# Pixação (São Paulo Tag Reto)

> The name-writing of São Paulo's pixadores, which since the 1980s has covered walls and façades and, from the 1990s, the upper floors of tower blocks. Group names and personal tags go up in black latex paint, by roller or spray, in tag reto: a straight, elongated, pointed alphabet taken from the rune-like logos on heavy-metal and punk record sleeves. The letters run in level rows scaled to the building's windows and floors, with no fill, outline or colour. The script is written for other pixadores, and height, risk and reach across the city rank the work.

- Period: 1980–present
- Where: Latin America & Caribbean
- Origin: São Paulo, Brazil, from the 1980s, among young people from the city's peripheries. Pixação had first grown into a youth movement in Rio de Janeiro's peripheries in the late 1970s and spread to São Paulo by the early 1980s, where it took on its straight, monochrome, angular letter; LIXOMANIA!zé of Santo André, an early pixador, was active from 1984. The name comes from pichar, to cover with tar (piche), after the political slogans written on walls in earlier decades; pixadores spell it with an x to set their name-writing apart from legible protest pichação. Other Brazilian cities have their own hands: Rio de Janeiro's xarpi (an inversion of 'pixar') is curved, continuous and small, close to the American tag.
- Branch: Counterculture
- Also known as: Pichação, Pixo, Tag reto, Movimento Pixo
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/pixacao/

## Use it with care

Pixação is a living, illegal practice of real groups: under Brazil's Law 12.408 of 2011 pichação remains a crime punishable by three months to a year in detention, while consented graffiti is not, and pixadores risk their lives climbing buildings. Do not copy a real group's letreiro, tag or grife emblem (inside the movement someone who signs a group's name without its owner's permission is a 'clone' and loses respect), and do not invent fake crew names in the style for a brand. If a project wants the look, commission and credit pixadores such as Cripta Djan, and do not use it as edgy decoration while people who write it are still prosecuted and jailed.

## How it works

- Write letters only, in one flat colour, almost always black: no fill, outline, shading, 3D, characters or second colour.
- Draw a straight, tall, pointed alphabet from rune-like rock-logo letters; keep a group's letreiro exactly as its owner drew it, and look for originality only within the São Paulo pattern.
- Keep every line 'na régua', level as if on an invisible ruled line, and write the group name, personal tag, grife emblem, year and continuity marks (arrows, dashes, dots) side by side on it; keep it neat, since crooked or smudged letters mark a beginner (bafo).
- Let the building be the grid: size the letters to its windows, friezes, cladding and floors, and stack row above row up the façade.
- Rank by altitude, risk and reach: the highest, hardest-to-reach, most-seen walls, and a name repeated across as much of the city as possible, earn most respect; size and colour earn nothing.
- Write for insiders: leave the letters hard to read for passers-by and legible to other pixadores.

## Its design choices

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

### Layout & composition
- [Modular grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/modular-grid/) (characteristic)
- [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)
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (characteristic)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining)
- [Experimental & distorted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/experimental-and-distorted/) (defining)
- [Condensed display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/condensed-display/) (characteristic)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (characteristic)
- [Blackletter](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/blackletter/) (occasional)
- [Type as image](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (defining)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (defining)
- [Rectilinear](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rectilinear/) (characteristic)
- [Pictogram](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pictogram/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Ornament-free](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornament-free/) (characteristic)
- [Emblems & badges](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/emblems-and-badges/) (characteristic)

### Imagery
- [Typography only](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/typography-only/) (defining)

### Medium & production
- [Architecture & signage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/architecture-and-signage/) (defining)
- [Hand-painted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-painted/) (defining)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (occasional)

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

Avoids: Diagonal axis, Full polychrome, Gradients, Illusion of depth, Hard offset shadow, Ornamented display, Script, Rounded & pill, Comic & cartoon

Palette: #121212, #dcd7cc, #8e8b85, #5e5b56, #b39f7f

Typefaces: Tag reto ('straight tag'), the São Paulo pixo alphabet: straight, long, pointed strokes; each group's letreiro is fixed by its owner, who gives new members a sketch to practise, Rune-like band logos on 1980s heavy-metal and hard-rock record sleeves (Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Metallica), within a punk and metal scene: the alphabet's source, Gothic blackletter and runic letters, which according to François Chastanet lie behind those band logos, Letreiros learnt from the owner's sketch, practised until memorised and swapped as tags on folhinhas (signature sheets): the paper school of the wall letter, Adrenalina (Gustavo Lassala, 2003–2014), a digital typeface drawn from photographs of São Paulo pixação

