Spring 2023
Attack of the book jackets
Tupigrafia. The 2000-2020 Anthology
By Claudio Rocha and Tony De Marco. Cover title by Luca Barcellona. Lazy Dog, €48.
Tupigrafia A-Z is the book of the Brazilian magazine Tupigrafia published by Claudio Rocha and Tony de Marco. Spanning issues from 2000-20, the anthology covers the editors’ many enthusiasms for typography and lettering, which include: São Paulo type foundry Funtimod; floppy disks; Victorian lettering on boats by abridores (‘letter-openers’); and Rio calligrapher Claudio Gil.
Three chapters focus on Austrian-born Eugênio Hirsch (1923-2001), whose vibrant work for book jackets and magazines (Pif-Paf) had an explosive impact upon Brazilian design. El Mundo de los Museos, an art book series for Spanish publisher Codex, show his fearless approach to text and image, as do his covers (above) for fiction such as Antes, o Verão, short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gato Preto em Campo de Neve. Rocha quotes Hirsch’s assertion that book covers should be ‘made to attack, not attract’.
John L. Walters, editor of Eye, London
First published in Eye no. 104 vol. 26, 2023
Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions and single issues.