The Popular Dictionary of Saudade
The Popular Dictionary of Saudade
How many words can fit inside seven letters?
The Popular Dictionary of Saudade is a 592-page book dedicated to a single word. The project began in New York in 2016 as an attempt to explain saudade to people who did not have the word in their vocabulary. Over the following ten years, it grew into a collective investigation shaped by conversations, memories and research, culminating in a dictionary in reverse: hundreds of voices and perspectives gathered to explain a single word.
The project’s visual identity began with a custom lettering drawn in 2016. Built from contrasting letterforms inspired by old printing types, it reflects the imperfect, nostalgic and layered nature of saudade itself.
Rather than searching for a definitive meaning, the project brings together personal memories, cultural references and different ways of experiencing saudade. Each contribution adds another layer to a feeling that is intimate, collective and constantly evolving.
The book combines essays, interviews, chronicles and popular definitions collected over a decade, presented through a visual language inspired by concrete poetry. Its editorial design uses typography, repetition and space to give visual form to memory, distance and absence.
