MANNA Food & Yoga, Porto

Design

2/08

Text and photographs: Miguel Barbot

THE VISIBLE PART OF AN ETERNAL WORK IN PROGRESS

I met Sara and Helder in 2018. At the time, they proposed a challenge to plan the Manna project from scratch: a new restaurant and café in the heart of Porto.

The vegan restaurant offers delicious food on-site, like sourdough bread, fermented veggies, speciality coffee, craft beer and natural wines. They also wanted to include a Yoga Studio with several classes running daily.

I like to say that our interests at the Ofício revolve around themes such as art, design and craft. But, looking closely at our clients and projects, you'll find entrepreneurs connected with food working on a small scale focused on technique and quality, with a devotion to sustainability and ethical values. There are crafts, art and design here.

The Manna planning went on for a few months, using our regular formula of strategising and support in critical decisions.

Weeks before opening, we got to work on their graphic design and the restaurant offer's finetuning, including putting together an entire natural wine list developed by our good friend and partner João Carvalho. Then, one rainy afternoon, we gathered a panel of seven friends who tried more than twenty wines. We would love to tell you how it went, but we cannot exactly recall what happened that evening.

Manna's identity was developed by Miguel Moreira, along with my creative direction, while painting the elements of the shop window was executed with the support of the incredible Xesta Studio.

The design is the most visible part of our work. As we are regulars at the space, we have learned a valuable lesson for future projects: if we want to build a strong relationship with clients and like to connect regularly, we must ensure, on the one hand, that the work we deliver is one of high-quality; and, in the other, learn how to live with the design eccentricities of the manager.