Família Ferreira
Have you ever opened a book and felt a whole household breathe?
That’s the Ferreira family volume, a chorus of voices, history and carefully kept memorabilia that finally found a home between this book’s covers.
When Jo-Anne and Norbert invited us into their remarkable archive, we found a living museum: meticulously researched family histories, earlier interviews, photographs soft from handling, vinyl records, Granny’s famous garlic pork recipe, and artwork by greats, such as Louison and Hinkson. Our brief was deceptively simple: make it coherent, honest, and beautiful… a book the family’s future generations would actually want to hold.
Over months we pored through their archived, conducted interviews, crafted a storyline and curated archives to interweave over 65,000 words and 437 images together over 356 pages.
The design language borrows the geometry of azulejos (coloured Portuguese tiles) translated into grids and a multitude of blue accents inspired by the Caribbean sea.
We paired those with warm creams and soft greys, and a typography that let the Ferreira family’s voices sit comfortably beside images and ephemera. Marginal notes echo Jo-Anne’s careful scholarship; and generous white space gives the memories and thoughts room to breathe.
Inside, you meet a community: the Portuguese diaspora in the Caribbean, shown in menus, letters, and studio portraits; Sunday tables dense with stories; faith kept in small objects and Bible quotes and those practical family notes that say a lot more than they mean.
We’re grateful to our co-pilots: the funny, generous “Uncle” Norbert, and the thoughtful Dr. Jo-Anne Ferreira. Together we shaped a volume that feels personal, contemporary, and was printed at a high-end press so the paper, colour, and binding honour what’s inside.
If you’re sitting on a box of “someday,” this is your sign. Bring us the photos, the scribbled notes, the treasures. We’ll give them a house they deserve.
REGIONS COVERED: Portugal, Trinidad, the U.S.
Project Archiving: Baachacs Collective Curating and Archiving Company
Book photos: Michelle Jorsling (@michej_thestudio)
Printer: Office Authority
"Working with Plantain was a dynamic, exciting, fulfilling experience. They completely understood our vision and went above and beyond the call of duty and responded to our every query. The book is the essence of creativity and beauty, and has come in for extremely high praise from family, friends and colleagues!"
Click on the image above to see what historian extraordinaire, Dr Bridget Bereton, had to say about the book.
