Plano B Design Ltda
Plano B Design Ltda is a privately held Brazilian design and technology studio founded in 1999 that delivers visual communication, interaction design, and information systems for cultural institutions, government, enterprises, and universities, anchored by its open-source Shiro digital-archive platform.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1999
- HeadquartersRio De Janeiro, Brazil
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Plano B Design Ltda does
Plano B Design Ltda is a privately held Brazilian design and technology studio founded in 1999 by Sergio Boiteux and Pedro Herzog, operating with a multidisciplinary team of 1-10 professionals from Rio de Janeiro. The studio delivers three intertwined service lines: visual communication (identity, editorial, exhibitions, animation), interaction design (websites, apps, multimedia kiosks, interactive exhibitions), and information systems (intranets, digital archives, content management). Its core proprietary product is Shiro, an open-source PHP/MySQL web platform for digital collection and archive management, built on Web 3.0 / semantic-web architecture and released under Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0; Shiro supports semantic, temporal, and spatial contextualization and conforms to Schema.org, DCMI, Open Graph, and the Brazilian NOBRADE archival standard. The firm also developed Punctum, a mobile application for georeferenced physical-digital interaction that emerged from Sergio Boiteux's master's research at ESDI/UERJ.
The company's revenue model is primarily project-based professional services, with each engagement individually quoted; commercial licensing of Shiro for non-open-source deployments represents a secondary, theoretical revenue stream. Plano B targets four customer segments — cultural institutions and memory organizations, private-sector companies, universities, and government entities — across Brazil (BNDES, Petrobras, Instituto Moreira Salles, Itaú Cultural, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Biblioteca Nacional) and, since 2023, Portugal (Universidade de Évora). Go-to-market is direct, portfolio-driven, and referral-based, with the company website and blog serving as the primary discovery channel. The firm is entirely founder-owned with no external funding and maintains a deliberate focus on long-tenure institutional clients and semantic-archival expertise rather than scale.
Plano B Design Ltda firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Plano B Design Ltda
- Legal name
- Plano B Design Ltda
- Website
- https://plano-b.com.br
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1999
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Plano B Design Ltda is a privately held Brazilian design and technology studio founded in 1999 that delivers visual communication, interaction design, and information systems for cultural institutions, government, enterprises, and universities, anchored by its open-source Shiro digital-archive platform.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Plano B Design Ltda industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Design Services
- NAICS
- Graphic Design Services (541430), Industrial Design Services (541420)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Services-Mailing, Reproduction, Commercial Art & Photography (7330)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Visual Identity & Brand Design Systems (BPAFAEAC)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Building Information Modeling (BIM) & Digital Design Services (BPAHAKAK)
Keywords
Where Plano B Design Ltda is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Rio De Janeiro
- HQ country
- Brazil
- HQ region
- Latin America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Plano B Design Ltda business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Design and Development Project Services: Plano B generates revenue through project-based engagements in visual communication, interaction design, and information systems. Projects include websites, digital archives, interactive exhibitions, brand identity, editorial design, and multimedia installations. Clients range from cultural institutions to private-sector companies.
- Shiro Platform Licensing: Shiro is an open-source platform released under Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 license. While free for non-commercial use, commercial deployments may generate licensing or customization service revenue.
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels3 records
Plano B Design Ltda product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Plano B Design is a Brazilian multidisciplinary design and technology studio that develops visual communication, interaction design, and information systems projects, including websites, digital archives, interactive exhibitions, brand identity, editorial design, and multimedia installations. Its signature product is Shiro, an open-source PHP/MySQL platform for digital collection management built on Web 3.0 semantic architecture, deployed for cultural institutions such as Instituto Moreira Salles, Itaú Cultural, and Pinacoteca de São Paulo.
Product overview
Plano B Design is a design and technology studio founded in 1999 with over 20 years of experience. Its core proprietary product is Shiro, an open-source web platform for digital collection and archive management, which serves as the centerpiece of its digital offerings. The company also offers Punctum, a georeferenced mobile application for physical-digital interaction. Complementing these digital products, the studio provides three service lines: Visual Communication Design (identity, editorial, exhibitions, animation), Interaction Design (websites, apps, multimedia kiosks, interactive exhibitions), and Information Systems (intranets, digital archives, CMS). Shiro powers the digital collections of major Brazilian cultural institutions, while the service portfolio spans visual identity, editorial, interactive installations, websites, and systems across cultural, corporate, and academic clients.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Shiro: An opensource system developed to facilitate the management and enhance visualization of collections and archives. Based on web 3.0 standards, it enables information recovery and multi-platform content visualization.
Products and services
- Shiro Open-source web platform (PHP/MySQL) for digital collection and archive management featuring semantic web architecture (Web 3.0), semantic/temporal/spatial contextualization, customizable user roles (admin, editor, collaborator, researcher, public), multi-language support, and interoperability with Schema.org, Dublin Core, Open Graph, and NOBRADE metadata standards. Targeted at cultural institutions, museums, foundations, and universities managing and publishing digital collections.
- Punctum Mobile application that enables direct physical interaction with georeferenced information, allowing users to point at objects in the physical environment to access digital content attributed to them. Developed from Sergio Boiteux's Master's research at ESDI/UERJ and targeted at cultural, educational, and location-based interactive experiences.
