Seven Sheets of Paper versus One Question: The ‘Fim - Regime’ Operation Report Belongs in a Design Archive?

Abstract

On April 25, 1974, Captain Salgueiro Maia led a military uprising that brought an end to the fascist regime that had been holding Portugal back. Following the overthrow of the government, the captain remained committed to his institution procedures and, on April 29, 1974, submitted a 14-page report entitled “RELATÓRIO DA OPERAÇÃO FIM-REGIME”. Captain Salgueiro Maia was not a designer—he neither studied design nor practiced it, nor was he involved in any activity traditionally associated with the so-called ‘graphic arts’. The report was produced according to a standard format used within his military unit. It includes a cover on official letterhead and, at the end, two pages outlining the operation’s layout through rigorously executed drawings, employing a specific graphic language and coding system. Can a document like this hold significance for the history of design? Could it be included in the archive of a design museum? Reflecting on such questions invites us to reconsider the historiographic models that underpin dominant narratives in graphic design history, as well as the lexicon of objects deemed admissible by these canons.