This past February 7th, Magacín, El Nuevo Día’s Sunday magazine asked my father to write about one of the most important design traditions in our family: the design of wedding anniversary commemorative bracelets.

It all started twenty-one years ago, on occasion of my parents 10-year wedding anniversary. Emulating renaissance designers who explored multiple mediums, my father conceptualized a bracelet that, as designed [see #1 in above image], commemorated the initial years of the couple. In the piece, both my father and mother are recognized as the important elements who bring the family together (the two big bands), while the offspring are three tiny specs who are begin to grow.

Ten years later, his original gesture was by then a precedent. A conceptual look at twenty years of marriage [see #2 in above image] now recognized the offspring as the primary actors in the family history. The parents were now second staged, helping as guides and unifying elements.

Alberto Rigau and Jorge Rigau, FAIA.

On the 25th celebration my father felt the urge to mark the important moment, but he found himself in a conceptual dilemma. He had established himself a tradition of designing a piece for the 10 year markers, so how to achieve his goal without breaking the rules he had established for himself? I was brought into the tradition and was asked to design the special quarter century landmark piece. Graphically, the silver bracelet tells the story of the years it commemorates through a weaved pattern of 25 positives and negatives [see #3 in above image]. These can also read typographically as a 2 or a 5. The two parents now grant continuity to the union while the offspring are embedded into the history that can now be told.

This past year, the couple reached 30 years of marriage. The now solid relationship inspired a solid creation[see #4 in above image], a 1 piece cast bracelet where all of the components and personalities, still evident, are fused into one piece.

As the family history moves on, we need to wait 9 years for the next instance in which our family’s story will be told through a piece of design…

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These bracelets were done in collaboration with jeweler Antonio Colón, who through the years has guided us in the manipulation of gold, silver, and other materials that are not present in the tool box of an architect or a graphic designer.

This past week, while researching through Dr. Arturo Dávila’s personal library, I came across a stack of pamphlets, about 11 of them in total, sewn and bound in varied marbleized papers. Trim-wise, these are considerably small, ranging from 3×4.5 inches to 5.5×8 inches, and yet, they called my attention. Don Arturo, as wise as he is, felt as my eyes were drawn to the colorful spines. “Pick them up; take a look“. In the process, he explained that these reproductions were used by the Church to spread its message. Little did I know, my curiosity had brought me to a series of original 18th Century texts—printed versions of homilies recited by Catholic priests in Mexico.

To share these, I took the time to scan one of the leaflets in its entirety. Please note a curious type treatment that has been killing me since I became aware of it: at the end of every page the typesetter included the first few characters of the word that follows on the next page. I had never seen this kind of strategy employed, and it was used in almost all of the documents, printed in a range of many different years, which means it was not a one time thing.

In their time, these documents would have probably not attracted any aesthetic conversation, but today, I can’t help but see them with a clinical eye, and hold them in my hands with admiration. Right now, everything about them—texture, color, smell, sound—is just fantastic. More importantly, each and every one of them holds some kind of typographic lesson that I can learn from.

Click on any of the images for a larger look.

Commemorative piece given to the 2009 recipients of Puerto Rico's Architecture Awards. Design and concept by Alberto Rigau. Fabrication by Roberto Pérez.

This past Thursday, Puerto Rico’s professional college of architects and landscape architects awarded the 2009 medals in architecture. These awards, named after Ricardo Alegría, are given to individuals and/or entities who are not directly related to the discipline of architecture but who have contributed to the field in a way that can be evidenced in a substantial body of work.

Previously, this prestigious recognition had been given four times, and to my knowledge, recipients were given only a certificate. This year I volunteered and gifted the College with a design of commemorative piece to be handed out in the naming ceremony.

The initial challenge was to suggest the quality of the object. Even though the award uses the term “medal“, I inclined for a piece that could be exhibited by the recipient in a more efficient manner, thus the creation of a table-top piece.

Conceptually, the composition represents the larger social context (outer square) inside which architecture unfolds (smaller square). The recipient reaches out from this larger context and crosses the architectural field (diagonally placed piece of glass), leaving his mark (smaller aluminum triangle on the lower right side of the inner square). He or she eventually keeps moving into other aspects. (the extension of the piece of glass beyond the smaller square).

*For those of you with a nerdy inclination towards typography, the initials of the award’s name are abstractly embedded in the design, with a lower case r on the left side of the diagonal piece of glass and an upper case A it’s right side.

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1915, No. 274

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1915, No. 278

Before Sports Illustrated, Life and the image-based version of National Geographic (can you believe it began as a text-based academic publication?), Puerto Rico had it’s very own image-based weekly: Puerto Rico Ilustrado.

It was published from March 6th 1910 through December 27th 1952, a length of time during which it amassed a collection of 2227 issues. Content wise, the pages primarily chronicled life in the island, while it also included writings and images on international events of the time.¹ On average, these were about 16 pages, with about 6 of them dedicated to advertisements (which are fabulous in their own right). It was printed on a kind of dull paper, originally in black and white, but slowly 2 color printing makes its way into the covers. In the later years, covers are then produced in full color (which in many ways diminished the visual impact of earlier compositions)

During the last few weeks I have been scanning directly from about 15 years worth of issues, and the more I look at it the more I marvel at the typography contained in the mastheads of the issues, particularly their visual exploration which shows a struggle between looking man-made and machine-made, with an observed preference on the former.

My study on this publication is only beginning, but I have scanned a series of typographic treatments from a few years’ worth of the publication to begin a process of sharing them.

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1915, No. 274

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1916, No. 315

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1916, No. 318

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1921, No. 569

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1922, No. 661

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1923, No. 657

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1923, No. 681

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1923, No. 700

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1924, No. 750

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1926, No. 826

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1926, No. 832

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1926, No. 833

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1926, No. 834

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1926, No. 837