# Lambe-Lambe Posters (Brazilian Paste-Up Street Posters)

> Paper posters and stickers in sheets of varying sizes, pasted with hand-made glue onto walls, poles and bins in densely urbanised Brazilian cities. Derived from the language of graffiti, lambes combine illustration, collage and photography, and repeat mass-reproduced images in series. Unlike a commercial cartaz they carry a critical, questioning message about social issues.

- Period: 2010–present
- Where: Latin America & Caribbean
- Origin: Brazilian cities, with documented studies in Belo Horizonte and São Paulo (Baixo Augusta)
- Branch: Counterculture
- Also known as: Lambe-lambe, Lambes, Brazilian wheatpaste posters
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/lambe-lambe-posters/

## Use it with care

Lambe-lambe here means the critical street-poster practice, not the commercial cartaz (advertising) or circus posters, which are a separate lineage. Wikipedia also links Latin American posters of the 1960s to late 1980s to protest against military regimes, including in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo; this entry covers the contemporary urban scene documented by 2015-2016 studies, and its start date of 2010 is an approximation, not a sourced origin. Lambes are political and critical speech, often about social inequality; do not borrow the look as a decorative or commercial 'edgy' skin. Visual traits beyond illustration, collage, photography, serial repetition and wall pasting (lettering, photocopy, stencil, ink count) are not established by the sources read, so they are held at low weight; the palette is a neutral paper-and-ink approximation, not sampled from posters. The Fortaleza 2016 and ANPAP 2017 papers could not be verified and are not relied on. Pixação is a separate Brazilian practice with its own entry. The Luis Alvaz sticker is the only named maker found; the exemplars are otherwise scholarship, not posters.

## How it works

- Paste paper sheets of varying sizes directly onto walls, poles and street furniture rather than into frames or private rooms.
- Repeat the same reproduced image in series so one motif becomes a pattern across the wall.
- Combine illustration, collage and photographic fragments in a single sheet.
- Aim the image at a critical, questioning message about social issues, not at selling a product or decorating a room.
- Make the adhesive by hand; choose starch-only paste when removal matters, since flour paste cross-links through its gluten and becomes very hard to remove.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Collage & layering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/collage-and-layering/) (defining)
- [All-over field](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-over-field/) (characteristic)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (defining)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (occasional)
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (characteristic)

### Ornament
- [Ornament-free](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornament-free/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (defining)
- [Treated photography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/treated-photography/) (characteristic)
- [Photomontage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/photomontage/) (characteristic)
- [Found & vernacular imagery](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/found-and-vernacular-imagery/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Architecture & signage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/architecture-and-signage/) (defining)
- [Photocopy & zine](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/photocopy-and-zine/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Rebellious & subversive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rebellious-and-subversive/) (characteristic)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (characteristic)
- [Agitational & persuasive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/agitational-and-persuasive/) (characteristic)

Avoids: Gloss & highlights, Abundant decoration, Luxurious & glamorous

Palette: #f2efe6, #141414, #8c8a82, #e8e1d0

Typefaces: Hand-drawn lettering, where present (not documented in the sources read; low weight), Whatever display lettering the artist supplies; no typeface is established for the form

Known for: Scholarship, not posters: Luis Navarro, Pele de Propaganda: Lambes e stickers em Belo Horizonte (2016), a study of lambes and stickers in Belo Horizonte; Scholarship, not posters: Diogo Oliveira, Lambe-Lambe Resistência à verticalização do Baixo Augusta (USP-ECA, 2015), a study of lambes in Baixo Augusta, São Paulo; Luis Alvaz, a Simpsons-inspired urban sticker credited on the Wikipedia Lambe-lambe article (a sticker, the only named maker there)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Influenced by: [Stencil Street Art](https://stylogeny.com/styles/stencil-street-art.md) (1978–present)
- Alike in its design choices: [Chilean Estallido Social Graphics (Revuelta Popular of 2019–20)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/chilean-estallido-graphics.md) (2019–2022), 62% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Dazibao (Big-Character Posters)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/dazibao.md) (1957–1980), 55% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Oaxacan Protest Printmaking & Street Graphics (ASARO)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/oaxaca-protest-graphics.md) (2006–present), 55% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Gráfica del 68 (Mexican Student Movement Graphics)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/grafica-68-mexico.md) (1968), 54% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Syrian Revolution Graphics (Kafranbel Banners & Poster Collectives)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/syrian-revolution-graphics.md) (2011–2024), 54% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Arab Independent Comics (Samandal, TokTok, Lab619, Skefkef)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/arab-independent-comics.md) (2007–present), 51% alike

## Sources

- https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambe-lambe (graffiti derivation; illustration, collage, photography; serial presentation; starch vs flour paste; cartaz/pôster/lambe distinction; dictatorship-era posters)
- Luis Navarro, Pele de Propaganda: Lambes e stickers em Belo Horizonte (2016), as cited by the Wikipedia article
- Diogo Oliveira, Lambe-Lambe Resistência à verticalização do Baixo Augusta (USP-ECA, 2015), as cited by the Wikipedia article

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Lambe-Lambe Posters (Brazilian Paste-Up Street Posters)”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/lambe-lambe-posters/