Negro

A selection of logos created by the South American design firm Negro, known for its experimental letterforms and its cacophany of visual references

There’s something—how else to put it?—undeniably horny about some of the letterform

styles by Negro, the suddenly-
everywhere South American
design duo. Santino, a wire-thin

lowercase sans, is coy and curvy, like a French maid clad in PVC; Donuts is turgid and phallic; Friday, with its smooth ascenders and squared serifs, looks to have been inspired by the silhouettes of dildos and other sex toys. Still, before you write off Ariel Di Lisio, 36, and Gustavo Borges, 25, as a pair of oversexed Latin playboys, consider the full range of their font folio: Uppercase stencil-style Caracas and Normal wink like bright neon in Rio’s club district, and slim Marzo, perhaps their most elegant sans, calls up the refined symmetry of a well-executed tango.

Di Lisio and Borges met in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 2004, but the partnership solidified at a hip-hop festival the following year. With offices in Buenos Aires and Caracas, Negro™—as they prefer to identify themselves—visually connects the feel of two of South America’s biggest cities, yet its aesthetic can abruptly veer norte, recalling everything from the Ramones to Paul Rand. Their vibe is urban, mixing kinesis and wit (Borges’s Venezuelan address is “Centro Craziness”) while never relinquishing their playful grace. Whether the firm is designing for Loco, a London-based rock-and-roll T-shirt company, or Love, the Argentinean font-and-photo journal it’s helped raise to fame, Negro has never lacked for clients, nor opportunities for new art. “Because Gustavo and I are in different countries, different cities, and different

cultures, we have to strike a balance,” Di Lisio explains. “We’ve learned to live with it.”

Years ago, in an interview, the graffiti artist GIANT claimed that taggers are the real innovators, and that letterform style is truly born on the street. Negro is proof that fresh font and logotype design necessitates rapt attention to underground culture. Case in point: The duo’s Nigga font makes you think of the hieroglyphics of graffiti artist Phil Frost; screwy Stola, with its bullet-hole script, evokes a high-visibility mural on a passing freight train. Di Lisio and Borges are all about connections—between ideas and design, between raw urban and earthy organic forms, between two consenting adults. Negro is the new black; they make you feel proud, and optimistic, and a little bit randy. www.negronouveau.com — COLIN BERR Y

LOCATION: Buenos Aires and Caracas / BEST-KNOWN PROJECT: Logo for Eyeworks television network / BIGGEST CREATIVE INSPIRATION: Family, music, the street; “my son Santino” (Di Lisio) / GOAL FOR THE YEAR 2020: “We try to live day by day.” / TITLE OF IMAGINARY MONOGRAPH: Trash Sudamerica Superbarrio / WOULD RATHER DIE THAN DESIGN: “Something that’s not new”