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Do you know who designed the Hogwarts Express ticket? Or the Undesirable Number One poster? Or the Black family tapestry? Or the Daily Prophet newspaper? Or the Marauder’s Map? Or any other iconic element of graphic design in the Harry Potter film franchise? You might imagine that there were hundreds of visual artists creating all that artwork for Warner Bros… But no, there were only two magical Muggles, Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima.
Miraphora Mina was born in England. She graduated in Theatre Design from the prestigious Central Saint Martins School in 1987. Meanwhile, Eduardo Lima grew up in Brazil and graduated in Visual Communications from Rio de Janeiro’s Pontifical Catholic University in 1997. He then moved to London and became an intern on the set of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, where Miraphora had already been working since the first film.
They seemed to share the same creative vision and outlook on the world. The talented duo felt the spirit of the books and brought J. K. Rowling’s world to life on the big screen. Their collaboration turned out to be so successful that the designers were hired to work on all of the following Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films as well!
In 2009, Miraphora and Eduardo founded their own design studio, MinaLima. Seven years later, in 2016, they opened a small shop in the heart of London, House of MinaLima, which looks like a cross between Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and an art gallery. There you can buy prints, books, prop replicas and many other beautiful things. On one of the walls there is a phrase that describes MinaLima’s main passion: “Telling stories through design.”
