After solidifying his name in the rap business with 3 consecutive hit albums, Brazilian icon Abebe Bikila wanted his 4th studio record to expose his struggle with success and warn us of the dangers hidden in the city lights. So when he came to us with this burden, we travelled 2000 years back in time, to Ancient Greece. In the mythology, Icarus got attracted by the sun and flew so high that he burned his wings and fell from the sky. To create the album concept, we brought the myth to contemporaneity and turned the artist into a Neo Icarus.

More than a rap album launch, Neo Icarus is an updated version of the myth that sets the metropolis as a stage of modern tragedies. The visual identity for the launch reinterpreted graphic elements from Ancient Greece to contemporary times and used design as a tool to connect both eras in a single narrative. The typography was inspired by Greek columns, with contemporary reviewed serifs and circular counters referring to the sun, while a minimalist color palette helped to guide people through Neo Icarus' journey from darkness to light.The whole identity was based in visual parallels, such as in the iconographic set that took different reinterpretations of the mythology and translated it to Rio de Janeiro's urban context - buildings became the maze, city lights represented the Sun e the Lapa Arches were turned into a stage in ruins.

A conceptual photo shoot presented Abebe in an scenographic set of sky and ocean - like in the mythology, Icarus flew between the dangers of the Sun and the Aegean Sea. Along with the shooting, graphic elements, letterings and iconography converged into visuals for different moments of the album launch. From the pre-launch event at Rio's Museum of Art to the concert, printed and digital materials guided the public through the narrative. A motion identity translated the moments of Abebe's inner struggles into an abstract visual system that was present on the music video and visualizers for each track. 3D artists brought Neo Icarus to life through the figure of a digital statue of a winged Abebe fluctuating over ethereal digital sets in ruins.

Through design we transported a visual universe from 2000 years ago to the modern ages.The album launch had impressive numbers and made Abebe Bikila soar even closer to the sun,engraving his name for prosperity in the olympus of Brazilian rap.

+52% monthly listeners

Launch concert sold out in 8 hours,the fastest rap sold out in history at Fundição Progresso

7 out of 13 songs from the album on Spotify’s Viral Songs

+80mm album plays

+1,3mm de plays in 24h

+3mm plays in less than 3 days

#1 Album on Deezer

#2 Trending Topics on Twitter

Top 50 most listened albums in Brazil on Spotify for 3 months and going

Top Albums on Apple Music

+34,7mi videos plays on Youtube

+23.600 min spent inside the AR experience in 3 days

+6K visitors to the exhibit in 3 days

Fan arts and even tattoos were made of the album cover and painting

In his fourth album, Abebe focuses on his own experiences in Rio, but in a way that anyone from any metropolis in the world could relate to. And in the rap scene - especially in Brazil, where this growing music genre still faces prejudice - museums are spaces usually denied to this audience. So, when the exhibition took a marginalised youth to an important museum in Rio, we could help to make music, art and technology accessible to everyone and denounce contemporary tragedies.