Poesia no Centrois a poetry festival promoted byMegafauna, a bookstore in São Paulo, Brazil. The visual identity and scenography allude to the city’s signage and urban cacophony, anchored in the use of thePlaaktypeface by the type foundry205TF, also present in the bookstore’s visual identity. The graphic design consists of a simple structure of boxes and vertical bars with moving typography superimposed on the work of guest photographer Mauro Restiffe. In the scenography, the lines become industrial shelving structures, the boxes become animated LED signs and the photographs become large-format posters.
This typography system channels the raw, democratic energy of São Paulo's urban signage landscape—transforming street-level cacophony into cultural sophistication. The condensed, industrial character of Plaak creates an unapologetically bold presence that speaks to poetry as an accessible, street-level art form rather than elite literary tradition.
Plaak's condensed proportions and utilitarian character perfectly echo São Paulo's dense urban signage, while its robust construction ensures legibility across LED displays and embroidered merchandise. The pairing with FF More and Acumin provides necessary hierarchy and readability for supporting information, with their more refined letterforms creating breathing room against Plaak's intensity.
The contrast between Plaak's industrial condensed forms and the more refined supporting faces creates a deliberate tension between street culture and literary sophistication. This hierarchy mirrors the festival's mission—bringing poetry from academic spaces into the urban environment, with Plaak dominating as the voice of the street.