quero melancia

I want watermelon

branding ✦ research

Quero Melancia is a brazilian fashion brand that stems from a deeply personal need to acknowledge oneself as an individual and to witness one's aesthetic, desires, and, above all, voice represented, forms the core of this brand. It speaks to themes of origin, expression, ideology, and dreams.

Quero Melancia starts in Brasília, a city also founded on ideology and dreams, a product of the modernist vision of the 1960s. Dedicated to shaping an egalitarian and just society, inspired by its urban uniformity "imbued with a certain dignity and nobility of intention."

key topics

Research
Branding
Visual design

company

Quero Melancia

when

2021

How a brand named with a watchword communicate with its audience?

BRAND BOOK

the path

"Quero Melancia" was born out of Thaís' desire for fun and self-recognition.
Honouring knowledge passed down from father to daughter, she began sewing the pieces she wanted to wear but never found. Understanding that the brand arises from such a personal demand to recognize oneself as an individual and to see one's aesthetic, desire, and, above all, voice represented is the backbone of this brand. It speaks about origin, expression, ideology, and dream.

"Quero Melancia" emerges in Brasília, a city also built on ideology and dream, a result of a modernist vision of the 1960s, dedicated to shaping an egalitarian and just society, inspired by its urban uniformity "imbued with a certain dignity and nobility of intention."

In 2013, the brand's voice emerges as Thaís' voice — and, like everything that lives, it changes. If at the time Thaís did not delve deeply into understanding this voice, today it demands to mark its existence in the world, to be understood, represented, and visible. It wants to exist with the monumentality of knowing who it is and understanding its value.

Now is the moment for "Quero Melancia" to align itself with the voice it represents, both as a person and as a brand. Here, we will try to delve into the journey of this company-person to understand the forces that shaped it and how these forces can be translated outward — hoping that this image reflects the most foundational and valuable aspects on the inside. Thus, a clear and serene dialogue is established between who "Quero Melancia" is and who sees themselves in it.

keywords

origin | expression | ideology | knowing oneself as an individual | establishing a dialogue between self-expressions

the brand today

"Quero Melancia" exists for fun and embraces the ridiculous. What is outrageous paves the way for nonchalance and the naturalness that dressing should embody. "Clothes are just clothes" and should indeed be just that, without so many layers of meaning implying that those who wear them are more or less, worse or better. Don't expect the linearity of coherence, the consistency of very deep meanings: "Quero Melancia" seeks the lightness of not taking itself too seriously and, in doing so, opens up possibilities to change, to be many things while remaining true only to what it can become.

In contrast, and at the same time, in harmony, "Quero Melancia" is also the utmost subtlety of being the bare minimum. The straight cuts and elegant designs were not made for the catwalks but for life, where dressing is more an expression and less an object of desire. By clearing away all that is superfluous and embracing the simplicity of the cut, the idea is that dressing can be easy, fluid, and natural. "Quero Melancia" creates clothing that is versatile, a garment with the vocation to be worn until it wears out.

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what shapes this pattern?

Irreverence and simplicity go hand in hand and can sometimes seem contradictory.

If our role here is to give shape to a voice, then observing these contradictions is a prerequisite for stitching together the patches that construct a unique meaning, a personality.
"Quero Melancia" is the product of these and other invisible and inevitable forces that shape the world around it and, in the brand, are visible even without being announced.

Here, the force shaping Quero Melancia's voice can be called *ideology and origin*.

ideology

"Quero Melancia" believes in things. It is of the struggle of those who fight, of art, of culture, of utopia, and of freedom. "Quero Melancia" feeds on the different and thrives on diversity. It advocates, resists, dreams, and builds. Not coincidentally, "Quero Melancia" is increasingly red, and embracing this amplifies its voice, positioning itself alongside its peers.

