From experimental practice to launching a design brand: how we've been helping Susana Baldaia structure and shape her work.

Text and photos: Miguel Barbot

Susana Baldaia, a trained architect, works professionally in design production, guiding international brands from the project stage through to factory work and production in Portugal.

Alongside this, she has been experimenting with different materials to launch her own brand, Susto, which we've already been writing about.

Working closely with suppliers and aiming to develop and create objects under a "carbon-negative" logic, she has been exploring materials such as hemp concrete, resins, and natural pigments.

Over the past three years (with a pause in the middle), we have been supporting the entire strategic and market planning process. Susto's first collection will launch at the end of the year.

Beyond the strategic and mentoring work we've been doing, we also created the entire visual identity through Ofício, our design studio, which also supported the brand's creative direction.

With the first collection now well underway and a space found for Susto's "base", we're moving on to producing catalogues, site and website, which we look forward to sharing soon.

Until then, you can keep following our channels, where we'll be posting updates as the work progresses. You can also find out more about the process behind building Susto's visual identity on our journal or on Ofício's website.

Photos from some of the experiements and drawings: you’ll have to wait a few months to know the first collection.