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JP de Oliveira, Graphic Designer
Mayday
Single by Projota
Year 2018
Role Art Direction, Graphic Design
Project information
The song is literally a distress signal, a critique about our society. In the lyrics, the artist compares his successful life as a failure of a system that (for centuries) has normalised oppression over people like him: black and peripheral. In an excerpt from the chorus, Projota sings: Sou uma falha na turbina da Nação (= 'I am a fault in the nation's turbine'). Mayday, mayday, mayday, mayday, mayday!".
The challenge was to find a visual solution that symbolises this distress signal. "Mayday" is an emergency code word, used worldwide in communications issued by aircraft or vessel crew. As aircraft are limited to the radio, it was at sea where I found visual representations—such as the distress flag, which consists of an orange (Safety Orange) square flag as background of two geometric black shapes: a square and an ellipse.
The shapes simplicity, the striking color and the semantic coherence were more than enough, however, as he was an artist with a strong commercial and popular appeal, it would not be prudent don't place his image on the cover. So I inserted a photo – shotted during the videoclip filming –, replacing the interior of the geometric black shapes with the Projota's face and hands. That ended up enriching the visual art, bringing even more weight—which is always a match when we talk about Hip-hop.
The challenge was to find a visual solution that symbolises this distress signal. "Mayday" is an emergency code word, used worldwide in communications issued by aircraft or vessel crew. As aircraft are limited to the radio, it was at sea where I found visual representations—such as the distress flag, which consists of an orange (Safety Orange) square flag as background of two geometric black shapes: a square and an ellipse.
The shapes simplicity, the striking color and the semantic coherence were more than enough, however, as he was an artist with a strong commercial and popular appeal, it would not be prudent don't place his image on the cover. So I inserted a photo – shotted during the videoclip filming –, replacing the interior of the geometric black shapes with the Projota's face and hands. That ended up enriching the visual art, bringing even more weight—which is always a match when we talk about Hip-hop.
Art Direction, Graphic Design: JP de Oliveira
Photography: Rui Mendes
Photography: Rui Mendes
Universal Music Group Team:
⤷ Marketing Manager: Eduardo Felix
⤷ Label Manager: Bárbara Cotta
⤷ Marketing Assistant: Frances Will
⤷ Marketing Manager: Eduardo Felix
⤷ Label Manager: Bárbara Cotta
⤷ Marketing Assistant: Frances Will