Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

The Design of book bovers in Brazil during the sixties through the covers
by Marius Lauritzen Bern
NAUFEL, Carina / Master Student / Universidade Estadual de Campinas / Brazil
Book cover Design / Graphic Design / Design Histor / 1960s
Design / Brazil
Marius’ book covers analyzed in this article were made in the
1960s under specific circumstances at that time in the Western
world, such as the ways through which book covers were created
and the production processes that were available at the time.
These particularities help to understand the final result of the
visual discourse on the graphic design of Marius Bern’s covers.
1. Marius Lauritzen Bern and the Civilização
Brasileira Publishing House
Marius Lauritzen Bern was a self-taught designer who began
his career in visual arts. He was both painter and photographer,
worked as a cartoonist for the Jornal do Brasil and had a
part in the foundation of the Ateliê Coletivo in Pernambuco, in
the 1950s. His artistic background contributed to his production
in the field of graphic design. Marius Bern later opened his
own studio - the Estúdio Gráfico - and focused his attention on
all areas of graphic design. While he kept working in his studio,
Marius Bern began his partnership with the Civilização Brasileira
in 1965, through its visionary publisher Ênio Silveira. He joined
them right after designer Eugênio Hirsch had left the company,
and from 1965 to 1970 he stood as its chief designer. The owner
of Civilização Brasileira - Ênio Silveira - was considered an important
Brazilian intellectual in the national cultural field and
also an important figure in the fight against the military dictatorship.
He was also the staunchest supporter of the changes
adopted by the company in its book designs. After getting in
contact with some distinguished American publishers during a
trip taken to the USA, he returned to Brazil with the intention to
innovate book design. Ênio Silveira believed that the design of
book covers played a key role in attracting the reader into buying
books. His publishing house took a bold stand at the time by
producing not only books intended for the elite consumption, but
also publishing paperbacks which provided a larger number of
people access to literary comsumption. The titles for its catalog
were carefully chosen, and the house was known for its strong
opposition to the oppressive regime. According to Hallewell, the
Civilização Brasileira was the main channel for Brazilian modern
literature in the 1960s. (Hallewell 2005)
The historical context of book design in Brazil during
the 1960s
Changes in education and production technologies affect the
graphic results obtained by a designer, once they are, along with
the designer’s actions, means to achieve the final creation. De-
spite the existing differences in the form of teaching design and
in the production technologies between Brazil and other more
economically developed countries in previous decades, it’s in
the 60s that Brazil starts to reduce the existing gap between
him and these other countries in the field of graphic design. This
process was made possible due to the foundation of the ESDI 1
(Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial) and the arrival of the
latest offset printing machines, particularly those used in the
publishing field (Camargo 2003 : 126).
The 1960s are marked by a rupture with the conventions of
graphic publishing culture on the Brazilian book market. This is
a period accounts for a great growth in the demand for higher
education and, consequently, an increase in the number and
quality of readers. These readers showed an inclination towards
graphic innovations, thus allowing designers and publishers to
experience greater freedom in their work. To please the new consumers,
the Brazilian publishing industry invested on book design
2 , that played a major role on the success of the book sales.
The design should make the book stand out on the shelves of
bookshops in order to attract the readers’ interest. Paperbacks
became the best way to propagate literature due to low cost. In
England, paperbacks started being published in 1935 by Penguin
Books. In the US paperbacks were heavily purchased by college
students at a reasonable price. Paperback quality was not
as good as that of hardcovers, so the graphic design of books
was essential to ensure their success. The 1950s and 1960s
were the golden age of paperbacks, both in Brazil and in the US
(Drew 2005). In the US, design played a key role in marketing
campaigns, with books being long-time considered commercial
products, differently from Brazil, where little was invested
to insert the literary publications on the market: in 1967, 40% of
the publishing houses didn’t invest any part of their budgets in
advertising (Hallewell 2005 : 545), therefore indicating how this
field completely neglected by Brazilian publishers.
The implications between national and international graphic design
can be measured not only in terms of production technology,
but also on the visual aspects - how the works were visually executed
and how the aesthetic choices were made. In the 1960s,
the search for a more unrestricted graphic design began free from
a modernistic style characterized by grid patterns and neutral
typography. The design was more authorial, illustrative, and influ-
1 In 1962 FAU-USP added design to its curriculum, an initiative that contributed to
the teaching of design in the country.
2 This affirmation does not ignore previous attempts by other publishers regarding
the commercial aspect of the book, like the case of Monteiro Lobato, however,
comparatively, investment in the publicity and design fields was much more
aggressive in the 1960s.
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies / Proceedings of the 8th Conference of the International Committee for
Design History & Design Studies - ICDHS 2012 / São Paulo, Brazil / © 2012 Blucher / ISBN 978-85-212-0692-7