My father had a big and beautiful collection with thousands of LP, 78 rpm, books and magazines, mostly about jazz and Brazilian music.
When I was around 13 years old, I was "checking" my father's stuff and I found what I think was a jazz festival catalog or a jazz magazine, I don't know for sure, but what I know for sure is that publication gave me clear and strong directions to my life.
That was a big size publication, maybe A3 or B4 size, with beautiful pictures laying out in spread pages, photos in duo tones and great typography. Those graphics really caught me. From that point I start to be very "curious" about jazz music and graphic design. I can say that my entrance to the jazz world was from the graphic door. Enjoying the beautiful covers as well as the music that came from inside of it.
When I was 18 years old (already a big jazz fan) I started to study saxophone and to work as a graphic designer. My first "published" works as graphic designer was the posters for the bands that I had with my brother Flavio on bass and for my musicians friends gigs. Since then I never stopped to work as a graphic designer and art director.
As a art director and graphic designer, I worked in several publications both in Brazil and Japan, such as Folha de S.Paulo (daily newspaper), Revista da Folha (weekly magazine) Claudia (women magazine), Super Interessante (science magazine) SET (cinema magazine) Mais Jazz (jazz magazine) Jornal Tudo Bem (newspaper) Made In Japan (magazine about Japan), Tokyo Classified (entertainment magazine), Metropolis (entertainment magazine) and JAZZNIN magazine (music magazine).
It was here in Tokyo, where I live and work since 1996, that I had the chance to go deeper in my relation with jazz. The jazz scene in Tokyo is quite good, with very nice jazz clubs and great musicians. In here I had produced the most of my jazz graphics, including my "dream come true" JAZZNIN magazine.
I hope you enjoy my work, and please contact me if you want "jazz up" your graphics.
Thanks,
Marco Mancini (Tokyo, spring of 2010)