Barbot Bernardo: Ofício and Saber Fazer

Miguel Barbot and Alice Bernardo

Those who have followed us over these years, and there are already a few, know that Saber Fazer and Ofício are siblings, offsprings from the same mother company. As a result, we share a roof, resources, team, management and even Capitão, the studio dog.

The story of this union is one we have never told. We have yet to explain the relationships, parallels and collisions between their activities, which, being very different, complement each other.

The weaver Ricardo Gil in his studio in Porto. Ricardo is an alumnus of Saber Fazer, later supported by Ofício.

In 2011, Saber Fazer was Alice's personal initiative, dedicated to investigating and recording artisanal production techniques. It has evolved over the years into the important educational project it is today.

At the same time, after eight years in a consultancy dedicated to Innovation, Miguel started his own independent business consulting practice while also being dedicated to other enterprises.

It was in 2013 that Ofício began to take root, emerging as a way of responding to challenges that arose within the Saber Fazer network: someone looking for an artisan or small industry to solve a production problem. An entrepreneur seeking help to think about a arts and​ crafts business, someone who saw Alice's beautiful photographs and wished for something of the same style for their brand.

In the initial phase, this is what Ofício did: respond to challenges that arose from within the Saber Fazer network. Ofício was, therefore, a "brand" to which both Alice and Miguel contributed with their knowledge and skills. However, as did its network of technicians, trainers and specialists, Saber Fazer grew. It created the conditions for developing large-scale educational projects for external entities and our own programmes in our workshop (first in Matosinhos, now in Porto).

At the same time, Ofício started to specialise in supporting small creative businesses. Not only in the craft field but also in areas such as design, fashion, hospitality and catering, all of which have a vital component of creativity. We developed a model to work with clients with in-depth projects and a lot of added value, with very close monitoring of all project phases, with the concern of leaving tools and know-how with the client. Ofício uses in its projects the same depth and technical rigour that Saber Fazer applies in its research and education programmes.

Above: the space on Rua da Aliança has doubled, now housing Saber Fazer's workshop, the Saber Fazer shop and Ofício's studio. It is a large enough space to accommodate all activities but is still intimate and comfortable.

On the left: are the suspension lamps from Quito, a brand by the plastic artist and maker Marco Fidalgo, supported by Ofício.

On the right: the artist Ana Rita de Albuquerque, educator at Saber Fazer and a unique project of Ofício, which has supported her in the development of her artistic project, in the organisation of the archive and the development of her new visual identity.

Saber Fazer and Ofício share the team, including the Human Resources manager.

As of 2020, we started to draw up a joint plan for the two brands. This plan came to fruition with the creation of a new company at the beginning of 2021. Also, this year we doubled the facilities to house both teams under the same roof.

Shortly before the move, we also started laying the foundations for creating a new graphic design practice and creative studio and internalising design and communication activities. 

The new company's activity ends up taking on two facets: on the one hand, the Saber Fazer and Ofício brands have different identities and activities, but on the other hand, they share projects and resources, something significant for what we have been putting out here: a large scale consultancy project is divided by the two business areas, Saber Fazer editorial (we have a sprawling collection of edited books and learning contents) and communication work uses the design team we have in-house, and so on.

On the one hand, being under the same roof, working side by side, we managed to optimise things to maintain and empower our work at Saber Fazer as a reference in research and education. In addition, we optimised and accelerated the production of educational materials and reinforced the importance of its store. But, on the other hand, Ofício now has all the conditions to focus on its vocation and experience in strategic consultancy for creative businesses, on identifying opportunities and developing international cooperation projects in this same theme and on the design and communication activity of our creative studio.

Based on what we have been working on in the last few months, we plan on increasing the integration of the two brands. We are investing in developing large-scale consulting projects that integrate the component "management" in educational programmes for the arts and crafts sectors. We are also investing in the digitalisation of knowledge generated in-house, migrating many courses and contents to our e-Learning platform. We also seek further internationalisation of our projects and exploration of collaborative opportunities, which is only possible with the robust partner network we have cultivated over the past few years.