# Tropicália Graphic Design

> The graphic language of Brazil's Tropicália, foreshadowed by Rogério Duarte's poster for Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (1964), which already devours Ulm modernism, and set by his 1968 covers for Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. In the spirit of Oswald de Andrade's cultural cannibalism, it swallows Pop, psychedelia and Art Nouveau together with Brazilian popular kitsch: a cut-out photograph of the singer in a saturated, heavily outlined drawn world of tropical and national symbols, under hand-drawn titles. Under the dictatorship, irony and allegory said what could not be said.

- Period: 1964–1975
- Where: Latin America & Caribbean
- Origin: Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, around the Bahian musicians Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil: foreshadowed by Rogério Duarte's poster for Glauber Rocha's Cinema Novo film Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (1964), set by his 1968 record covers for Veloso and Gil, and continued in the early 1970s by Luciano Figueiredo and Óscar Ramos; the covers share their intense colour and heavy comic-book outlines with Brazilian Pop painters such as Claudio Tozzi and Teresinha Soares
- Branch: Counterculture
- Also known as: Design gráfico tropicalista, Tropicalist design, Antropofagia visual (visual anthropophagy)
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/tropicalia-graphics/

## Use it with care

The posters and covers remain under copyright and the photographs show named, living or recently living artists: borrow the method (a cut-out photograph in a saturated drawn world, national emblems turned ironic), not a particular sleeve or face. Tropicália used bananas, parrots and the flag's colours to mock the exotic image of Brazil and nationalist good taste; using them straight as tropical decoration reverses its meaning. Since 2015 the flag and the yellow team shirt have also become widespread conservative emblems in Brazil, so a straight verde-amarelo pastiche aimed at Brazilian audiences now reads as a partisan statement.

## How it works

- Swallow the foreign and the local in one image: set Pop comics, psychedelic colour and Art Nouveau lettering beside bananas, serpents, tropical leaves, the cangaceiro and the green and yellow of the flag, until neither reads as the source.
- Put a photograph of the artist at the centre, cut out or held in an oval or square, and surround it with a drawn, saturated world of symbols; or, as Luciano Figueiredo and Óscar Ramos did in the early 1970s, drop the drawn world and let one cropped, colour-tinted photograph fill the frame above blocky capitals on a flat band of colour.
- Fill the whole poster or sleeve with flat, saturated colour and heavy outlines, in many hues or in just three, like the yellow, green and red of the Gil cover; refuse the grid, the empty space and the sober high-contrast photograph and three red circles of César Villela's bossa-nova sleeves.
- Choose bad taste on purpose: kitsch, the cafona and the hyperbolic, set beside the sophisticated and the archaic beside the modern.
- Say by allegory and mockery what censorship forbids: dress the singer in an Academy uniform or a military tunic, let national emblems ridicule themselves, and mock the earnest, nationalist good taste of protest song as much as the regime.
- Draw the title by hand in a decorative, swelling or comic-book capital; or, as on the 1964 poster, set every line in a plain lowercase grotesque in tidy blocks and let one loud image break through them.

## 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)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Radial & concentric](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/radial-and-concentric/) (characteristic)
- [Full bleed](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-bleed/) (characteristic)
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (defining)
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (characteristic)
- [Visual tension](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/visual-tension/) (occasional)
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining)
- [Ornamented display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornamented-display/) (characteristic)
- [Grotesque & neo-grotesque](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grotesque-and-neo-grotesque/) (characteristic)
- [Experimental & distorted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/experimental-and-distorted/) (occasional)
- [Eclectic mixing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/eclectic-mixing/) (occasional)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (defining)
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (characteristic)
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (characteristic)
- [Complementary clash](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/complementary-clash/) (characteristic)

### Form & shape
- [Biomorphic curves](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/biomorphic-curves/) (characteristic)
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (characteristic)
- [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (characteristic)
- [Whiplash line](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/whiplash-line/) (occasional)
- [Naturalistic depiction](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/naturalistic-depiction/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (defining)
- [Hard offset shadow](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hard-offset-shadow/) (characteristic)

### Ornament
- [Abundant decoration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/abundant-decoration/) (characteristic)
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (characteristic)
- [Floral & vegetal](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/floral-and-vegetal/) (characteristic)
- [Cosmic & celestial](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/cosmic-and-celestial/) (occasional)
- [Emblems & badges](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/emblems-and-badges/) (occasional)

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

### Medium & production
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (defining)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (characteristic)

### Tone & intent
- [Ironic & self-aware](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ironic-and-self-aware/) (defining)
- [Rebellious & subversive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rebellious-and-subversive/) (defining)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (characteristic)
- [Agitational & persuasive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/agitational-and-persuasive/) (occasional)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (occasional)
- [Romantic & sensual](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/romantic-and-sensual/) (occasional)

