Pentagram has created a new winter campaign for the iconic Brazilian fashion brand Melissa. This is Pentagram's latest collaboration with Melissa, following a summer campaign, the redesign of their store in São Paulo and a new identity for their magazine, Plastic Dreams. Melissa is famed for its collaborations, having partnered with Zaha Hadid, Karl Lagerfeld, Vivienne Westwood, Campana Brothers and Jeremy Scott.
For the winter campaign, Melissa briefed Pentagram to work around the theme of a Dance Machine. To do this, the Pentagram team explored the graphic aspects of dance, researching art depicting dance and dance notations - the practice of developing representations of movements and forms through symbols, figures, path mapping, numerical systems or written notes.
The Pentagram team drew from a variety of visual expressions of dance, from Kandinsky’s annotations and studies on movement to Merce Cunningham’s dance annotations, with the goal of creating a graphic language that expresses the joy of physical movement.
Based on the Pentagram team’s research, a typeface was designed, inspired by the mechanics of dance. The campaign coupled this with imagery of dancers in urban contexts. The design is applied to the magazine, campaign and point of sale.
