Up until recently, the streets of São Paulo, Brazil have been littered with graffiti and vandalism. These miscreants armed with spray cans and crowbars seem to especially favor the helmet-shaped payphones found around the city, absolutely destroying several per year. Fortunately, VIVO (formerly Telefonica Brazil) the second largest telecommunications company in Brazil, got a brilliant idea on how to make these beaten up payphones untouchable.
photography by Wally Gobetz
Vivo now sponsors the innovative public arts movement: the Call Parade, which pairs one hundred useless and damaged public phones in São Paulo with one hundred gifted artists to uniquely redesign them however they choose. These artists have taken those payphone-eyesores and turned them into imaginative works of art that range from brains to frogs to disco balls. Now, instead of targeting and ruining the public phones, people come from all over the city to photograph and admire them. The Call Parade has brightened the city of São Paulo with its wild creations.
Vivo is pushing to introduce the Call Parade to other cities, and possibly other countries. All of the designs and artists can be found on www.callparade.com.br/ in the Galleria de Fotos or you can take a trip to Brazil and see it all in person! But you don’t have the time for that, a quick search on Juxtapoz.com, My Modern Met, Feeldesain, Flavorwire, and Tumblr.
photography by Wally Gobetz
