About
Iberian Design Archives (IDA) is a network of archives focusing on preserving, expanding and challenging the histories of Portuguese and Spanish design. IDA aims to optimise and share human and infrastructural resources, consolidating and maximising an Iberian and international audience. It is led by a diverse museological, university and archivist advisory board, covering multiple specialities within design.

IDA produces and supports exhibitions, publications, educational programmes, academic research and audiovisual content to both Iberian and international institutions, in order to promote Iberian design’s exposure and understudied documents and histories. It adopts a decentralised organisation, aiming at distributed locations and collections (from large to small, from public to private), developing an itinerancy of its output: travelling between Portuguese and Spanish cities, involving several Museums, Universities and Municipalities as partners.

IDA is committed to developing a growing number of partnerships to host and facilitate master, doctoral and post-doctoral research, as well as Iberian research programmes. It is currently headed and managed by the Founding Partners Lusófona University (Lisbon, PT) and BAU – Centro Universitário de Artes y Diseño, from the University of Catalonia (Barcelona, ES). MUDE – Design and Fashion Museum of Lisbon (PT) and MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology are also Founding Partners.
Advisory board
Bárbara Coutinho, MUDE - Museum of Design and Fashion, Lisbon
Francisco Laranjo, Universidade Lusófona
Guy Julier, Aalto University
Heitor Alvelos, ID+/ Faculdade Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto
Inês Correia, MUDE, Museum of Design and Fashion, Lisbon
Jaron Rowan, BAU, Centro Universitário de Artes y Diseño, UVIC-UCC
José Bártolo, Esad–idea, Research in Design and Art
Luís Alegre, Universidade Lusófona
M. Àngels Fortea, BAU, Centro Universitário de Artes y Diseño, UVIC-UCC
Nuno Coelho, Universidade de Coimbra
Patrícia Cativo, Universidade Lusófona
Sofia Goncalves, Faculdade Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa

Partners
COW/ Lusófona University, PT
GREDITS/ BAU, ES
MUDE, Museum of Design and Fashion, Lisbon, PT
MAAT, Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon, PT


Contraste cover, 1986, by Jorge Colombo (art direction). The magazine format was inspired in Madrid Me Mata (Oscar Mariné).


Pilot Project

Visions of the Future: Iberian Visual Culture After Democracy 1974–1998
Visual culture and graphic design during the implementation of democracy in the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the 20th century.


Introduction
Understanding contemporary design culture today implies acknowledging it as a globalized phenomenon, rooted in an international context of worldwide economy and intricate geopolitical strategies. The relation between design and politics has become increasingly obvious during the last decades, with its opening to several debates on human rights, climate crisis, decolonial theory, among others.

This call for papers derives from the project Visions of the Future: Iberian Visual Culture After Democracy 1974-1998, which focuses on visual culture and graphic design during the implementation of democracy in the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the 20th century. Inmaterial is looking for original works that can be part of this collaborative study on contemporary visual culture in the Iberian Peninsula, laying the foundations for the Iberian Design Archive.

When focusing this study in the Iberian Peninsula is it necessary to reflect on the unique social and economic history of this peripheral territory in Southern Europe. Portugal (1974) and Spain (1977) inaugurated models of democratic governance in this region, putting an end to decades of authoritarian and conservative systems. Despite the historical specificities of each country and some temporal oscillations, both countries were the scene of a series of complex and simultaneous processes that occurred in civil society, such as: economic growth and social development, the emergence of popular culture, the implementation of consumption habits and the openness to cultural diversity.

These transformations occurred under the scope of the postmodern debate, a wider and complex reaction to modernist ideology, in which objects and authors were deeply politically-engaged and all forms of authority and power establishment were fiercely questioned. The introduction of alternative debates on gender, environment, cultural minorities, high versus low culture were also a manifestation of this crucial transition period. A broad range of graphic references were conjured: vernacular symbols, historical references, retro styles, pastiche, digital graphics, techno, punk, grunge and parody, at a time of fast technological development.

This special issue of Inmaterial is looking for research proposals dedicated to the study of visual communication in its contributions to this particular period in the histories of the Iberian Peninsula. We welcome all contributions where communication design is a “pivot of change” and can relate to the cultural complexity of this historical context. The uniqueness of the political landscape of the Iberian Peninsula in this transition period intertwined with the postmodern debate opens up interesting possibilities for research in visual communication. 
Possible strands are suggested:
— Expressions of Postmodernism
— Subcultural movements in Iberia
— Feminist review of Graphic Design History and erased histories
— Decolonization processes,
— Material culture evolution and technological developments

Editors
Patrícia Cativo
PhD in Design from the School of Architecture of the University of Lisbon and Degree in Communication Design – Graphic Art from the School of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. She is Assistant Professor in the Communication Design course at Lusofóna University, Lisbon. She is a member of COW (Center for Other Words), where she undertakes a research project in Graphic Design History in Portugal during the early nineties. She works independently as a graphic designer.

M.  Àngels Fortea
PhD in Design from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the UB, and Degree in Advertising and Public Relations from the UAB. She is titular professor of the Design Degree and Coordinator of the Department of Cultural Contexts at BAU, College of Arts and Design of Barcelona.  In the research field, she is member of GREDITS (Design and Social Transformation Research Group). As a researcher, she specialises in the history of graphic design, currently interested in making visible the contribution of female graphic designers. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Design History Foundation.