Pedro Fonte – Filme do Tempo album art

Filme do Tempo is an album by Brazilian drummer and percussionist Pedro Fonte, known for his distinct and precise playing style that favors feeling over technical virtuosity. After more than a decade performing as a drummer, his debut as a composer brings in heartfelt lyrics as he curiously dives within to connect with his roots.

The design stems from basic graphic elements associated with rhythm, such as repetition. On the cover, title and artist name typeset in fat’n’funky Freehouse are repeated and deformed to create a frame, emphasizing the square format. Inside, further repetition of this pulse combined with the slanted distortion of letters creates a tunnel vision of concentric squares that suggests an inward perspective.

This logic is applied both to the CD with the track list (also in Freehouse) and to the 4×4 insert, which is type set to be read in a rotating motion. The font used for the text is Presley Slab. Its quirky wild-western inverted contrast is a pretty good match for the drunk fatness of Freehouse used in the titles, especially when it is squished to fit in the grid.

In Fonte’s music, precision lays the foundation for groove to set in. The rigidness conveyed by the justified text boxes and strict grids is balanced off with funky type and liquid like distortions, emulating concentric patterns found in sound waves and water ripples. Restricted use of color sets the tone in tune with the raw nature of the rhythmic instruments.

P.S.: I’ve sneaked in some stolen symbols from OH no’s Degular (✧) and Blazeface (✺ plus an unencoded ornament) for a final touch of micro-typographic groove.