How much of this ideological reference exists formally in each "Quero Melancia" piece? The designs reminiscent of workers' jumpsuits and kitchen aprons are the non-verbal expression of everything the brand believes. Not coincidentally, Russian constructivism proposed just that: a production that serves social change and inspires people to rebuild society within a utopian model. "Real materials in real space" might be the Soviet version of the statement "Clothes are just clothes." Communist principles also guided that art in service of the revolution should be bold, unadorned, and devoid of unnecessary emotions. Nothing speaks more about the straight lines of the designs and the pieces that serve any purpose just through simplicity.

At the same time, this is a fight fought with enchantment — because we are Brazilian and well acquainted with the charm of laughter, celebrating everything and nothing. The revolution of the "Quero Melancia" voice is made of joy, where the rigidity of form gains color, prints, becomes a joke. Contradiction is, in truth, a dynamic duo and not two opposing paths. The voice of "Quero Melancia" is one of confluence, born from the intersection of paths, speaking volumes about its naturalness and origin.

keywords

utopia and freedom | bold and unadorned | fight with enchantment | confluence | being the change, believing in change

origin and ancestry

Brasília is born from a crossroads, a intersection of paths, streets, two axes etched into the red earth. In Macumba*, our original knowledge as a country, it is believed that crossroads are the abode of Exu and his partners. The cross is the dimension of crossings, confluences, and erasures of knowledge, and Brasília has been made of this since it was just an idea — the idea of national integration. Colonial violence was the genesis of Brasília, shaping us into what we are, in both good and bad aspects.

Speaking of the original thought that gave rise to the birthplace of Quero Melancia, the city was created to be a civitas and not an urbs. It was meant to be an autonomous organism in the composition of the whole, generating a harmonious integration — a beautiful way to describe the dynamics of complementary opposites that shape the brand.

Although the plan failed, in the Brasília project, it was communist and aimed to neutralize differences in standards, promoting social comfort for the entire population. In summary, Brasília was described by its creator as monumental yet comfortable, something that identifies us and keeps us together, making us one. From the urban planning perspective, it was without suppressing parts and to be monumental precisely by being conscious of what is valuable and meaningful. If Brasília were a person, perhaps created to be an efficient yet welcoming and intimate whole, spilled across.

In the city's master plan, the words of Lúcio Costa would equally apply to Brasília or Quero Melancia. He designed a dream city to be orderly and efficient, like straight jumpsuits, but at the same time lively and pleasant, like printed shorts. The urban planner talks about the city having flow and unity in its layout, positioning itself so as not to exclude the variety of each sector, ensuring the city is both concise and bucolic, urban and lyrical, functional yet diverse.

How much does this origin shape the voice of Quero Melancia, marking and adopting the symbolism of a city-contradiction? How much can Quero Melancia embrace this origin as a productive symbol of a city-contradiction?

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Quero Melancia's voice

Born from the intersection, Brasília and Quero Melancia assume this logic, inspired by the original city project that is so representative of the brand. The voice of Quero Melancia begins to take on a tone and form, becoming describable and visualizable. Understanding that Quero Melancia is given to the dimension of crossings, a confluence of individualities to form a whole, they are materialized in a space between the two Cartesian axes we have traced so far. It is in this space that the city and the brand exist, and it is this space that interests us as a voice.

Drawing and exploring this space open up possibilities of communication and positioning that have value for what they subjectively convey, for what they make one feel, more than for what our eyes see. Creating visually this dimension, Quero Melancia frames lives with their clothes and resides in a dimension between the self and the world.

A beautiful metaphor that Lúcio Costa used to speak about the blocks of Brasília was that they would be framed by large trees forming a curtain that softens the landscape of the blocks. This metaphor suggests that the role of clothing, when not being a voice, is to be an interface. It is to cushion what happens outside our bodies so that inside we live well. Clothing is to protect and warm, to be a frame for life, creating a layer, a shelter between what we are and where we are.

Communicating through clothing allows for a fluid dialogue between the brand and those who accept its invitation to be art in motion — where there is no lack of contradiction, joy, ideals, and the potency of life.