Ilustrarte 2014 exhibition

For the setting up of Ilustrarte 14, Lisbon-based studio Pedro Cabrito – Isabel Diniz have crossed illustration for children with the playful and creative dimension of the act of playing.

The solution created by Pedro Cabrito and Isabel Diniz for Illustrarte 14 explores the formal features of the famous colorful toy blocks, timeless in its simplicity and potential for discovery.

It is noteworthy that the first concept model has been literally assembled using a set of blocks bought at a toy store.

Pedro Cabrito – Isabel Diniz, Ilustrarte 2014 exhibition, Lisbon

These objects remain recognizable and communicative, extracted from the everyday iconography, transforming banal into an exercise that brings us closer to the creative process of illustrating.

Starting from this basic vocabulary of prismatic elements, Cabrito and Diniz decided to associate a new material – high density foam – with an appealing sensory quality, inducing a tactile experience and a playful interaction, in brief, stimulating imagination and participation.

The 150 illustrations are thus shown in sets of foam blocks provisionally grouped, combined and recombined in a purely recreational logic, extending the graphic game of the illustrations to a volumetric game that transforms space and defies our desire to play.