BRAZILITY, INDIGENOUSNESS AND VISUAL IDENTITY

COVERS AND ENDLEAVES AS PROVENANCE AT ITAMARATY (1920 – 1930)

Abstract

This article aims to understand, by studying the elements that make up the bindings and endleaves used by Itamaraty as marks of possession and provenance and analyze them through an institutional effort to consolidate an institutional image and its position as differentiated place compared to other organs of the federal administration. We identified that archival and bibliographical collections were bound with the new cover and front page with indigenous motifs proposed by Correia Dias. Emblems and notations were engraved on the covers and the front page was gilded. It can be concluded that administrative needs, such as the need to standardize formats and the basic characteristics of documentation, were understood within the broader process of reformulating Itamaraty itself and ended up gaining nuances that went far beyond their immediate need. The adoption of national material elements and the stylistic patterns used by Correia Dias ended up creating a brand of provenance for the agency's documents. They conveyed an idea of Brazilianness and, at the same time, led to the valorization of the Ministry of External Relations as a brand. A brand with its own visual identity that expressed a very characteristic organizational image.