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
ADS •••• ABOUT •••• AWARDS •••• WORDS
 
Direção de Arte e Visual Storytelling — Projeto Coruja Collection AR, Super Bock, ADCE, CCP, Portugal, ideation, design, photography, Creative Director, Art director

CORUJA COLLECTION - AR

Digital Experience + 
Direção de Arte e Visual Storytelling — Projeto Coruja Collection AR, Super Bock, ADCE, CCP, Portugal, ideation, design, photography, Creative Director, Art director     Direção de Arte e Visual Storytelling — Projeto Coruja Collection AR, Super Bock, ADCE, CCP, Portugal, ideation, design, photography, Creative Director, Art director            Direção de Arte e Visual Storytelling — Projeto Coruja Collection AR, Super Bock, ADCE, CCP, Portugal, ideation, design, photography, Creative Director, Art director

Foster Portuguese urban artists while adding a tech tweak to beer labels.


Coruja means Owl: so we gave the beer wings. How?
With a Special Label Edition with an Augmented Reality feature.

After a much impressive launch in ’18 that turned Coruja (‘owl’) into a leading beer IPA brand based on urban art, we wondered how to strengthen the relationship with the artistic community we brought together to make Coruja more than a brand, but a true urban culture crew. So, in 2020 we launched a new label edition merging physical & digital: 9 artists, 9 illustrated labels in a Coruja Special Collection with AR where consumers can see their owl fly away from the bottle.

ADC*E
Clube Criativos Portugal
―
MY ROLE / Ideation, Art Direction
WHERE / Solid Dogma
TEAM / Pedro Pires, Ana Castanho, David Cabrita, Hugo Dias
INVITED ARTISTS / Kruella, Mar, Mário Belém, Samina, Mosaik, Caver, Contra, Frame 01, Glam
CLIENT / Super Bock







Direção de Arte e Visual Storytelling — Projeto Coruja Collection AR, Super Bock, ADCE, CCP, Portugal, ideation, design, photography, Creative Director, Art director


9 ARTISTS, 9 ILLUSTRATED LABELS
"Catch them before they fly" was the campaign claim for the launch of this new Coruja Collection, where physical and the digital merge. A Special Collection with AR: from reading a QR Code, the consumer is invited to download an app — via www.colecaocoruja.pt — to see his Owl “fly away” from the bottle’s label.




We brought the 9 artists back together to create a new approach to the guerrilla arts they developed to punctuate the beer’s launch. From them, we created 9 special illustrated labels inserted in a 'collectible' pack, with which is possible to access an augmented reality experience: through this combo, each label and each illustrated Owl comes to life, popping out of the bottle and flying on your smartphone.


SUPERBOCK FESTIVAL // ACTIVATION // PAINT THE OWL






Coruja AR is an augmented reality brand activation for Super Bock, with ideation and art direction by Paulo Mariano at Solid Dogma. Coruja, Portuguese for owl, is a beer IPA brand built around urban art, launched in 2018 with a strong impact on the category. To deepen the relationship with the artistic community built around the brand and turn Coruja into a true urban culture crew, a new label edition was launched in 2020, merging the physical and the digital. Nine artists, Kruella, Mar, Mário Belém, Samina, Mosaik, Caver, Contra, Frame 01 and Glam, each illustrated a label for a special Coruja Collection featuring augmented reality. Under the campaign claim catch them before they fly, consumers could read a QR code, download an app through colecaocoruja.pt, and watch their own owl fly away from the bottle's label. The nine artists were brought back together to reinterpret the guerrilla art they had originally created to launch the brand, resulting in nine special illustrated labels included in a collectible pack, where each label and its owl come to life through augmented reality on the consumer's smartphone. The project also included a Paint the Owl activation at the Super Bock Festival. The work was recognised at ADC*E and Clube de Criativos de Portugal. An integrated brand activation for Super Bock combining urban art, packaging design and augmented reality, developed with the team at Solid Dogma.




BEHANCE • LINKEDIN