Founded in Porto in 1963, in the middle of Salazar’s Estado Novo dictatorship, Unicepe - Cooperativa Livreira de Estudantes do Porto CRL began as an act of resistance as much as a bookshop. At a time when books could get you into trouble, it set out to make ideas accessible: cheaper books, harder-to-find titles, foreign works and even banned works. Now, over 60 years later, we were tasked with designing a new website that will carry the next generation of readers and thinkers (and troublemakers) into the future.

Barbot Bernardo and Saber Fazer hosted a roundtable and vegan lunch by Venn Canteen (photo gallery)

We brought our community together at Saber Fazer for one conversation around food politics, agro-ecology, and education.

Organised for the TY-CO project and in line with the ABR Festival's focus on sustainability and local culture, the afternoon traced the journey of food from local producers to the table, and asked a simple but uncomfortable question: what do our food choices really cost?

As you might know, Joana Correia has been a friend of the studio for some time now — we regularly work together on various projects, including Nova Type Foundry's communication strategy and graphic design (which you can read about in an earlier post).

Recently, Joana and co-founder Paley Dreier asked us to develop the visual identity for their new venture, Ligado Studio, a consultancy that supports type designers and foundries in growing their businesses.

The Heritex Toolbox is a platform for entrepreneurs, researchers, and fibre enthusiasts — a living archive of the knowledge embedded in textile heritage.

Built as part of HERITEX-HUB (COST Action 19131), a networked knowledge hub to empower the green transition in textiles and fashion by harnessing the wealth of data and insights provided by the study of Textile Heritage.

So, after many requests, especially from my dear wife and business partner, I've finally created a dedicated page to our strategic consultancy and education programmes for creatives, which is what I do most of the time.

Of course, there is an explanation for not having done it so far - a steady pipeline of new projects arriving through word of mouth and being afraid of spreading too thin between consulting, EU projects, managing a design studio and supporting Saber Fazer, made me a bit anxious about promoting our work outside the safety of our creative bubble.

But yes, let's step out of the bubble and see what the outside world has to offer!

Sara is an architect whose work unfolds between Lisbon, Porto, and her native Funchal on Madeira Island, where she is currently based — cities and landscapes that each carry distinct rhythms, stories, materials and light.

For this, challenging the typical perception of Tax consultants was our first design hurdle: reframing the practice as a proactive partner in compliance and sustainability, helping both private and public sectors navigate the tax system and avoid unnecessary legal issues. This idea guided how we positioned Binomial Advisory as a trusted, positive force

Estúdio Ofício finally has its own online home!

Estúdio Ofício now has its own website! After a few weeks of work, we’re excited to share what we’ve been creating in the studio over the last four years. We’re amazed by how much new work we’ve done for so many clients in such a short time!

Zumbido Books, Joana's project, arrived at our desk exactly one year ago. After spending the last decade working as a filmmaker for Canal 180, one of Porto's most innovative media projects, Joana had a plan: to keep things visual in her life and open a bookshop dedicated to the universe of children and illustration.

Early this year, Cidália, Joana, and Sofia, the founding trio of Oupas Design, visited our office to discuss a possible project to help them restructure the company.

The company was turning fifteen and was facing many challenges: Joana, a fundamental part of the trio, was leaving the studio to pursue new projects. Sofia and Cidália felt that this could damage their motivation, leading to extra work and less focus on their individual needs.

We are back at our beloved Vinhais, one of the most remote and mysterious places in Portugal, for a new community learning project called "Viver Mais e Melhor".

"Viver Mais e Melhor" is a follow-up for our 2021-2023 "Cultura para Todos" initiative, when we first piloted a community learning methodology that we are now adopting in other projects at both the national and European levels.

Back in 2019, our friend Inês Catarina Pinto, the editor in chief of Nevoazul, asked us to assist with the magazine's editorial strategy and invited me to serve as the photography editor and photographer for the third issue.

For the second Time Machine, we present a selection of photographs featured in the third edition of the magazine, along with others captured in some of Porto's retail spaces where the magazine was available. Hope you enjoy!

A typeface is often judged in the very first moment a designer encounters it, and the way it is presented can make or break the spark of connection that leads someone to explore it further. That’s why when Joana Correia from Nova Type Foundry asked us to develop a new set of visuals to display her typefaces on the MyFonts platform, we took it very seriously. MyFonts is not only a marketplace; it is often the first point of contact a potential user has with a font family.

The thing about working with culture, creativity, and independent retail is that typically, there is no big budget involved. It is a lot of fun, though.

Zumbido is, as you guessed, a low-budget project, so we had to assist the client with most of the choices, from furniture and interiors to coffee equipment. Unfortunately, they didn't have a budget for an architect, which made things a little bit more complicated, and we had to improvise a lot.

Being low-budget also means a greater effort to create a comprehensive visual system that can be easily scaled at a low cost and be used by someone playing all the instruments: selling books, brewing coffee, doing admin work, updating the website, creating Instagram content, cleaning the bathroom. Everything must be printed on a budget home printer and be available as Adobe Express templates for simplified editing.

Are you a craftsperson or a supplier of raw materials interested in promoting and raising awareness about the sustainability of your products?
Would you like to be able to track and certify the provenance of the materials/products you use?
Finding it hard to promote your work and grow your business?
In 2026, from March to December, the TransparencyChain team will organise a free learning programme and pilot project to certify craft products using blockchain, to help you with that!

Papercraft royalty Oupas! Design made Miguel's own Action Figure to celebrate the end of Barbot Bernardo's six-month strategic support project and the beginning of a new cycle for their studio! How cool is this?

Curiosity drives innovation, and for Zé and Rute, innovation is finding old machines and understanding how they can still be useful to solve production problems. This curiosity has led to technical refinement, new ways of operating the equipment and the discovery of new solutions to the various production challenges and opportunities that arise, both in Ideal & Co, and client work . Having fun while doing it is also part of the formula: it is not uncommon to arrive at the workshop and see Zé enthusiastically showing off the machines, moulds and other equipment they bought from an old shoemaker or glove factory: “What can I do with this?”

It was the last days of summer, which in parts of the north-west of the peninsula already feel like autumn, when we finally visited Os Casares, an incredible space in Ribeira Sacra, in the heart of neighbouring Galicia.

The Casares project was conceived by Lola Fernandez, the owner of what was once her family’s cattle farm and is now an important artistic and cultural centre with a strong community focus, seeking to strike a balance between rural and urban life, art, craft and agroecology, themes that are also central to what we do here at Saber Fazer and Barbot Bernardo.

Our friend Dörte de Jesus, editor-in-chief of the wonderful The Lissome, spent a few days in Porto earlier this year and interviewed Alice for the latest edition of the Magazine.

In the four pages dedicated to Saber Fazer, you can read about Alice’s vision for craft education and the importance of structured, rigorous and high-quality curricula, as well as the importance of bringing visibility to craft and craftspeople, local resources and other topics central to what we do here at Saber Fazer and Barbot Bernardo.

We believe that even complex concepts, when simplified, taught in an accessible and inclusive way, and with proper follow-up, can be applied effectively in day-to-day practice.

With TransparencyChain, we are not just developing and testing a blockchain-based provenance tracking platform: we are empowering craftspeople, small suppliers, and vocational educators, creating the tools they need to thrive in a digital age.