2025
MEIGA
in development
Naming
Copy, tone of voice etc.
Brand design
Image sourcing
Brand development from scratch for a small Lisbon and Berlin-based cultural production company
Fairly Normal is a Lisbon-based independent clothing brand developed in 2020. I have worked with the brand since its earliest stages, helping define its values, communication tone, and overall direction, before developing the visual identity and accompanying its growth over time. Today, I collaborate with Fairly Normal as an external brand consultant.
Naming and brand concept
Meiga is a word rooted in the Latin magĭcus, meaning related to magic.
In Portuguese, it describes something gentle, caring, and kind; something that feels pleasant or affectionate.
In Galician, the word carries a more magnetic meaning: something that attracts, charms, or enchants.
Historically, meiga was also used to describe women associated with popular knowledge and natural medicine, figures believed to have the ability to heal, foresee, or intervene in the unseen. In other contexts, the term was used more darkly, to name women accused of supernatural powers, spells, or divination.
This layered meaning, between care and power, tenderness and enchantment, is central to the choice of the name of a women-founded cultural production company — one that aims to be inclusive, tender, human, meiga.
The founder, Francisca, is a mixed-media artist that has focused on writing, collage and photography in the past years, this multimedia "existence" was the starting point for the brand's visual identity.
The identity is built around a clear typographic base, combined with a flexible system of layers. An invisible grid structure allows the logo and compositions to be continuously reconfigured, echoing ideas of collage, cadavre exquis, and collective construction. Alongside this structure, a set of “satellite elements” was introduced. These include: traces of the real, drawn from the everyday life of Francisca or from specific projects, symbolic or intuitive gestures, among others.
Colourfull branding
A flexible palette built around earthy base tones and brighter accents, designed to adapt to different contexts while maintaining coherence across the system.
Image-sourcing and universe-building
Meiga’s visual universe is built using found imagery sourced from open-access archives such as Flickr The Commons. These images help establish atmosphere and sensibility before specific projects take form, allowing the brand to grow through association, accumulation, and cultural reference rather than fixed narratives or authored imagery.