Design vernacular: a comunicação visual informal no cotidiano da Amazônia

Abstract

This research reflects on the vernacular design as a communication experience in the Amazon region. The analyzed object in the study is the draws of letters (lettering) painted manually on boards, facades, banners, and other surfaces widespread across the region that, based on the popular culture, aim to supply the communicational necessities of the informal commerce where they originate. The focus of the investigation came from the following question: what are the inspirations, particularities, and strategies that permeate the material and symbolic universe of this type of informal visual communication, without losing sight of its market potential and its relationship to the community? Therefore, this research used concepts of Benjamin (1987), Braga (2011), Canevacci (1997), Schutz (2012), Dewey (1980), Durand (1996), Flusser (2013), Kant (2012), Maffesoli (1998) e Paes Loureiro (2008; 2001), among others. Accordingly, the hypothesis presented here pointed that the informal visual communication, permeated by the universe of the Amazonian culture, contributes in the symbolic and economic scope directly to the reality of the community in which it is inserted. The methodology was based on the qualitative descriptive analysis, starting from field research, being that the collection of material (photography registration and interviews) started from August 2015 to January 2018, including two visits in each one of the three islands of the Municipality of Belém chosen for the study: Cotijuba, Caratateua (Outeiro) e Mosqueiro. It's believed that the importance of this research is focused on the possibility of contributing with studies that go beyond the technical aspects of communication, therefore based on the men in society, as well as, long-term, to be able to collaborate for a possible demystification of stereotypes about the Amazon.