Avoids: Modular grid, Generous white space, Ornament-free, Rational & objective, Monochrome, Pastel, Calm & contemplative

Palette: #d9261c, #f6c400, #00873e, #d6177a, #161616

Typefaces: Art Nouveau-revival hand lettering (Rogério Duarte, Caetano Veloso, 1968), Comic-book display lettering projected upward (Rogério Duarte, Gilberto Gil, 1968), Decorative, distorted psychedelic hand lettering, Helvetica in lowercase for all the text, title included (Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol poster, 1964), Heavy block capitals in yellow (Luciano Figueiredo and Óscar Ramos, Fa-Tal – Gal a Todo Vapor, 1971)

Known for: Rogério Duarte, poster for Glauber Rocha's Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (1964; offset, about 108 x 74 cm): a cut-out black-and-white photograph of Corisco (Othon Bastos) holding his sword by the blade, ringed by yellow and magenta sun rays on a red field that Duarte mixed from magenta and yellow, and every line of text, the lowercase title included, set in Helvetica in two aligned blocks across the top, which the sword splits; Rogério Duarte, cover of Caetano Veloso, Caetano Veloso (Philips, 1968), Duarte's first record cover: the singer's face in hard shadow inside an oval, his name in Art Nouveau lettering, surrounded by a serpent, leaves, bananas, a dragon, a nude woman and flowers; Rogério Duarte with the artist Antônio Dias and the photographer David Drew Zingg, cover of Gilberto Gil, Gilberto Gil (Philips, 1968): Gil in the uniform of the Academia Brasileira de Letras, flanked by squares showing him as a soldier with a sword and as a driver in sunglasses, in a superhero-comic drawing in three saturated colours, yellow, green and red; Rubens Gerchman, cover of Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis (Philips, July 1968), built from a photograph by Olivier Perroy, with the group dressed mainly in green and yellow; Luciano Figueiredo and Óscar Ramos, cover of Gal Costa, Fa-Tal – Gal a Todo Vapor (Philips, 1971): a red-tinted close-up photograph of lips and chin fills the top half under -FA-TAL- in spaced grey capitals, and GAL A TODO VAPOR runs in heavy yellow block capitals on a flat red band below; Óscar Ramos and Luciano Figueiredo, graphic design of Navilouca (1974), the single-issue anthology, about 27 x 36 cm, conceived by Torquato Neto and Waly Salomão: a cover crowded with colour photographs of its contributors under an orange title on a red band, aping the weekly magazine Manchete, and inside, overlapping letters, jumps in size and deliberate illegibility

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

- Grew out of: [Pop Art Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/pop-art.md) (1955–1975)
- Influenced by: [Psychedelic Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/psychedelic.md) (1965–1973)
- Influenced by: [Art Nouveau](https://stylogeny.com/styles/art-nouveau.md) (1890–1910)
- Influenced by: [Brazilian Concrete Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/brazilian-concrete.md) (1951–1975)
- Alike in its design choices: [Angura Theatre Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/angura-poster.md) (1965–1985), 70% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [La Movida Madrileña Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/movida-madrilena.md) (1977–1988), 64% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Indian Pop-Kitsch Design (Desi Kitsch)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/indian-kitsch.md) (1997–present), 63% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [South African Vernacular Design (Ijusi)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ijusi-vernacular.md) (1995–present), 61% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Superflat](https://stylogeny.com/styles/superflat.md) (1993–present), 60% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Guna Mola](https://stylogeny.com/styles/guna-mola.md) (1900–present), 60% alike

