Illustrators and graphic designers show us their work with a contemporary, urban and cybernaut language. You will be presented with cartoons, screen prints and traditional illustrations with a young and creative feel.

This exhibit works as a cultural and creative interchange between the artists in a time where the language of illustration is evermore present in daily life.

Event sponsored by the Academic Association of the University of Évora in the Culture Week.

The exhibition opened yesterday and will run until March 30th @ NAD/ Research and Design Centre, Largo da Misericórdia, Évora, Portugal.

Wacom introduces Inkling, a new digital sketch pen that captures a digital likeness of your work while you sketch with its ballpoint tip on any sketchbook or standard piece of paper.

Mailchimp makes ‘reading the f**** manual’ fun again. Loving the designs of the manual covers and especially the colouring book. All made by the Design Lab at Mailchimp. Go chimps!

May 26th, NAD/Design Café / 7 PM

To illustrate is to combine several verbs, such as explain, represent, interpret, illustrate, decorate and imagine. The illustrator can be a reality communicator or a creator of imaginary worlds. It all depends on the role given to illustration: a communication media complementary to journalism or advertising, that helps to clarify contents, or a visual artistic concept that lives for itself.

With the new technologies, illustration expanded its limits and became a visual discipline, more and more experimental and dynamic. Its communication supports are many - beyond paper, today illustration easily appears in a 3D animation movie, in a smartphone app or even in a wall in our houses.

We invited three successful illustrators to talk about their projects and explain where they find their inspiration, what techniques do they use, what’s their motivation and what message do they wish to communicate.

André Letria is an children's illustrator who believes that the world of his tiny public shouldn’t always be pink, but, as in reality, composed by lights and shadows.

Diogo Machado is a conceptual illustrator who created a planet and a tribe of funny robots that have the mission to spread colors in our world and save it from monotony.

The Wall Printers are a designers group who took illustration to the walls of public and private spaces, using a new impression technique - trompe l’oeil - to communicate new sensations.

The classics of the automotive industry, all worked in linoleum. Fiat 500, Volkswagen Beetle, Ford Falcon, among others, on exhibition in NAD/ Design Café.

The process consists in drawing the figure in a lino plate and then digging the lines with a gouge. The paint is spread out in the plate and, with a press, you put a paper sheet on the top of it. After pressuring, the drawing is in the paper. 

Alexandre Farto, aka Vhils, gives a new meaning to the word: Bombing.

We have seen the street art evolve thru the time, starting with graffiti, tagging, stencil, stickers, wallpaper, painting, etc. but this new colaboration of Alexandre Farto, Orelha Negra and Pirotec is something different.

"Think of brilliant trickster Vik Muniz as the offspring of Man Ray and Jacques Henri Lartigue, combining the former's relentless experimentation, the latter's effortless wit, and their mutual inventiveness in work that defies category."

Vince Aletti, the Village Voice

With a life path full of experiences, adventures and miles traveled, Aurélio Fernando Alves collected through his life a wide collection of small objects. 

Born in 1913 in Porto, Aurélio left us a set of unconventional collections, that grew up - in size and in number -  throughout the last century.

Since today we can see a little part of these pieces exposed in NAD/ Design Café. A selection of several shaving blades packages, with different sizes, roots, targets and design, and also some lighters that could easily be part of the wish list of the most dedicated collector. 

To see and enjoy at NAD/ Design Café.

What if you watch a film and whenever you pause it, you face a painting? This idea inspired Reza Dolatabadi to make Khoda.

Over 6000 paintings were painstakingly produced during two years to create a five minutes film that would meet high personal standards.

One drawing at a time, Johnny Cash Project is collecting works, made online by fans, in order to make a living portrait of the country music legend.

The project is a web-only music video of the music "Ain't no grave", where every frame is an illustration created by a fan.

The construction of the website, that includes a complex mix of editing and illustration software, started in September 2009 and was finished in March 2010. The website updates twice a day to incorporate the new drawings.

More about the construction of the website tools here.