Why the retro brand identities of Biabum studio have illustration built into their DNA

Beatriz Tati Nóbrega, founder of Rio-based branding and design studio Biabum, is of the opinion that design starts long before anything visual emerges. For the designer, the creative process behind making anything meaningful begins with: “listening, looking around, building a repertoire, asking good questions and paying attention to what makes a brand truly itself,” she says. The studio offers up a whole host of expertise in visual identities, print, packaging, creative direction and motion but it’s style is always underpinned by bold textures and colours – a lot of them. A retro visual thread brings a sense of nostalgia to its brand systems in the culinary space – like the studio’s Salva Bar identity made up of a combination of hand lettering and a range of illustrated silhouettes that feel like old wood cut stamps.

Illustration is front and centre in the studio’s portfolio. “We often work digitally but like bringing the feel of analog processes into the screen, creating and discovering new textures along the way,” says Beatriz. Biabum’s packaging system for Brazilian chocolate brand Giro is a perfect example of this approach. The paper boxes cleverly translate the brand’s ethical production with an illustrated journey from bean to bar.

In amongst it’s varied projects, the studio is always aiming to look for visual languages that feel specific to each brand, finding a perfect balance of illustration, typography with a handmade charm and the right colour palette to create something that will move people. Luckily Brazil offers up quite a lot of inspiration on that front: “Our biggest creative influence is what we see around us. Carnival, vernacular typefaces, Brazilian streets, modernist architecture, sun, heat, diversity, smiles, proximity, gentleness, truth and boldness. The simple, the everyday, the people around us,” Beatriz ends.