Bin Symphony: Typographic Narratives of Everyday Numbers
Apart from my practice as a graphic designer, I’m always fascinated by how each city develops unique visual elements, such as public signage and iconography, manhole cover designs, murals, bus stop poles and so on. These diverse elements combined form a vernacular visual identity of each city. For every city or country I visit, I collect photographs of those elements, aiming to identify the role of those elements around the impact on them in the city visual identity.
Once I migrated from Brazil to Newcastle, Australia in 2017, I started assembling a visual collection of a particular element that strikes me as very Novocastrian: the painted numbers on trash bins, which I have been collecting and analysing since then. It all started with a personal quest to gather numbers from 1 to 100, posting my findings on my Instagram, using the hashtag #newcastlebins .
After 6 years, this collection is ready to offer a captivating journey into one of Newcastle’s most underrated urban aesthetics, where residents express their unique personalities through handmade house numbers over trash bins. In the city’s daily choreography of waste disposal, these humble bin numbers emerge as unexpected canvases, revealing the diverse artistic expressions of Newcastle’s residents. Fearful of mistaken identity, homeowners inscribe their house numbers. The techniques employed range from meticulous brushwork with ornate details and a burst of colours to hastily painted numerals devoid of aesthetic consideration.
This research project will be shared with the community as a series of exhibitions, featuring the numerical spectrum from 1 to 100. The show highlights the beauty in differences, contributing to an ongoing dialogue about unity and harmony that has a lasting impact on the city and its communities. The first one is already confirmed for April 2024, in Brisbane. If you are interested in hosting the exhibition, please get in touch.
Below is a sample of the variety of stylistic solutions collected around Newcastle.
After 6 years, this collection is ready to offer a captivating journey into one of Newcastle’s most underrated urban aesthetics, where residents express their unique personalities through handmade house numbers over trash bins. In the city’s daily choreography of waste disposal, these humble bin numbers emerge as unexpected canvases, revealing the diverse artistic expressions of Newcastle’s residents. Fearful of mistaken identity, homeowners inscribe their house numbers. The techniques employed range from meticulous brushwork with ornate details and a burst of colours to hastily painted numerals devoid of aesthetic consideration.
This research project will be shared with the community as a series of exhibitions, featuring the numerical spectrum from 1 to 100. The show highlights the beauty in differences, contributing to an ongoing dialogue about unity and harmony that has a lasting impact on the city and its communities. The first one is already confirmed for April 2024, in Brisbane. If you are interested in hosting the exhibition, please get in touch.
Below is a sample of the variety of stylistic solutions collected around Newcastle.