## Sources

- https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_Gr%C3%A1fico_Tropicalista (saturated contrasting colour, decorative and distorted lettering, dense collage with marked outlines, rupture with the grid and with bossa-nova sleeves; 'antropofagia visual'; Pop Art, psychedelia and Art Nouveau as references; Luciano Figueiredo, Óscar Ramos, Aldo Luiz and Kélio Rodrigues as continuers)
- https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rog%C3%A9rio_Duarte (born Ubaíra, Bahia, 1939, died 2016; worked for Aloísio Magalhães; 'Notas sobre o desenho industrial', 1965; arrested and tortured in 1968)
- Fernando dos Santos Almeida, Isabela Marques Fuchs & Rosane Kaminski, 'A tropicália de Rogério Duarte em "Caetano Veloso" e "Gilberto Gil" (1968)', Projética 9:1 (2018), 69-86, DOI 10.5433/2236-2207.2018v9n1p69, https://ojs.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/projetica/article/view/28750 (formal description of both covers; the Caetano cover as Duarte's 'primeiro projeto gráfico destinado à uma capa de disco'; 'o pop e o deboche' as the keys of the Gil cover, whose intense colour and heavy outlines Claudio Tozzi and Teresinha Soares shared; kitsch used to 'desqualificar a possibilidade de uma arte engajada e nacionalista', after Napolitano; César Villela's Elenco covers, a high-contrast photograph and three red circles, as the sober bossa-nova contrast; Rubens Gerchman and Alain Voss among the movement's cover designers)
- Vagner Gonzaga Sales Tabosa & Gabriela Frota Reinaldo, 'Comendo Deus e o Diabo com as mãos: a antropofagia de Rogério Duarte', 46º Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação, Intercom, 2023, https://sistemas.intercom.org.br/pdf/link_aceite/nacional/11/0816202323174964dd834ddcdf9.pdf (description of the 1964 poster: a 'conciso' layout, red mixed from magenta and yellow, Helvetica for the text blocks with the title in lowercase, the sword splitting the two blocks, 'comendo a Escola de Ulm', 'ora cordel, ora bauhaus'; Duarte's training at the Escola de Belas Artes, Escolinha de Arte do Brasil and MAM Rio)
- https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:Poster_Deus_e_o_Diabo_na_Terra_do_Sol.png (reproduction of the 1964 poster, viewed: all text in lowercase Helvetica in two blocks across the top, right-aligned on the left and left-aligned on the right)
- People's Graphic Design Archive, Rogério Duarte, Black God, White Devil (Deus e o diabo na terra do sol), 1964, offset lithography, 108 x 74 cm, https://peoplesgdarchive.org/item/4048/black-god-white-devil-deus-e-o-diabo-na-terra-do-sol
- Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Cinemateca poster captions, https://mam.rio/programacao/museu-escola-cidade-cinemateca-legendas1 (Cara a cara, 1968, author Rogério Duarte; the 1967 Terra em transe poster there is credited to Luiz Carlos and José Luiz Ripper, so it is left out here. Cara a cara is also left out: the poster reproduced in Ana Beatriz Buoso Marcelino, O olho e a navalha: integração e subversão no cinema marginal de Júlio Bressane, MA dissertation, UNESP Bauru, 2016, p. 65, https://repositorio.unesp.br/server/api/core/bitstreams/589561d9-069a-4f13-95dd-f24b3b3f12f7/content, is black and white, two high-contrast photographs in rotational symmetry with grotesque capitals, outside this style)
- https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropic%C3%A1lia_ou_Panis_et_Circencis (cover by Rubens Gerchman from a photograph by Olivier Perroy; green and yellow clothing)
- https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fa-Tal_-_Gal_a_Todo_Vapor (cover: Luciano Figueiredo and Óscar Ramos, Philips, 1971; cover image viewed: red-tinted close-up photograph, -FA-TAL- in grey capitals, GAL A TODO VAPOR in yellow block capitals on a red band)
- https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navilouca (graphic design by Óscar Ramos and Luciano Figueiredo, 1974; 27 x 36 cm; single issue)
- Guilherme Tadeu de Godoy, 'A arte experimental da revista Navilouca e seus ecos no design gráfico contemporâneo brasileiro', Revista Belas Artes 47:1 (2025), 70-83, DOI 10.62507/issn.2176-6479.v47i1.743, https://revistas.belasartes.br/revistabelasartes/article/view/743 (Navilouca's cover: photographs of its contributors, the title in orange on red after the weekly Manchete; inside, 'letras sobrepostas, corpos desproporcionais' and illegibility; drafted 1971, printed 1974; Duarte moved to Rio around 1960 and studied at MAM under Otl Aicher, Tomás Maldonado and Alexandre Wollner, then joined Aloísio Magalhães's team in 1961)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropic%C3%A1lia (Oswald de Andrade's Manifesto Antropófago, 1928, as the movement's source of cultural cannibalism; the Bahian musicians' move to São Paulo)
- AFP, 'Brazil jersey hostage to politics a month from World Cup', Arab News, 20 October 2022, https://www.arabnews.com/node/2184526 ('The Brazilian flag and Selecao jersey first became widespread conservative symbols in 2015')
- Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Rogério Duarte. Marginália 1 (15 March-29 April 2018), curated by Manuel Raeder and Mariana Castillo Deball, https://bomdiabooks.de/rogerio-duarte-marginalia-1-museo-jumex/
- Chico Homem de Melo (ed.), O design gráfico brasileiro: anos 60 (Cosac Naify, 2006) (book; source of the cover reproductions in Almeida, Fuchs & Kaminski)
- Jorge Caê Rodrigues, Anos fatais: design, música e tropicalismo (Rio de Janeiro: 2AB, 2007) (book; cited by Almeida, Fuchs & Kaminski)

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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, “Tropicália Graphic Design”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/tropicalia-graphics/