MIAMI, United States. – Cuban graphic designer Arnulfo Espinosa presented this week his exhibition “Registered Trademarks” at the Center for the Development of Visual Arts in Havana. The expo celebrates two decades of the artist’s professional career and highlights his focus on typefaces and branding, key elements of his LaJabaCity project.
LaJabaCity, conceived by Espinosa as a kind of “alter ego”, plays a crucial role in “Marcas Registadas”. This exhibition, more than a simple presentation of graphic design, becomes a journey through the evolution of the unique project.
“LaJaba is a space for thought, a container for ideas,” says the curator of the exhibition, Caridad Blanco, in the exhibition catalogue. “It is an ironic exercise that portrays us in the midst of our circumstances, and reflects itself as a ‘brand’ phenomenon. sui generis“.
LaJabaCity began as a creative response to the rapprochement between the governments of the United States and Cuba. Originally launched on Facebook in 2016, expanded to Instagram in 2018, revealing an even more irreverent and humorous side of the designer.
The exhibition stands out for its reinterpretation and “adaptation” of world-renowned brands such as Coca-Cola, Levi’s, Puma, Ford, Dell, Canon, Dior, Converse, IKEA, Prada, Lego, among others, reconfigured to send an innovative, direct message. and provocative.
“Brands are activated through parody, jokes, using the spanglishusing popular sayings as a creative strategy to satirize and turn these universal logos into vernacular icons”, according to Blanco.
“Registered Trademarks” also presents other forms of expression that LaJabaCity has adopted, including physical products such as bags and pullovers, as well as digital platforms. Blanco points out that these elements are part of the “symbolic armory trained in matters of survival and immediacy from the mobile during the pandemic, as an expression of a deeper, more reflective, critical self.”
Espinosa, a graduate of the Superior Institute of Design in Havana, has built an extensive career in graphic design, also dabbling in jewelry design, fashion and conceptual art.
His work has been widely exhibited and has been an integral part of numerous anthologies, collections, and trade publications. Espinosa also taught for more than a decade at the Faculty of Communication at the University of Havana and the Higher Institute of Industrial Design (ISDi).
