Magnética is an annual academic publication developed within the scope of the Final Synthesis Project for the course Digital Lab II at ESAD. The focus lies on the intersection of editorial design and digital tools, with particular attention to the relationship between content and form. Each edition is centered on a specific theme, and the 2023/24 issue honors the 50th anniversary of the Portuguese Revolution, exploring the multifaceted concept of freedom.
This year’s edition draws on three key texts by Sérgio Godinho, Capicua, and Mário Moura, each offering a distinct lens on liberty across time, context, and format. Alongside these, each student contributed an original fourth text to define and shape their individual approach to the theme.
For my interpretation, I chose to use censorship as the conceptual and visual anchor of the project. Prior to the 25th of April revolution, two colored pencils—blue and red—were famously used by censors to review, edit, and suppress written content across literature, journalism, and theatre. This symbol of repression became the foundation of my design approach.
Through typographic omission, intentional repetition, and graphical redactions, the publication visually evokes the mechanisms of censorship while simultaneously subverting them—transforming acts of suppression into revolutionary gestures. Repeated words echo like protest chants, while erased lines invite the reader to question what's missing and why.
The result is a publication that not only reflects on freedom but also visually enacts its constraints and resistance, creating an editorial object charged with symbolic and historical meaning.
Academic Project
P1 Magnética
Course: Communication Design
(UC Digital Laboratory III)
Institution: ESAD Matosinhos
(Escola Superior de Artes e Design)
Professor: Sérgio Correia
Academic Year: 2023/2024
Date: June 2024
P1 Magnética
Course: Communication Design
(UC Digital Laboratory III)
Institution: ESAD Matosinhos
(Escola Superior de Artes e Design)
Professor: Sérgio Correia
Academic Year: 2023/2024
Date: June 2024