pocko: Interview with Eduardo Recife

Eduardo Recife is an artist/illustrator, graphic designer, and typographer from Brazil. He is the man behind Misprinted Type, a well known website focusing on his personal works (collages and drawings) and his world wide famous typefaces.
Recife's clients include such notable media outlets as The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, HBO, Showtime and several others.

Eduardo Recife lives and works in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Let’s talk about your personal history: how did you start your career?

I put the first version of my website (misprintedtype.com) online back in 1998. It was a

place to distribute my typefaces and also experiment with collages, drawings, etc… I started to work more and more with collage and developed my personal work. Things started to evolve and in 2002 I started to work full time as a freelance illustrator.

How did your passion for illustration, graphic design and typography come out?

I always loved to draw, since childhood. Later on when I was around 15, I really got into tagging and graffiti. I didn't get to do much in the streets, but it was my first love with type. Later on I found some people working with digital typefaces, in the 90's with the whole grunge scene happening at the time. I really identified myself with everything: the music, graphics and feel of it. So I started to experiment a lot in my collage/type work. It was a

time that I was so focused that lots of times I wouldn't go out with my friends on weekends to just experiment and do my personal works. I learned a lot from it, even though it was trial and error. I was very dedicated and even today I don't understand how I could produce so much at that time.

What do you like most between pencil, painting, photography and collage? Why?

I really love working with all of these. But lately I've been painting a lot, trying to depend less and less on the computer...

How would you describe yourself in a few words?

I’m just trying to do my best and I’m not specifically talking about my work, but as a person as well.

Your style recalls a vintage era: how did you choose to create this play between past and present?

I think vintage graphics are much more beautiful than what we have right now. I think everything was more poetic and well done. The magazine covers, the posters, prints… Seems like one had to be very talented to work on the field, since there wasn't a lot of computer help at that time. Today things are much more mechanical and cold. Everything screams photoshop; the treated photos, the images, the type. I enjoy the handmade feel of vintage images and how they carry the traces of time... But I think that apart from this I probably was influenced by either artists from the early 1900's (dada) or from artists that were using vintage material in their collages.

You worked for many major US media such as the New York Times, Entertainment Week, HBO, Showtime: how did they discover you?

Most of the clients reach me straight from my website. But my work has been featured in lots of books and magazines worldwide.