Between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, some of the members of the two lists running for the Festa das Vindimas team came to see me and asked me to design a visual identity proposal for the 61st edition of the event. I worked under two different mottos, each one proposed by each of the lists: «The cycle of the vine» and «The rebirth of tradition».

The first series of posters that I did for the event was under the motto «The cycle of the vine». After some basic research, I came to the conclusion that the annual cycle of the vine is made up of several phases, with six main ones: the grape picking («A Vindima»), during which this event takes place; the senescence («A Senescência»), which is when the vine leaves gradually dry out and turn the fields from green to yellow and brown; the pruning («A Poda»), which is the moment when the vines are trimmed and prepared for the next production period; the flowering stage («A Floração»), that is when the first flowers begin to appear, leading to the stage where the first grape seeds start to sprout («O Bago de Ervilha»); and finally, the stage where the grapes begin to mature and change their color («O Pintor»).

In order to begin to establish a correspondence with the idea of the cycle, I decided that I would create six different posters, each corresponding to a different phase.

I started by researching images of each phase. Since the images selected differed from one another, they were all edited to create a homogeneous pattern that emphasizes the textures of a vineyard and the soil where they are planted. Besides that, I chose to assign to each phase a color palette which would correspond better to the appearance of the vineyards during each period. I also decided to use the name of each phase as a kind of stamp/identifier, establishing a more stable relationship between the image and the phase in question.

Despite having these elements prepared, I felt a lack of an even more obvious link between the images selected and the idea of a cycle. The concept of a cycle and the phases of a vineyard have in themselves an idea of time. It was in this sense that I ended up coming up with the idea of taking the visual language of a calendar and continuing to build this visual identity proposal based on it.

There are themed calendars of all kinds—images of the fruit of the month, plants of the season, etc—and in them, the image, under any domain, usually plays the main role, so it made sense to me to apply this visual rhetoric: the image corresponding to each phase takes the center stage on the poster and the visual language of the calendar not only allows us to anticipate the next phase in the cycle of the vine, but also to present the dates on which the event takes place.

The second series of posters that I did was under the motto «The rebirth of tradition». This time, there was an idea of reviving and accentuating certain characteristics inherent to the event—some of which have been lost in these last years.

Festa das Vindimas is an event that reaches out across the residents of Palmela, either by their active participation in organizing and putting on the event, or by making a monetary donation, or even by hanging the Festa's flag in their home window in order to promote the event.

Therefore, and in order to continuing to be faithful to the idea that the image should play a fundamental and central role in the posters, first I began by researching photographs taken during the last sixty editions of Festa das Vindimas in Palmela's municipal archive. The search for this photographs was carried out under its four main events: the grape picking period, the election of the queen of the Festa, the stepping of the grapes and the blessing of its first juice, and the allegorical parade.

The photographs selected correspond to records of the first editions of the event, in order to highlight the essence of the theme under which I worked—the desire to recover and enhance traditions and customs during the 2024 edition.

This time, I used four different colors, one for each tradition: bordeaux, which is associated with the grape picking period; gold, which represents the crown of the Festa's elected queen; green, which represents the colour of the leaves of the picked grapes that are then carried to be stepped on, which produces the first juice of the grape picking season that is then blessed at the main local church, as both a gesture of gratitude to God for the grapes that have been collected and as a request for the protection of Palmela's vineyards; and magenta, which symbolizes the vibrant colors of the elements of the allegorical parade.

To tie these elements together, a brief text was also written to illustrate and complement both the photographs presented and the motto under which the work was carried out.

Although none of the results were approved, the truth is that the process of building these identities—and even the winning proposal—served as motivations for the development of my master's thesis, since one of my principles for the development of the visual identity of the event was to use the image as the principal element of the posters so that through it we could understand the message that carries, its meaning—something that was common to many of the event's posters until the early 2000s.