Brokerslink
Category: Motion
Cegonhas Pretas / Black Storks (Crias)
This animation is part of a series of short animal stories aired in public television chanels in Portugal and France. The idea is to work as a cue in the bedtime routine for children. Each animator chose an animal and had to tell a story of its bedtime. Mine was the black stork, and as it is a bird and lives near water I wanted to represent that visually. The art is created digitally with a watercolour brush for the animals and a chalk brush for the clouds and environment. This was a joint venture of Videolotio, Praça Filmes, JPL Filmes, FTR and RTP.
On Thoughts / Pensamientras
When I designed this book it was supposed to be wordless. It was my go at the concept of providing the reader with just enough cues and total freedom to create a story, thus participating in the creation with me. Nonetheless when I read the words the talented Eugénio Roda wrote for the pictures I decided that the book was more complete with that. It was published by Edições Eterogémeas and edited by the grand Luís Mendonça. Later I added motion to the prints and the voice over of Mac Premo and for that it was awarded a Gold Medal by The Society of Illustrators of New York.
And, without thoughts, my legs wouldn’t walk, my arms wouldn’t move.
Without Thinking, I couldn’t Be.
But why would I want anybody else’s other ideas if I didn’t know what to do with them?
With a bag full of special tricks, potions and lucky charms.
But, as soon as he saw me, hollow head, said I was a lost cause.
He couldn’t do anything to help me, and left.
… It was the only way, for someone who can’t think, to think…
Strong ideas, the kind that don’t run away!
Saw, listened, tasted, felt, touched, smelled…
Scents, sounds, shapes, texures, colors, flavours…
Tried to organize them in alphabetical order, numerical, by lasts and firsts…
Between discussions, tears, hugs, we exchanged ideas…
They introduce me to new images, and I use them, whenever I need…
They help me organize words, and I help them desire with them…
They take me everywhere they want, and tell me stories before I fall assplep…
We dream, together, as it is the best way to think!
Véspera – Clã
My generation has a lot of good memories attached to the songs of the Clã. Clã is a Portuguese pop rock band and since the mid 90's has been filling our lives of good music. For me it was an honour to collaborate with them in their album Véspera. I created art for the CD, vinil, and social media. All the videos were done with the help of the brilliant Joana X.
Universidade de Aveiro 50 Anos
The University of Aveiro, my Alma mater, invited me to create a short video to be presented at the opening ceremony of the celebrations of their 50th anniversary. It was a great honour and I tried to grasp my fondest memories and represent them as best as I could and try to tell a symbolic story of what was for me the journey of learning in that environment.
Tuttodunpezzo
I was lucky enough to meet Paolo from Topipittori at the Bologna Children's Book Fair anreven more lucky when he invited me to illustrate a book. At the time I was visiting Milan and had some time to spend making sketches and engage in long conversations with Paolo and his team about how the book should go. The story is very funny about a character that is uptight and spotless and one day it falls into a hole and breaks into three pieces. This book became a animation short after that was awarded a gold medal at the Society of Illustrators of New York.
He never misses a street.
Sequoia Gigantis
This project came up when I met Sara Serpa and her band after seeing them perform at a small venue. As the night went along we decided that we had to do some kind of collaboration. They were launching a new single and it was the perfect opportunity to make something together. I was struck by the way Sara conveys emotions through her vocalisations and as a Steinbeck lover making a video for this song was a dream job. The video is ten minutes long and is composed by small loops all done by hand. This animation was awarded a silver medal by the Society of Illustrators of NY.
Thinktopia
This project was commissioned by Patrick Hanlon at Thinktopia. Thinktopia is a branding advisement company and they wanted to create an animated poster to spread their message through social media. Patrick wanted to portrait the conception of ideas as a magical process that only occurred if you were willing to enter the unbelievable realm of impossible. We came up with a rough animation of me playing with and idea as a seed that germinates and becomes a tree ready to bear fruits.
Our story – Steelcase
This was one of my first professional motion projects. I had some experience with storyboards but this project requires also that the illustrations work alone as pages of a book or eventually as part of a poster or a banner. The storyline was very straight forward, the voice over was powerful and above all, the story itself was brilliant. Steelcase greatest product is a see trough wire mesh paper basket. It was invented to prevent fires from regular bins in a time were cigarets and paper were extremely common in office buildings. This video is a celebration of that.
The Cabinet of Curiosities
This started as my thesis show at School of Visual Arts Master's program: Illustration as a Visual Essay. David Sandlin was the teacher and curator of the show and this had a huge influence on the way I see and explore visual narratives. To look into the visual arts not only in its linear form but as a fluid life form. All the objects tell a story as people do. Most of them started as scrap or found material that in time were sown together to create this ever-growing cabinet of curiosities. It travelled quite a bit, from the United States, to Italy, Spain and Portugal in different setups. It is an ongoing project. If you would like to have it on your gallery or event, please send me an e-mail.