Known for: François Chastanet, Pixação: São Paulo Signature (XGpress, 2007; foreword by Steven Heller), 280 pages of photographs and drawings relating the letters to São Paulo's façades; its endpapers show dozens of variants of each letter; Pixo (João Wainer and Roberto T. Oliveira, 2009, 61 min), documentary following São Paulo pixadores at work and in clashes with the police; shown at the 33rd São Paulo International Film Festival; Cripta Djan (Djan Ivson Silva) of the Cripta group, tagging in São Paulo since 1996, when he was 12; his canvases were first shown in Born in the Streets – Graffiti at the Fondation Cartier, Paris (2009), and he took part in the 7th Berlin Biennale (2012); The 2008 pixação actions at the Centro Universitário Belas Artes, the Choque Cultural gallery and the 28th São Paulo Bienal, where about 40 pixadores wrote on the pavilion on 26 October; two were caught, and Caroline Pivetta da Mota, 24, was still held in Santana Penitentiary more than 40 days later; Rafael Augustaitiz and Cripta Djan in the 29th São Paulo Bienal (2010); LIXOMANIA!zé ('ZÉ UTINGA'), Santo André pixador active from 1984, whose style drew on rock logos and ancient runes; shown in Pixação: Resistance and Rebellion, STRAAT Museum, Amsterdam (27 June – 31 August 2025), with Cripta Djan and Eneri; Gustavo Lassala, Adrenalina (begun 2003, finished 2014), a digital typeface built from photographs of São Paulo pixação; Pixadores (Amir Arsames Escandari, 2014), documentary on São Paulo crews, screened at Yale in 2016

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

- Influenced by: [Gothic Blackletter & Fraktur Tradition](https://stylogeny.com/styles/blackletter-fraktur.md) (c. 1180–present)
- Influenced by: [Punk & DIY Zine](https://stylogeny.com/styles/punk-diy.md) (1976–1986)
- Alike in its design choices: [Dazibao (Big-Character Posters)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/dazibao.md) (1957–1980), 60% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Square Kufic (Bannāʾī)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/square-kufic.md) (c. 1100–present), 56% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Total Design & Dutch Functionalism](https://stylogeny.com/styles/dutch-total-design.md) (1963–1990), 52% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Ultras Graphics (Curva Banners and Tifo)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ultras-graphics.md) (1968–present), 52% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Vorticism & BLAST Typography](https://stylogeny.com/styles/vorticism.md) (1914–1920), 52% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Out-of-Square Hangul Typography](https://stylogeny.com/styles/out-of-square-hangul.md) (1985–present), 51% alike

