PORTFOLIO_Margarida Aguiar

MARGARIDA AGUIAR

design . illustration . photography

hello!

Born in Lisbon, Portugal I’ve always been drawn to the art world for as long I can remember. Eventually, my passion for reading, drawing, photography and writing led me to choose graphic design as my profession.

I have experience in design (editorial, branding, visual and social media content), visual arts (drawing, painting), art multimedia (photography and video production), and intensive research, concept construction and exhibition curation.

I am proactive, creative, demanding, and quick to understand briefings. I consider myself a person capable of responding well under pressure and keeping up with a high volume of tasks, without jeopardizing their quality.

As a creative person, I never try to stick to a certain style. I always create something new and original.

MARGARIDA AGUIAR

contacts

(+351) 919 948 417

margarida2002aguiar@gmail.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/margarida-aguiar/

education

Degree in Communication Design

Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon

2020 – Present

Scientific-Humanistic Course of Visual Arts

Colégio Marista de Carcavelos

2012 – 2020

areas of expertise

Editorial Design

Web Design

Poster Design

Infographics

languages

Portuguese (Native)

soft skills

Ability to multitask

Time management

Responsability

Communication

software skills

Adobe InDesign

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe After Effects

Adobe Lightroom

Figma

work experience

Attention to detail

Teamwork

Problem-solving Event Management

Manager of social networks and contents of the Salt n’ Soul Residence

(Visual design - social media posts, website, leaflets)

2022 – Present

Employee at Parque Morais Kiosk

(Space organization, cashier management, customer service)

2022

Exhibition curation and installation of art displays (in Instituto Superior Técnico, Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon and Colégio Marista de Carcavelos)

2019 – 2022

Visual Identity

Illustrarion

Photography

Image and video editing

Blender

courses

Music Education (Piano, guitar and singing lessons)

Isabel Ançã Music Academy

2016 – 2020

English Course Abroad

Bartender at several events: Cultural lectures and student association parties (Experience in cocktail preparation)

2022

Apparel Model

Salt N’ Soul

2018

Apparel Model

69 Slam

2015

English (Advanced, certified by Cambridge diplomas)

Spanish (Fluent)

Italian (Iniciant)

interests

Fun Languages

Bethany School

2018

English Course Abroad

Project International

Cranbrook School

2017

achivements

volunteering

Volunteering with people experiencing homelessness

Comunidade Vida e Paz

2017 – 2018

Travelling

Music composition Reading Hiking

1st Place in Logo Contest for CDMC Sports Club

2019

Despite all the battles fought, we continue to live in a society marked by patriarchy, a verified masculine domination in relation to women, in several areas. This inequality has already been "banalized" making it necessary to take this issue as a priority and a matter of urgency in the contemporary world. The persistence of a clear lack of parity between genders requires a deep and broad reflection on women's rights.

This was the theme developed by the activist group 185 RIOT, which, through its fascicle, seeks to shed light on the topic, to praise and remember the struggle and feminist movements, both in the past and today.

click to see more

185 RIOT

2020

Besides the analog version, 185 RIOT also developed a digital version of its fascicle in order to easily share their research on women's rights.

185 RIOT's instagram page has the purpose of announcing the blog's latest posts.

185 RIOT blog

185 RIOT instagram

In addition to the fascicle, blog and social media page, the intersectional, inclusive and revolutionary group designed several promotional posters for the project.

TAGTAGTAG

TAGTAGTAG is an event stemed from the issue of plastic labels used both in food and its packaging. The event focuses on rethinking/re-drawing the way we place information in the sales spaces, eliminating labels made of plastic, vinyl or selfadhesive – all this through design thinking.

This event is aimed for environmentalists, professionals of food chains, designers, design students or simply enthusiastics of this topic, with the purpose of discovering and debating ideas with specialists and designers of these area.

TAGTAGTAG

TAGTAGTAG is an event stemed from the issue of plastic labels used both in food and its packaging. The event focuses on rethinking/re-drawing the way we place information in the sales spaces, eliminating labels made of plastic, vinyl or selfadhesive – all this through design thinking.

This event is aimed for environmentalists, professionals of food chains, designers, design students or simply enthusiastics of this topic, with the purpose of discovering and debating ideas with specialists and designers of these area.

