Paulo Mariano is an award-winning Senior Art Director and Creative Lead based in Lisbon, Portugal, with 23+ years of experience developing integrated advertising campaigns, brand activations, brand identity systems and visual storytelling for global brands including Netflix, Emirates, EDP, LIDL, Gatorade, Delta Cafés and Bank of Brazil. Selected for Lürzer's Archive 200 Best Digital Artists Worldwide 2024/25 and recognised by ADC Europe, EFFIE, CCP and Lusófonos Awards. Final jury member at MAD STARS 2026 in Busan, and jury member at NYF New York Festivals, FIAP, AdForum PHNX, Ad Black Sea, White Square, AIVA and Clube de Criativos de Portugal. Spoke at MAD STARS 2026 on the five human behaviours that push a creative towards the average. Working with Generative AI tools including Midjourney, Sora, Gemini and Adobe Firefly for concept development, moodboards and visual exploration.

Beyond advertising, Paulo Mariano writes short fiction and essays in Portuguese, published in the Words section of this site, and develops authorial visual art. These pieces explore attention, perception, identity and the ordinary moments most people walk past. The written work sits alongside the commercial work as a separate body, with its own reading.

Work featured in Lürzer's Archive, All About Francis, Lürzer's Archive, Paulo Mariano, Ad Age, The SkinBook, Best Ads on TV, The SkinBook, ADCE / ADC Europe 2024 and CCP, Clube Criativos Portugal. Full biography and jury history.

PAULO MARIANO
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Direção de Arte e Storytelling Visual — Projeto Octant, Local Heroes, ideation, design, photography, Creative Director, Art director


Local Heroes

Brand Identity System





In diversity, you find humanity.
Welcome to singularity.


In each one of Octant hotels, you can find true luxury in simplicity.
And there´s some bravery there. Believing in the luxury of small things.
Working to make them noticed, lived, valued.
Each Octant is a bespoke homage to each location.

This campaign revolves around a distinct kind of luxury: THE LOCAL KIND OF LUXURY. Aiming to regenerate hotels to their essence, to their singularity and original truth, we decided to recognise and value genuine local suppliers as the face of the press campaign.

Developed across real locations, the visual system follows an editorial standard using real people instead of models. Through precise shoot direction, each individual was guided to reveal their authentic truth, translating local reality into a sophisticated and high-end narrative.

         
MY ROLE / Concept, Art Direction, Image Retouching
WHERE / Solid Dogma
TEAM / José Mendes, Carla Capela
CLIENT / Octant Hotels - A new latitude of freedom








 Luís Silva - Fresh cheese with pepper dough - O Lavrador Cheese Factory - Azores  |  Dona Glória - Leavened cake - Glória Moniz Bakery - São Jorge Island   |   Joana Gouveia - Organic strawberries - Quinta Verde Água - Douro   |   Vitor Seco - Barca Tareco - Mondego River

 



Direção de Arte e Storytelling Visual — Projeto Octant, Local Heroes, ideation, design, photography, Creative Director, Art director




Finding purpose in where they are, how they are, what story they tell and why.
That´s why no hotel is like the other. 
To capture the relation between nature, culture and people and make that the real experience.








Cozido das Caldeiras - Furnas   |  Thijs Valkenburg - Chameleon - Algarve  




Direção de Arte e Storytelling Visual — Projeto Octant, Local Heroes, ideation, design, photography, Creative Director, Art director


Direção de Arte e Storytelling Visual — Projeto Octant, Local Heroes, ideation, design, photography, Creative Director, Art director





This chain of 5-star hotels doesn't have palatial luxury.
It doesn't have exotic luxury.
It doesn't have cosmopolitan luxury.
It has local luxury. The luxury of small things. The luxury of rarity. Of humanity.






Direção de Arte e Storytelling Visual — Projeto Octant, Local Heroes, ideation, design, photography, Creative Director, Art director




Direção de Arte e Storytelling Visual — Projeto Octant, Local Heroes, ideation, design, photography, Creative Director, Art director


Local Heroes is the brand identity system and press campaign for Octant Hotels, concept and art direction by Paulo Mariano at Solid Dogma. The idea centres on a distinct kind of luxury: the local kind. Rather than being about hotels, the campaign is about inhabited territories, with their own people, practices, knowledge and stories, an editorial strategy closer to culture than to hospitality advertising. In each location, local heroes were identified: real suppliers whose small businesses produced the goods the hotels consumed, proof of their community integration. The fisherman, the producer, the artisan, the cook, the guide, the cheesemaker, the farmer, the artist. The campaign was built as long-copy press advertising, with honest images of each producer photographed in their natural working context, across real Portuguese locations including the Azores, São Jorge Island, the Douro, the Algarve, Furnas and the Mondego river. Featured heroes include Luís Silva of O Lavrador Cheese Factory in the Azores, Dona Glória of Glória Moniz Bakery on São Jorge, Joana Gouveia of Quinta Verde Água in the Douro and Vitor Seco on the Mondego. The visual system followed an editorial standard, using real people instead of models, with layouts that give text a leading role, harmonising typography, colour and photographic treatment. Initial layouts were authored by José Mendes, with continuity by Paulo Mariano. More than ten executions were produced. The strategy extended beyond advertising: Octant launched a continuity programme, deepening each hotel's relationship with its local products and inviting the best-known home cooks of each region to cook alongside the hotel chefs for Sunday lunches. A hospitality brand campaign and visual storytelling system by Paulo Mariano.




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