## Sources

- Itaú Cultural, Cidade Gráfica: François Chastanet, 'Pixação: São Paulo Signature', https://www.itaucultural.org.br/sites/cidadegrafica/pixacao-eng.html (a typical Brazilian tagging form; rhythmic windows, frieze mouldings and the orthogonal geometry of ceramic cladding serve as landmarks for the letters; the letter adopts the scale of the façade and the pixo the scale of the city; Chastanet as architect, graphic designer and typographer)
- Le Grand J, 'François Chastanet – Pixação: São Paulo Signature', https://www.legrandj.eu/products/francois-chastanet-pixacao-sao-paulo-signature (XG press, 2007, 280 pages, texts by Chastanet and Steven Heller); Eye, 'New Books', https://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/new-books6 ('Foreword by Steven Heller', XGpress / Gingko)
- Simon Romero, 'At war with São Paulo's establishment, black paint in hand', The New York Times, 29 January 2012, reprinted by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, https://staradvertiser.com/?p=303412 (coded, vertically tilted black letters often indecipherable to non-practitioners, reminiscent of runic writing; influenced by record sleeves of Iron Maiden and AC/DC, which Chastanet says drew on gothic lettering and runes; Chastanet's 'alphabet designed for urban invasion'; black paint applied with rollers rather than costlier spray; the Crypt gang; a gang invited to the Berlin Biennale)
- Karen Christye Fidelis, 'Movimento Pixo: a cultura da pixação paulista e sua influência no Triângulo Mineiro', X Encontro de História da Arte, Unicamp, 2014, https://www.ifch.unicamp.br/fppgs/atas/2014/Karen%20Christye%20Fidelis.pdf (pp. 290–295: the movement began in São Paulo in the 1980s; the São Paulo pixo, also called tag reto, is predominantly straight, while Rio's is curved, continuous and small like the American tag; the city 'verticalises' the letters like a giant calligraphy notebook; heavy metal and punk band logos inspired by runes, quoting the documentary Pixo; closed communication for pixadores only; group letreiro, individual tag, grife emblem, year and continuity marks; writing 'na régua'; new members practise from the owner's sketch, and those who sign without permission are 'dublê' or 'clone'; the grife represented by 'um tipo de brasão' (p. 293); points and the rule of respect; respect grows with writing 'em lugares de difícil acesso, ou em muitos lugares', and the levels of recognition include spreading the group's name 'em mais lugares o possível', buildings and high architecture preferred because more seen (pp. 294–295); the beginner, or bafo, is known by crooked signatures, and the pixador Pawer: 'pixo não é bagunça' (p. 295))
- Marcio Siwi, 'Kalligrafie der Vorstadt', der Freitag 13/2016 (German translation of his Guardian article), https://www.freitag.de/autoren/marcio-siwi/kalligrafie-der-vorstadt (the style appeared in São Paulo in the 1980s; letters only, of straight lines and sharp corners, mostly black; inspired by the rune-like logos of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, AC/DC and Metallica; the Adrenalina typeface sold online)
- STRAAT Museum, 'Pixação: Resistance and Rebellion' (27 June – 31 August 2025), https://straatmuseum.com/en/pixacao-resistance-and-rebellion (a youth movement from the urban peripheries in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1970s that had spread to São Paulo by the early 1980s, where it took on its monochromatic, straight, angular lettering; sections dated 1984–2008, 2008–2012 and 2015–present; climbing and rappelling; grifes, points and folhinhas; LIXOMANIA!zé active from 1984, drawing on punk, rock logos and runes; Cripta Djan in the streets since 1996; Eneri)
- The Art Newspaper, 'Brazilian street artist talks tagging at Yale', 17 February 2016, http://www.theartnewspaper.com/2016/02/17/brazilian-street-artist-talks-tagging-at-yale (Cripta Djan began tagging in 1996 at 12; canvases first shown at the Fondation Cartier in Born in the Streets, 2009; 7th Berlin Biennale, 2012; screening of Escandari's Pixadores, 2014)
- Adauany Pieve Zimovski, Escrita subversiva: a pixação paulistana e o campo da arte, MA dissertation, UFRGS, 2017, https://lume.ufrgs.br/handle/10183/174219 (the 2008 attacks on the Centro Universitário Belas Artes, the Choque Cultural gallery and the 28th São Paulo Bienal; Rafael Augustaitiz and Cripta Djan in the 29th São Paulo Bienal and the 7th Berlin Biennale)
- Global Voices, 'Brazil: Manifesto For The Immediate Release of Graffiti Painter', 15 December 2008, https://globalvoices.org/2008/12/15/brazil-manifesto-for-the-immediate-release-of-graffiti-painter/ (Caroline Pivetta da Mota, 24, arrested on 26 October at the 28th Bienal, one of about 40; held in Santana Penitentiary for more than 40 days)
- Mostra Internacional de Cinema de São Paulo archive, 'Pixo' (2009), https://mostra.org/en/arquivo/filme/5886 (Brazilian documentary, 61 min, 33rd Mostra; follows pichadores in action and in confrontations with the police)
- Lei nº 12.408, de 25 de maio de 2011, https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2011-2014/2011/lei/l12408.htm (amends art. 65 of Law 9.605: pichar a building or urban monument carries three months to a year of detention and a fine; graffiti with the owner's consent is not a crime; spray paint not to be sold to under-18s)
- Ethan Zuckerman, 'Pixação, or why São Paulo looks like a death metal album cover', 24 November 2014, https://ethanzuckerman.com/2014/11/24/pixacao-or-why-sao-paulo-looks-like-a-death-metal-album-cover/ (Lassala's Adrenalina based on his master's research and some 800 photographs; the endpapers of Chastanet's book show dozens of versions of each letter; crews and personal tags, often non-alphabetic signs)
- Gustavo Lassala, 'Fonte digital Adrenalina: um projeto inspirado na pixação paulistana', DATJournal 1:1 (2016), https://datjournal.anhembi.br/dat/article/download/18/13 (abstract seen via index: a project begun in 2003 and finished in 2014; full text not read)
- Christina Queiroz, 'Between transgression and art', Pesquisa FAPESP 269 (July 2018), https://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/en/between-transgression-and-art/ (the anthropologist Alexandre Barbosa Pereira: pixação emerged in the 1980s, influenced by punk, heavy metal, hip-hop and skate culture, from a rectilinear, jagged style; 'ch' for legible phrases, 'x' for writing understood only by the movement's members; the article: first done on the ground or on walls, in the 1990s written at increasingly higher locations, which seems to have influenced the graphic design of the letters; glossary: a style the pixador repeats in various places throughout the city, with spray paint and foam rollers; citing Ludmilla Zago Andrade, Rio's style is known as xarpi)
- Le Grand J, 'João Marcelo – Xarpi, the inversion of the word pixar', https://www.legrandj.eu/products/joao-marcelo-and-clecio-freitas-xarpi-the-inversion-of-the-word-pixar (self-published by João Marcelo, 2017; the word is part of the code language created in the 1980s by Rio's pixadores; more than 1,400 photographs of inscriptions on Rio's walls of the 1970s to 1990s); Graffiti Review, 'XARPI Book Interview', 10 July 2018, https://graffitireview.com/xarpi-book-interview (xarpi, an inversion of the word pixar in the dialect of Rio's pixadores, the name given to the pixo in Rio; sinuous, waving forms unlike São Paulo's)
- Russell White, 'Brazil: Pixacao Sao Paulo's Urban Calligraphy', Latin America Bureau, 17 May 2016, https://lab.org.uk/brazil-pixacao-sao-paulo%e2%80%99s-urban-calligraphy/ ('No building or wall is inaccessible to the spray cans or the latex paint of the pixadores')
- en.wikipedia, 'Pichação' (blackletter and runic lettering on 1980s heavy-metal sleeves, citing Chastanet; letters usually of equal height and spacing; foam rollers, spray and latex paint in São Paulo, spray only in Rio; climbing and abseiling to the highest places; citing Neelon and Manco, Graffiti Brasil, 2005)

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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, “Pixação (São Paulo Tag Reto)”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/pixacao/