TAGTAGTAG website

REBOBINAR FUTUROS

REBOBINAR FUTUROS pays tribute to the songs, composers and performers who marked the history of music in Portugal following a period in which Portuguese music was mostly limited to intervention songs.

The revolution was like a motto to shake up the traditional and set off to a free country where artists were not interested in singing what was expected of them and certainly not what others were singing.

The 25th of April opened space for greater musical freedom and music became a stimulating escape from the conservative routine.

REBOBINAR FUTUROS

More than just a contextualization of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, REBOBINAR FUTUROS is a compilation of songs that go beyond a musical landmark, they also stir the freedom of expression finally achieved by the masses. This special edition shows how these artists are still very much present in the Portuguese music scene nowadays, by compiling 25 songs from the post-April 25 era in a collector's edition.

REBOBINAR FUTUROS website

BARZAKH

BARZAKH is a speculative design project concerning a digital experience of death, allowing the user to virtually go through the entire process of death without actually physically dying.

Every 70 years, when the full moon and the summer solstice occur simultaneously, a portal opens. There, the user enters the imaginary world customized according to their personal data collected up to the date.

As the users move through the five levels of spiritual death, they are asked if they desire to continue or not, culminating in one final question, at the last moment: do you want to continue your physical life or end it here?

BARZAKH – prototype

group

BARZAKH is a speculative design project concerning a digital experience of death, allowing the user to virtually go through the entire process of death without actually physically dying.

Every 70 years, when the full moon and the summer solstice occur simultaneously, a portal opens. There, the user enters the imaginary world customized according to their personal data collected up to the date.

As the users move through the five levels of spiritual death, they are asked if they desire to continue or not, culminating in one final question, at the last moment: do you want to continue your physical life or end it here?

BARZAKH website

DESKTOP

DESKTOP discusses the work of five renowned designers who were quite influential during the postmodernism period, these being: Armin Hoffman, Wolfgang Weingart, Dan Friedman, and Willi Kunz, focusing primarily on April Greiman's work. Desktop reflects the strong use of technologies that the designers have employed throughout their careers, highlighting the aesthetic influence of the use of desktop publishing tools. The publication feature works, thoughts, and interviews of the designers, while relating their practice to April Greiman's.

click to see more

DESKTOP

DESKTOP discusses the work of five renowned designers who were quite influential during the postmodernism period, these being: Armin Hoffman, Wolfgang Weingart, Dan Friedman, and Willi Kunz, focusing primarily on April Greiman's work. Desktop reflects the strong use of technologies that the designers have employed throughout their careers, highlighting the aesthetic influence of the use of desktop publishing tools. The publication feature works, thoughts, and interviews of the designers, while relating their practice to April Greiman's.

THE HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND AND THE END OF THE WORLD

THE HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND AND THE END OF THE WORLD is a fantastic journey between two "worlds" and two narratives that develop in parallel and in alternating chapters, traveling through futuristic and ghostly scenarios, full of symbols and symbolism.

A perfect writing, limpid and poetic, inventive and hallucinating, with multiple references to music, literature, philosophy, science, cinema, and everything that Murakami's unlimited imagination encompasses.

This re-edition of the book adds 85 illustrations that follow the story of the two characters.

PHONIC

Traditionally, the connections between a designer and music were relatively straightforward, but now music is a largely digital experience, and its visual side has moved from record sleeves to little icons.

In this new environment, designers must create artwork and graphical innovations that connect with audiences in a different way. This leads to a vast discussion about the role of design in today’s music industry.

PHONIC ventures into this topic and showcases some of the best work this new age of hearing has to offer.

click to see more (Phonic Magazine)

PHONIC (ENCORE)

ENCORE shares the ultimate visual playlist to share the stories behind the design of 10 album covers from the last decades. listen to it. loudly.

click to see more (Encore)

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GODDESSES AND HEROINES

No encyclopedia could list all the goddesses the world has known. Due to colonization and forced conversion, innumerable goddesses and their stories have been lost. This encyclopedia brings together thousands of sources, legends and myths to offer an entry point for further research.

This re-editon of the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GODDESSES AND HEROINES offers two different versions of the book, thus the reader is able to choose which color they prefer.

click to see more (red version) click to see more (blue version)

CUT WITH TRADITION.

