Last year, the biggest Norwegian dairy producer, Tine, received the “Café do Brasil” stamp and placed it on their famous product, IsKaffe, which means “iced coffee” in Norwegian.
To promote their focus on great tasting coffe made with Brazilian beans, Tine joined the Norwegian agency Dist Creative, and made a call on Behance to brazilian artists to submit their artworks. The chosen ones would be exhibited in adshels all over Norway, print-ads in magazines, prominent norwegian blogs and also on IsKaffe Facebook page.
I got really excited when I read the message; I turned to Bárbara and she said: “We could do something poetic“. That was sufficient.
I was supposed to come up with something quickly, one week time. The idea came and should be transformed into something concrete as soon as possible.
Right on the beginning I thought of Candido Portinari. Searching the web I found his famous painting “Café”.
The challenge, sounding strange as it might, was how we should represent Brazil in this project. The subject was leading us far away from the common Brazil stereotype, that is, as if Brazil is exclusively Rio de Janeiro: beaches, sun, samba, Cristo Redentor statue, Bossa Nova etc. Thinking of coffee, the States of São Paulo and Minas Gerais came in my mind. We don’t know these two States deeply, let alone their coffee plantations. We are good coffee drinkers, as any Brazilian, and that’s it.
It’s useless to say discouragement fell upon me like a plague. With an idea in mind and one week to do it. I paused.
I woke up a couple of days later with all that stuff hammering non-stop in my brain. Portinari’s painting didn’t rang any of the bells I need to hear.
So, off to a good shower, as I usually do after waking up, I called my idea to a good talk: “What else comes when I think Brazil/coffee/poetic/Portinari?”. Thoughts run as fast as a slot machine and stops in:
Now what? A Brazilian classical composer almost unknown to Brazilians. So, why Villa-Lobos?
Finishing the shower I rushed to the living room directly to our LP collection and found the Villa-Lobos record. Leafing through the booklet I found the Portinari’s “Café” painting on the back cover. Well, that’s a good sign. My heart even bumped.
But I didn’t feel like hearing the record. I read the booklet with more attention and later went to the internet to research his life. I found his official website in Canada. Yes, the Villa-Lobos official website is Canadian, created and managed by the dedicated Dean Frey, Director of Red Deer Public Library. More than complete and organized it has all things about the composer. Dean Frey goes way further making available The Villa-Lobos Magazine (since 2001!), the Tumbling Villa-Lobos and a Twitter profile dedicated to the composer.
Still no bell ringing. Searching deep within my memory I remembered two songs I kept in mind, somewhere in time. I only knew they were famous. Vaguely reminding the melody and, for the sake of good results, I didn’t know their names. Making things even worse: Villa-Lobos wrote, throughout his life, more than 1,000 compositions, an inexact number as there is no official catalogue of his compositions. I deeply sighed.
The search on Youtube turned out to be a fortunate one. As I began typing “Heitor Villa……” “Bachianas Brasileiras” returned as a suggestion. On the list, a video with an old beautiful front picture caught my attention. It was the “Bachiana Brasileira No. 5 Aria (Cantilena)”, performed by the Brazilian opera soprano Bidú Sayão.
This is it! Now the bell truly rang. What a melody! What an interpretation! I found the song which was going to inspire me throughout the project.
Hands on work starting with the hunt for pictures on every image bank I could possibly remember of. Fortunately I found all the pictures I needed; all beautiful and poetically correct; looks like they were part of the song.
But the visual composition wasn’t complete; not in the way I was doing it. The pictures sequence, the abrupt interruption between them, the missing IsKaffe logo. I didn’t know what could be possibly wrong. Once again I heard the suite sang by Bidú and looked at the layout with the four pictures. It seemed to be in the right way although there was still something important missing. The cycle was not finished yet.
Here I was, sitting on the discouragement limbo once again.
Going back a few steps, what was the other Villa-Lobos song that I vaguely remembered? Its name was something like “Trenzinho do Caipira” (Peasant’s Little Train). Searched the web and found it. I decided to listen to it while looking at my poster design.
Yes!!! It was the “Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2 – Toccata: O Trenzinho do Caipira (The Peasant’s Little Train)”.
And on that exact moment the project’s whole cycle came clear into my mind. The pictures sequence, beginning, middle and end, the connections between them and the IsKaffe logo with its pattern. I was telling a story:
Coffee from Brazil – The Harvest & The Journey
Part I – The Harvest. Everyday like a blessing.
Part II – The Journey. To the destiny like a beautiful symphony.
I sent an email to my friend Tatiana Fernandes, living in Norway since 2005, asking her to translate the story from Portuguese to Norwegian:
Kaffe fra Brasil – Innhøstningen & Reisen
Del I – Innhøstningen. Hver dag, som en velsignelse.
Del II – Reisen. Til destinasjonen, som en vakker symfoni.
And here’s the 231 X 340 mm poster:
Bárbara completed the project designing this gorgeous presentation:
