Porteños have a flair for color and design

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Hand-painted signs. High-octane color. Heavy golden doors.

As a professional graphic designer, I look for the visual identity of a city whenever I travel.

Some places have very little, while others have a very cohesive look.

Buenos Aires is one of the latter.

Porteños, as the residents of Buenos Aires are known, have an acute sense of color and typography.

If you are visually inclined, you can narrow your attention to four areas.

San Telmo: The once-prosperous neighborhood is again on the upswing, with many new bars, restaurants and boutique hotels like the Cocker (thecocker.com) and Gurda (gurdahotel.com), as well as Axel, the first gay luxury hotel in the city (axelhotels.com/en/).

I made this neighborhood my base at the Ribera Sur Hotel (www.riberasurhotel.com.ar/), which has a minimalist aesthetic and a high attention to service, an oasis of interior design in this otherwise rough-around-the-edges area.

During the weekends, the streets around the main square, Plaza Dorrego, turn into an open-air art fair and antiques market, a great way to see many examples of hand-painted signs, many with a great sense of color and typography. This style has its own name: fileteados porteños. Its distinctive use of ornaments and illustrations makes it stand out visually from other cities in the world.

La Boca: For a high-octane use of color, head to La Boca, home of the Boca Juniors Club soccer team. The neighborhood's tenements-turned-artists' lofts have their facades painted in vibrant, happy colors that may make you forget you're in the middle of one of the poorest — and a bit dangerous — neighborhoods in the city.

Palermo: Head out to Palermo, home to restaurants that not only will satisfy your stomach but your eyes. Most places are very well-designed, in styles from Scandinavian minimalism at Olsen to warm rich reds and heavy golden doors at Casa Cruz. Whichever you choose, make sure you make late reservations; show up at 8:30 p.m. and you might as well eat by yourself.

Palermo is also a great place to buy locally designed leather goods and clothes. And design-conscious people will feel heavenly as soon as they step into Papeleria Palermo, a paper supply store selling handcrafted papers and hand-bound notebooks as well as art supplies and books.