- Visual Communication Design Services Design services covering visual identity, editorial design, exhibitions, and animation that create narratives using color, form, volume, movement, and typography for clients ranging from cultural institutions to private-sector companies.
- Interaction Design Services Design of interactive experiences using screens, projections, gestures, sensors, and georeferencing, delivered as websites, applications, multimedia kiosks, and interactive exhibitions for cultural, governmental, and corporate clients.
- Information Systems Services Development of intranets, digital archives, and content management systems for managing and visualizing large data collections and institutional or personal repositories, often powered by the Shiro platform.
Quantifiable outcome
- 40,000+ phonograms managed on Discografia Brasileira portal
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Plano B Design Ltda
Customer profileNamed customers17 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Plano B Design Ltda technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration8 records
Feature6 records
Plano B Design Ltda partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- Schema.orgcoreShiro integrates with Schema.org metadata standards, enabling interoperability with search engines and platforms from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Pinterest, and Yandex.
- Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI)coreShiro supports DCMI metadata standards for structured description and interoperability with digital library systems worldwide.
- Open Graph ProtocolcoreShiro integrates Open Graph metadata for optimized social sharing on Facebook and related platforms.
- NOBRADE (Norma Brasileira de Descrição Arquivística)coreShiro supports NOBRADE, the Brazilian standard for archival description established by CONARQ (Conselho Nacional de Arquivos), ensuring compliance with Brazilian archival practices.
- D-Space RepositorycoreThe Brasiliana Iconográfica project involved integrating the D-Space repository with the Shiro platform to create a unified frontend interface for the digital archive.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Plano B Design Ltda competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- ResourceSpace: ResourceSpace is an open-source digital asset management system used to store, search, and share media. It is a partial peer because Plano B also handles digital collections, multimedia, and repository-style information systems.
Direct peers
- Zetcom: Zetcom provides museum collection-management and digital-asset-management software. It overlaps with Shiro's collection-management and visualization functionality for cultural organizations.
- CollectiveAccess: CollectiveAccess provides open-source collections-management and cataloging software for museums, archives, and libraries. It is comparable to Shiro's collection-management and metadata-focused capabilities.
- Artefactual Systems: Artefactual Systems develops AtoM, an open-source platform for archival description, access, and preservation. It overlaps directly with Plano B's digital-archive and cultural-institution work.
- Axiell: Axiell serves libraries, archives, and museums with collection-management and discovery software. Its established institutional software suite is a broad incumbent comparable to Plano B's archive-platform work.
- Omeka: Omeka is an open-source platform for publishing digital collections and online exhibits. It overlaps with Plano B's archive portals and interactive exhibition services, although it is primarily a software platform.
- Preservica: Preservica provides digital-preservation and archive-management software for long-term institutional content. It overlaps with Plano B's digital-archive focus, especially where cultural organizations require preservation and controlled access.
- Gallery Systems: Gallery Systems provides museum collection-management, collections information, and public-engagement software, including TMS. It is comparable to Plano B's museum and digital-collection projects.
- CONTENTdm: CONTENTdm, offered by OCLC, is a digital collections-management and publishing platform used by libraries, museums, and cultural organizations. It competes for the same institutional digital-collection workloads addressed by Shiro deployments.
- Tainacan: Tainacan is a Brazilian open-source digital-collections and repository platform with metadata, search, and exhibition functionality. Its Brazilian cultural-institution focus makes it a close regional comparable to Plano B's Shiro deployments.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Plano B Design Ltda social profiles
Digital presencePlano B Design Ltda financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Plano B Design Ltda leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Plano B Design Ltda funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Plano B Design Ltda M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Plano B Design Ltda
What does Plano B Design Ltda do?
Plano B Design is a Brazilian multidisciplinary design and technology studio that develops visual communication, interaction design, and information systems projects, including websites, digital archives, interactive exhibitions, brand identity, editorial design, and multimedia installations. Its signature product is Shiro, an open-source PHP/MySQL platform for digital collection management built on Web 3.0 semantic architecture, deployed for cultural institutions such as Instituto Moreira Salles, Itaú Cultural, and Pinacoteca de São Paulo.
Is Plano B Design Ltda a public or private company?
Plano B Design Ltda is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Plano B Design Ltda founded?
Plano B Design Ltda was founded in 1999. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Plano B Design Ltda based?
Plano B Design Ltda is headquartered in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, in the Latin America region.
How does Plano B Design Ltda make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Design and Development Project Services are the primary driver. The others are shiro Platform Licensing.
Who are Plano B Design Ltda's main competitors?
ResourceSpace is listed as an emerging player. Direct peers are Zetcom, CollectiveAccess, Artefactual Systems, Axiell, Omeka, Preservica, Gallery Systems, CONTENTdm and Tainacan.
Does Plano B Design Ltda have an API?
No public API is recorded for Plano B Design Ltda.
What industry is Plano B Design Ltda in?
Plano B Design Ltda's product category is Design Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAFAEAC, Visual Identity & Brand Design Systems, with a secondary code of BPAHAKAK, Building Information Modeling (BIM) & Digital Design Services. Its NAICS code is 541430 and its SIC code is 7373.