Mediations Between Images, Words and Sounds: An Analysis of Graphic Design in the Record Label Orfeu (1966–1983)

Abstract

Established in 1956 by Arnaldo Trindade, a businessman from Porto, the record label Orfeu (1956–1983) stood out in the phonographic panorama in Portugal for four decades. The diversity of the phonographic repertoire released, and the visual identity it conveyed, are reflected by different expressions and artistic values, as well as cultural commercial and political, prior to, and following the democratic revolution of April 1974. Placing the phonogram at a crossroads where different axes meet — making; editing; commercialisation; reception and filing —, in this article design and visual culture values are assessed which are associated with the Orfeu label. This article, which is an analysis and interpretation, will develop a research methodology based on the analysis of primary sources (basically made up of Orfeu’s catalogue and all related documentation), as well as secondary (in this case, oral storytelling was valued as a means of overcoming the shortage of work published in the area) and tertiary ones (mainly to do with methodology in interdisciplinary research), placing them in context. This article will contribute to fill a gap in the history of Portuguese design, as far as vinyl record covers are concerned, along with its designers, photographers and, in a broader sense, intersemiotic translations between expressive culture and visual culture in Portugal over the second half of the 20^th century.