Viewed as a cultural practice to be preserved, the social and religious values associated with female genital mutilation do not allow for the definitive abolition of this inhumane tradition. It is urgent to take action in deconstructing the mentality behind this custom, so the CUT WITH TRADITION campaign arises with the purpose of drawing attention and calling for action.

The ad seeks to sensitize mothers and fathers whose cultures still follow these ideologies through a strong phrase of appeal to the cause allied to a metaphorical image, but with a clear and direct message.

CUT WITH TRADITION.

In addition to the printed campaign, the ad offers various social media versions in order to reach many viewers, allowing the target audience to get in touch with the campaign and rethink their beliefs.

CONTRACEPTIVE METHODS

In order to raise awareness among young people regarding the various contraceptive methods available, this campaign was developed in partnership with the Lisbon Health Centers Cluster (ACES).

The poster seeks to use a range of colors other than those usually associated with female contraceptive products. The goal is to help the reader gather as much information as possible in order to make a conscious choice.

MEME COMPASS

MEME COMPASS is a project that includes two domains of the internet universe: memes and politics. Thus, the possibilities of application of the Political Compasswhich is characterized by a coordinate system divided into four quadrants that places each person within a political quadrant based on a series of questions - are crossed with the various genres of memes and their different interpretations through different political axis.

The result is a list that brings together, within four quadrants, the variations of memes that fall within them and the personas that share them.

click to see more

RESEARCH AND DESTROY

Daniel van der Velden, in his RESEARCH AND DESTROY manifesto, motivates the designer to redesign himself, by going beyond the mere response to a necessity, being willing to create knowledge, submitting himself completely to the world of innovation, without limitations, in a manipulation of shapes, colors and feelings.

The foldable poster intends to reference this very concept by looking at the word Research (the gathering, analysis, filtering, and exploration), culminating in a distorted blur of letters forming the word Destroy (the conclusion one reaches, the message one wishes to convey). The style adopted for the artwork evokes the style of Metahaven (Daniel van der Velden and Vinca Kruk's design studio), using effects that disrupt legibility.

CHINESE NEW YEAR

The Chinese New Year celebration centers around removing the bad and the old, and welcoming the new and the good. Decorations are a big part of Chinese New Year. People spend substantial time and effort to uplift their houses and the immediate surroundings in order to welcome the Gods of Wealth.

Since 2022 is the Chinese year of the tiger, the entire concept has sprung up in a series of festive posters as a way of welcoming this celebration.

CHINESE NEW YEAR

GODESSES

MEDUSA

Her name means ‘‘queen,’’ a title often used of the primary female divinity. Athena, the offended goddess turned Medusa into a snake-haired Gorgon, later engineering Medusa’s murder by sending Perseus to decapitate her, because Medusa’s glance turned living beings to stone.

EHUANG

This daughter of a river god shared a husband with her sister, Nuÿing. When he died, Ehuang drowned herself in sorrow.

AOTIS

An early dawn or sun goddess, she rode through the sky in a chariot drawn by white steeds. She was honored as a spirit of fertility.

THE BELLA COOLA

The Bella Coola ‘‘mother of flowers’’ brings forth all the plants every spring.

LA SIRENA

The image of the siren is common in Haitian folk art, representing African water goddesses. A figure of both beauty and threat, the water goddess remains popular in African diaspora communities today.

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a document that acts like a global road map for freedom and equality – protecting the rights of every individual, everywhere.

ARTICLE 13

Freedom to movement and residence

Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country

NOT YOUR PROPERTY

2022 Every day, around the world, animals fight for their lives. They are enslaved, beaten, and kept chained, forcing them to perform for the "entertainment" of human beings. They are mutilated and confined to tiny cages so that they can be killed and eaten. They are burned, blinded, poisoned, and cut alive in the name of "science".

Animals rely on kind people to give them a voice and fight for them by making known the situations they face and taking action. Each of us has the power to save animals from the suffering they go through every day, in very simple ways.

NOT YOUR PROPERTY

2022 Every day, around the world, animals fight for their lives. They are enslaved, beaten, and kept chained, forcing them to perform for the "entertainment" of human beings. They are mutilated and confined to tiny cages so that they can be killed and eaten. They are burned, blinded, poisoned, and cut alive in the name of "science".

Animals rely on kind people to give them a voice and fight for them by making known the situations they face and taking action. Each of us has the power to save animals from the suffering they go through every day, in very simple ways.

