Earlier this year, Mome, a private housing cooperative based in Porto, Portugal, commissioned us to help them prepare future large-scale projects to accommodate the growing number of urban cyclists' needs.

In this post you can explore the results of the survey and the key insights from a focus group session on this topic.

As the first three recommendations we published, the three I'm bringing today are essentials in our library.

We often recommend Company of One to our clients facing the scaling-up dilemma and how some options can impact their personal lives and represent a higher risk than needed. The Business of Aspiration is another classic, and we recommend it to our clients who work with consumers, especially in fashion, culture, and design. 

The Delft design guide was a "bargain bin" find. I was browsing a major retailer's design section on an ultra-discounted pop-up and found a few gems. My 2013 edition cost less than 5 euros, but it is worth all the 35€ that the publisher is asking for a 2020 revised edition.

Vai Vem, a design book publisher, was the second project supported by Barbot Bernardo's free Mentorship Programme for Social Enterprises and Not-for-profits.

This project objective was to support Vai Vem in organising its work units, which range from book publishing, education, events, and a graphic design practice.

CommunityCloth is about learning, innovation, community and… textile production. In 2023, we designed this project having as a starting point previous projects where we explored the topic of community learning.

In this post you can read why we created CommuntyCloth, what will happen during the project, and how you can participate in it.

Estúdio Ofício has a new social home at @_estudiooficio and a new portfolio page at ooficio.com, where you can find our latest designs (some of them are yet to be launched).

This post is a visual tale about how we helped Tiago rethink his Hakko House, a small cafe and restaurant in the heart of Bombarda, Porto’s Art District.

Last week, we spent a few days in pretty Oslo for another communitycloth meeting with our partners from Smuss Studio (Norway) and Alternative Brains Rule (Cyprus).

After the meeting, we strolled to the excellent Kafeteria August a local favourite.

A big thank you to Jørgen and William for hosting us and for the private tour on our way to the restaurant!

Today, we share the first of a series of posts about our extensive (and ever-growing) book library. We will recommend those we consider to be essential books that inform our practice as strategists, educators, and designers. The list includes a mix of more technical suggestions and easy-to-read editions.

We hope you enjoy the readings (and buy the books).

We purchased all three books in this first post from our friends at Matéria Prima, a local favourite.

By the end of June we were at STPLN in Malmö for another Bautopia, an European Creative Hubs Network Meetup. I

A highlight of the programme was also the Feral Walk, of which we've left some images here. Organised by Feral Malmö,

Here is a preview of a set of botanical illustrations that Oficio’s art director, Maria Helena , is currently drawing for Saber Fazer, our education and editorial unit, upcoming book on natural dyeing.

The book, to be published in the next few months, was written by Guida Fonseca and Alice Bernardo.

We had the pleasure of hosting our first ECHN P2P Programme in April.

This P2P was an initiative of our friends at the Textile Prototyping Lab from Germany. We met Karina Wirth at last year's ECHN conference in Vienna and decided to explore joint opportunities, share experiences, and get to know each other's hubs and communities. The ECHN P2P is the perfect tool for these interchanges, and we will explore future opportunities within the programme.

We prepared this short video to present Nova Type Foundry as a sponsor of the Typographics 2024 Conference, a fantastic event gathering leading type designers happening this week in New York.

Nova Type Foundry and Joana Correia have been close partners and one of our dearest friends since the foundation of Ofício, our design studio, and we couldn't be prouder of what she has achieved in the type design world!

Attention to all urban cyclists!

We're working on a project that could be a part of the (very urgent) cycling revolution in Porto, together with an essential contribution to the housing problem we're currently experiencing.

This project supports a new housing co-operative planned for a high-density area of Porto, which will focus on cycling and the comfort of future residents who prioritise cycling and other soft modes of transport.

Jazzego, an independent jazz label, kickstarted our new free mentorship programme for not-for-profits and social businesses in the Porto region (Portugal).

This project will provide strategic support focusing on fund-raising and revenue stream optimization to expand the catalogue and support artists, fund research and creative processes, launch education and capacity-building projects and expand the label’s distribution internationally.

Earlier this year, Alice and Miguel had the pleasure of being at the Fundação GDA podcast "Isto não é mais um podcast" to talk about our experience of EU funding for art, culture and creativity. 

In this episode, they explain how we use EU funding to combine the production and publishing of technical content that is commercially viable but is of significant importance to our audience and to society with the research of innovative learning methodologies.

We are delighted to show you the poster we designed to celebrate Joana Correia and Nova Type Foundry participation as a sponsor of the 2024 Typographics Festival in New York!

The poster showcases a few of the Nova Type Foundry Type Glossary, an essential part of the copywriting and graphic design he wave been doing for one of our dearest friends.

Barbot Bernardo and the Textile Prototyping Lab (Berlin, Germany) are organising a meeting of Creative Hubs on 26 April (16:00-19:00) at Saber Fazer in Porto.

This meeting will take place as part of a working week shared by our two hubs as part of a peer-to-peer exchange organised by the ECHN - European Creative Hubs Network, of which we are both members.

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This post is the second part of the interview with our good friend and partner Joana Correia from Nova Type Foundry (you can read the first part here).

For this second part of the interview, we packed great insights about the creative process of designing a new typeface, the specifics of independent foundries, being a woman in design, the business of typedesign, Joana's inspirations and a few reading recommendations for those starting a career.

“Being full-time in Saber Fazer/Ofício happened quite naturally: working side-by-side with my wife provides a sort of dream situation where all the professional and personal objectives are perfectly aligned. ”

In January 2023, the GatewayCrafts project was launched, coordinated by Barbot Bernardo (Saber Fazer / Ofício).  We already had the opportunity to meet Alice Bernardo, co-founder of Saber Fazer/Ofício and the GatewayCrafts project. It is now time to get to know another face of this project, Miguel Barbot.

Finally, here is your free download link for BREAK2023's digital guidebook, the SURVIVAL KIT prepared by the VicNic crew!

All the full masterclasses and roundtables are also freely available in video format on their YouTube playlist.