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Portugal by Sebastião Rodrigues’ pencil
A journey that merges with the country’s history
The recent history of design in Portugal in general and graphic design, in particular, is certainly still to be written. In other words, it is a story that is written every day, thanks to the work, often in difficult contexts, of thousands of professionals and teams. It is a story that she is looking for her own story. From borders and styles in exploration and still dealing with the question of identity, whether or not there is a unique “national style” for Portuguese graphic design.
In addition to the identity debates on Portuguese graphic design, there is also a challenge to memory. History, whatever it is, not only has the mission of eternalizing thoughts but also, especially in an area such as design, to inspire the present.
Among the many historical readings that can be made of graphic design in Portugal, one of them will undoubtedly be based on the personal journey of many of the Portuguese designers, perhaps in times when even this name was not recognized as such. When talking about this history, its authors and movements, yet in discovery, one of the unavoidable names is that of Sebastião Rodrigues.
A journey that is intertwined with the country’s history
Sebastião Rodrigues lived in a time of great political changes. Born in Dafundo, on 28 January, a year after Salazar joined the Council of Ministers as Minister of Finance in 1928, he was the son of a middle-class family. Sebastião attended primary school, like many others at the time, where he started in 1936. There he would also find one of the figures, which he himself mentions as one of the most outstanding of his life, his primary education teacher, D. Clotilde. As a result of the economic difficulties that plagued practically the whole country at the time, Sebastião Rodrigues starts working at the age of 13 in the office of a Swedish company, Electro-Lux, while simultaneously helping his father in the advertising department of the newspaper “A Voz”.