The Beatles' 1968 song "Blackbird" gave rise to the black and white postcards, stemmed by the lyrics and meaning of the song.

MARLA SINGER

The vectorial drawing displays a frame of David Fincher's 1999 movie "Fight Club".

OVERLOADED

Today, we have the perception that time is passing faster than in the past. Time has accelerated to such an extent that everything has become an event, yet to what extent doesn't its crowding take away from the very definition of the word?

OVERLOADED is series of images that represents the overwhelming and suffocating feeling caused by the excess of news.

OVERLOADED

Today, we have the perception that time is passing faster than in the past. Time has accelerated to such an extent that everything has become an event, yet to what extent doesn't its crowding take away from the very definition of the word?

OVERLOADED is series of images that represents the overwhelming and suffocating feeling caused by the excess of news.

OVERLOADED

Today, we have the perception that time is passing faster than in the past. Time has accelerated to such an extent that everything has become an event, yet to what extent doesn't its crowding take away from the very definition of the word?

OVERLOADED is series of images that represents the overwhelming and suffocating feeling caused by the excess of news.

Nowadays, traveling is extremely fast and we are able to reach the most remote places in just a few hours. This mobility of people, goods, information, and images creates an "excess of space" that gives us the notion that the world is narrowing down.

Claustrophobia is characterized by the fear or discomfort of small, enclosed or locked spaces. This pathological fear of confinement shows itself in the image, where the topic is presented by a human figure contracting in a extremely tight space of a cardboard box. This visual hyperbole expresses the feeling of being trapped in a small space that, in contrast, is inserted into an open and wide one. It is a contradictory excess of space, manifested by the uncomfortable confinement experienced in a box.

EGOTISM

Our relationship with the world is increasingly singular. The individuals put themselves as a reference to analyze any issue, performing an Individualistic interpretation in an over-abundance of the human figure. Through globalization and technological development, everything is focused on our personal relationship with the universe, which leads human beings to orient their lives based on selfish ideas. As a consequence, collective references are weakened in an individualization of actions that, in excess, leads to egotism.

In the image, the broken mirror enhances this exaggerated sense of one's own personality, worth, and rights. It is a noisy contemplation in which the individual presents an exaggerated sense of self-importance, represented by the reflection that is not clear, pure, or clean.

In his work, Marc Augé defines "overmodernity" as opposed to "modernity," which depends on three figures of excess.

One of this "excesses" explores the age of shifting scales as far as spatial conquest is concerned. Nowadays, means of transportation are extremely fast and are able to get us into any city in just a few hours.

In the intimacy of our homes, all sorts of images are transmitted by satellites, giving us an instantaneous and sometimes live view of an event that is taking place at the other end of the planet. All these thanks to mobility, we feel involved in what is happening in the most remote places, being connected to every possible topic constantly.

DETACHMENT

When we go out on the street, we are often taken by loneliness without even realizing it. Even in the shortest distances and in the busiest spaces the idea of being alone with the other, that is, together in a space, but only in transit, without establishing any kind of social relationship is experienced. In a pandemic context, all of this is more intense.

Due to the regulations of containment, all our actions and interactions have been restricted. Everything around us is taken away from us through fear, and even our homes have been hit with new norms that we must obey. This leads to even greater individuality caused by the feeling of detachment that alienates us from the world around us.

Domestic violence is an extremely relevant and common issue, nonetheless, it is usually covered up and hidden, an exhibition under a "blanket". This series of images carry a strong contrast between light and shade, representing what society sees and what is not seen.

In order to express this concept, I used a lamp, providing light to only half of the human figure's face, while the other half showed signs of abuse by the aggressor. The hand holding the neck intensely symbolizes the recurrent lack of expression on the part of the victim, who often remains in a suffocating silence caused by fear.

click to read more click to see the series of photos

MEDEIA’S VINDICTA

MEDEIA'S VINDICTA is a triptych based on Medeia, a classic tragedy by Euripides that focuses on a wife's thirst for revenge against her unfaithful husband. The selected episode materializes the rage of this character who is explored through a cruel plan of vindicate.

The triptych is composed of a series of five images, developed through a photographic staging of strong poetic staging. These images use a specific symbology, giving a new environment to the narrative from an alternative point of view.

click to see more