Hibrapel - Rebrand and website for a cardboard tube maker
I replaced a heavy, illustrated logo with a simple brand that works at any size and on any background, and built the website that introduces the company to new clients.
The challenge
The old logo had a gradient, a thick outline and distorted letters. It failed at small sizes and on dark backgrounds, and it looked dated to industrial buyers. The client asked for one thing: keep the name.
Research
- Logos from companies in the Manaus Industrial District, studied at the time.
- Market, analyzed after the project: the Manaus Industrial Hub billed BRL 227.67 billion in 2025, and Hibrapel’s buyers are structured industrial companies.
- Segment references, analyzed after the project: PackTubos and Sonoco use blue, green and heavy strokes. Hibrapel went earthy and thin.
Why it works
- The symbol is the product itself: a tube in perspective, with its opening visible.
- Pardo Madeira recalls cardboard and kraft and leaves the industrial red behind. 80% Black gives sobriety and legibility.
- A 16 by 6 module grid and Pantone, CMYK and RGB values keep the brand identical in ink, print and on screen.
- Dark-background and slogan versions cover the website, uniform and truck.
- Market, analyzed after the project: the Manaus Industrial Hub billed BRL 227.67 billion in 2025, and Hibrapel’s buyers are structured industrial companies.
- Segment references, analyzed after the project: PackTubos and Sonoco use blue, green and heavy strokes. Hibrapel went earthy and thin.
Why it works
- The symbol is the product itself: a tube in perspective, with its opening visible.
- Pardo Madeira recalls cardboard and kraft and leaves the industrial red behind. 80% Black gives sobriety and legibility.
- A 16 by 6 module grid and Pantone, CMYK and RGB values keep the brand identical in ink, print and on screen.
- Dark-background and slogan versions cover the website, uniform and truck.
Lash Design case study: adapting a training manual for the Brazilian market
Project context
The Brazilian lash designer Rapha Buco acquired the franchise of the English brand Flawless Lashes by Loreta and began offering the brand's training courses in Brazil. I was hired to readapt the layout of the Lash Design training manual and translate the material from English into Portuguese, for the Brazilian audience.
Specific challenge
The challenge here was not to create a brand but to stay faithful to one that already existed: replicate the original layout and adapt all the content for Brazil, without losing the sophistication of the international identity.
That meant three fronts at once:
Language: translating while keeping the text technical, clear and faithful to the original intent.
Layout: reproducing the original's page structure, typography and illustrations with visual consistency.
Content: keeping the information intact while adapting it for the Brazilian audience.
Language: translating while keeping the text technical, clear and faithful to the original intent.
Layout: reproducing the original's page structure, typography and illustrations with visual consistency.
Content: keeping the information intact while adapting it for the Brazilian audience.
Research and references
The reference for this project was the original Flawless Lashes by Loreta material itself: the English manual, with its layout, typography, illustrations and technical tone. The work started by studying it in order to reproduce it faithfully. For the technical terms in the translation, we used only the glossary provided by the client.
Process
The project took two to three weeks. I received the original material as a PDF. Since the client wanted everything delivered in CorelDRAW, I rebuilt the layout in that program, replicating the original page structure and applying the translated content. The manual has 55 pages. The material was reviewed by Rapha Buco herself.
Final solution
The Lash Design manual, Beginner level, Volume Training module, with the original layout reproduced in Portuguese: a cover with the brand and title, and inside pages with technical text, highlight boxes and explanatory illustrations, such as "How to pick up adhesive" and "The effect of humidity".
The brand and visual concept belong to Flawless Lashes by Loreta. My work was the layout in Portuguese and the translation.
Rationale
The rule of the project was not to interfere with the identity but to preserve it. Keeping the layout and sophistication of the original means the brand is recognised as the same in Brazil and in England.
In the translation, the priority was technical, clear language, because the manual teaches procedures where precision matters, such as the amount of adhesive and the effect of humidity. Ambiguous text would hurt learning.
Visual consistency, finally, gives the material the coherence of a single product from start to finish, even though it comes from two languages.
DEZ case study: brand identity for a strapping band manufacturer
Project context
DEZ is a manufacturer of strapping band, the straps that secure and fix loads and packaging.
The client came to me to create the company's brand. That was the whole request: the visual identity, with no website or other pieces.
The client came to me to create the company's brand. That was the whole request: the visual identity, with no website or other pieces.
Specific challenge
The brief was simple: create the brand. The specific challenge was one I set myself: to make a brand that is intelligent and understandable, a principle I later recognised in the thinking of Alexandre Wollner.
In practice, the question became: how can a brand tell, at a glance, what DEZ makes, with no extra symbol and no explanation?
Research and references
The reference for this project is conceptual. Studying the thinking of Alexandre Wollner, one of the pioneers of modern design in Brazil, I took as my starting point the principle attributed to him: every brand has to be intelligent and understandable.
That principle became the question of the project: how do you create a brand that explains itself at a glance, with no caption and no additional symbol?
The answer came from the product itself. The logotype is formed by strapping bands that, as they move, build the mark: the single-weight stroke is the strap, and the continuous path between the letters is the movement that produces it.
There was no visual research of other brands in the segment. The process was conceptual: from principle to idea, and from idea straight to drawing.
Sketches and development
The process began on paper. I tested the name in capitals (DEZ), then with an initial capital (Dez), and finally in lowercase only (dez). It was in lowercase that the central idea appeared: a vertical line running through the d and tying the letters together. In the last attempts on the page, the bowl of the d gets larger and the stem crosses it from end to end.
Notebook page with the first lettering tests.
Then I moved to the computer and redrew the idea with the pen tool, in a uniform stroke weight. This was the first vector version: the stem crosses the bowl of the d, and the e joins the z along the base.
First vector version, still in black, with sketches made on screen around it.
The final version keeps the idea and changes details: the stem ends at the base of the bowl, the e gains the bar that runs through the stem into the bowl of the d, and the navy blue and the STRAPPING BAND descriptor come in.
Then I moved to the computer and redrew the idea with the pen tool, in a uniform stroke weight. This was the first vector version: the stem crosses the bowl of the d, and the e joins the z along the base.
First vector version, still in black, with sketches made on screen around it.
The final version keeps the idea and changes details: the stem ends at the base of the bowl, the e gains the bar that runs through the stem into the bowl of the d, and the navy blue and the STRAPPING BAND descriptor come in.
Construction grid of the mark, from the project's original file.
Once finished, the logic of the mark in six steps:
Diagram made for this portfolio, based on the final mark. These are not sketches from the original process.
Final solution
A wordmark drawn with a single, uniform stroke weight, in navy blue (#1B3656), with the descriptor STRAPPING BAND underneath. It works as a blue version on a light background and as a white version on the brand blue.
Applications:
