Recortados — 'Cut Outs'

design research, strategy, storytelling, experience design, visual design

Recortados — 'Cut Outs'

Practicing emotional vulnerability through a photography exhibition

Briefing

Recortados is a photography exhibition introducing life stories of 20 students from the design program of ESPM Rio.

The exhibition was designed and carried out as part of the “Culture Information in Environments” of the Design program I was part of in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The exhibition reveals a cut out from the moment where students shared deep personal stories through in-depth interviews. The project was intended to encourage viewers to submerge themselves in the intense psychological moment experienced collectively by the group of students.

Challenge

The objective of the project was to question whether in our daily lives we connect with people’s inner stories and emotions, or whether we do not really feel like connecting with others. Throughout the process, all the participants experienced an emotional discharge and the desire to share deep personal feelings. The challenge was to capture the most genuine emotions and expressions revealed by each person. My partner and I were profoundly engaged with the work we did, and took care to respect people’s privacy.

Results

The project’s final presentation was extremely well received, and ESPM Rio invited us to exhibit our work at the school. Although the interviews for Recortados were shot, we were not able to produce a final edited film because of technical issues that we did not anticipate and plan for. We were very surprised by the impact that our participants’ emotions had, and it would be very gratifying to have a film of it. The project Recortados inspired my final project for the Design program, a documentary film entitled Elas Paralelas, which reveals life stories of housemaids in Rio de Janeiro through interviews and photography.

Communication Strategy

Naming the project was as important a part of the process as developing the brand identity. ‘Recortados’ (en: ‘Cut Outs’) has multiple meanings in this context: it is a vestige of the moment when students shared their stories; it signifies a cut out from their inner self; and a residue of feelings experienced in a different moment of their lives.

The focal points of the project are the stories and the photography so aesthetic choices were created in a way that would elevate and enhance these elements.

The developed visual identity uses crops in all forms (graphic, spacial and textual) to represent the concept of the parts which represents the whole. Although, the project does not miss the singularity of exposing a special proposition and artistic sensibility through photography and its stories.

The graphic material was created and printed as part of visual communication and propagation strategy and a website was developed to serve as an online platform. In addition, a 3D simulation of the space where the exhibition would take place was made to give an accurate idea of how the location would be set up.

The graphic material produced, such as posters, postal cards and an invitation for the vernissage, was part of the visual communication campaign. We also created a website to serve as an online platform to access the exhibition’s content.

Text constructed for the exhibition with a blend of the in-depth interviews quotes:

It's the first time I'm talking about this to someone. I was an aggressive kid. I chose a desk and waited for my future best friend to come in, no one came. She was a rich little girl, Daddy's and Mommy's little girl, couldn't be the crazy rebel. I came back even more shy because I was not talking for a long time, I just kept smiling. When we grow up everything changes, dreams get hidden. She strained to see me turning 18. I couldn't believe what was going on. It was the best place I have ever visited and it aroused the best of myself. Until I got here there were a lot of rocks in the way. It was a shallow cut but psychologically it was very deep. I ended up living her life, forgetting that I had my own. One of the hardest things to accept was that it was all coming from such a close person. Neither she nor I knew how to handle the loss, so we blamed ourselves. She was everything I wanted to be and everything I would ever be: my parents' biological daughter. It is a mixture of disgust for one's external state, but also an empathy because that person is just like you. It hit a very large void that I had just lost a year of my life. It is hard to accept that what we idealize all our lives may not be what we need at that moment. They changed my whole family history, I had no perspective on life. I was created to live with death.