João Machado

João Machado posters

João Machado belongs to the generation of Portuguese designers who for the first time gained, in Portugal and abroad, recognition in terms of their work and of the very authorship of their designs.

This screen does not display the whole of his work. During more than three decades, João Machado has developed projects of communication design as varied as books and exhibition catalogues, soap packaging and postage stamps, as well as many visual identities for corporations and institutions. By means of these projects he has discretely and almost anonymously given a personal hallmark to the Portuguese scene of visual history. But he has found the utmost capacity of expressing himself through the creation of posters; it is also in this area that he has received highest levels of recognition from his peers in and outside Portugal – not from the sculptors, but from the designers. This publication is dedicated to the posters by João Machado.

In his over 600 posters (of which this is a very restricted selection), João Machado makes the image the central element of his work. Contemplative or formalistic, dated or timeless, intrinsically Portuguese or universal images.