora Elenco (1963–1971): subsídios para uma historiografia includente do design gráfico brasileiro, doctoral thesis, FAU-USP, 2007 (cited by the article above; includes a 2003 interview with Villela)
4. Emmet Byrne, 'Tall and tan and young and cryptic', Eye 78 (Winter 2010), review of Gilles Peterson & Stuart Baker (eds), Bossa Nova and the Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960s (Soul Jazz Records), https://eyemagazine.com/review/article/tall-and-tan-and-young-and-cryptic (Villela and Pereira made the Chega de Saudade cover; Villela's interview in the book traces the recurring red dot to the Kabbalah; 'stark red and black designs' with a 'Blue Note-esque aesthetic')
5. Fonts In Use, João Gilberto – O Amor, o Sorriso e a Flor album art (cover design César Gomes Villela, 1930–2020; photography Francisco Pereira; Twentieth Century Ultrabold Extended and Neuzeit-Grotesk Fett; dated 1961 there), https://fontsinuse.com/uses/56186/joao-gilberto-o-amor-o-sorriso-e-a-flor-album
6. Sounds and Colours, 'Remembering iconic bossa nova designer César Villela' (December 2020: died 11 December 2020, aged 90; 'the Brazilian Reid Miles'; O Amor, o Sorriso e a Flor, 1960, as the first appearance of his monochrome style; Noel Rosa, 1962, his last Odeon work; Pereira's high-contrast photographs), https://soundsandcolours.com/articles/brazil/remembering-iconic-bossa-nova-designer-cesar-villela-56823/
7. https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elenco_(gravadora) (founded 1963 by Aloysio de Oliveira; 'vendida em 1968 para a Polygram do Brasil'; discography with release years)
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Rosa (Noel de Medeiros Rosa, 1910–1937, Brazilian samba singer-songwriter)
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chega_de_Saudade_(album) (Odeon, 14 April 1959) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Amor,_o_Sorriso_e_a_Flor (Odeon, 1960, produced by Aloysio de Oliveira)

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