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.

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?”

We first met the musician and producer Hugo Branco (AKA Fulano47), the mastermind behind this incredible project, a couple of years ago, when he commissioned us with the task of designing a communication strategy for all the facets of this project honouring the Branco family legacy and build a strong visual identity for their Break in Case of Emergency project (which you can see in this post).

We were in the last stretch of 2023 when we started a strategic design project with our friends Fios Jardins Suspensos.

In the first stage of this project, we helped them define a business and e-commerce strategy for the European Market. Then, we created a new brand strategy, which resulted in the total redesign of their identity and the development of a new Shopify Website by our design studio Estúdio Ofício .

Our "Independents" are the best placemakers a city could wish for and should be cherished by all. Since 2014, we have been working with dozens of small food, retail, and creative businesses in Porto. When we look at the city map, we will find a particular area where our spotlight has been beaming more intensely: Bombarda, Porto's Art District, which makes sense. Our "thing" as strategists and designers is culture and creativity in its broader sense.

With over 75 years of experience, Comeca is a leading company supplying appliances and technology for the HORECA sector (an acronym for Hotel, Restaurant, and Café/Catering).

We started this project by creating a plan for a complete brand redesign and a new brand strategy considering the significant but exciting challenges that the clients are currently facing and to mark Comeca’s 75 anniversary.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Porto-based Joana Correia, founder of Nova Type Foundry, has been a great inspiration. Joana has helped us grow as a design studio since we first sat down here on Rua da Aliança just over two years ago.

With her support, we have worked on ideas for new projects, learned so much about Type Design and the Type Foundries business, and met and maintained contact with many of the great talents of this international community.

It was the first weeks of 2022 when Filipa and Hugo, the power duo behind the multidisciplinary studio FAHR 021.3, asked us to help them design a new strategy for their practice. The Porto studio was about to turn ten years old and was growing organically, having already achieved a remarkable international reach.

After difficult times during the pandemic, Bombarda, Porto's Art District community, came together again to favour different projects, fostering innovation and networking in a frankly and continually creative territory.
BOMBARDA is a podcast dedicated to everyday topics in the Miguel Bombarda neighbourhood in Porto. Made by and for residents of this territory - whether residents or entrepreneurs - this space exists to record and amplify reflections and discussions around the local development of the well-known "Art District" in Porto, whether these are cultural issues, social, environmental, urbanistic or economic.

It was late September when I visited CRU Creative Hub's brand-new audio studio. I was very excited about spending that morning with our dear friends and clients (we still owe you a post about our extensive work there). We recorded the first episode of their new Indiworkers podcast, and I had the honour of being the first to be interviewed.

Velo Culture, a business closely linked to Barbot Bernardo and Ofício, was created in October 2011 by people united by the love of bicycles and a more "calm" way of living in the city. They decided to open a store in Matosinhos's then-degraded Matosinhos Municipal Market.

After almost ten years, it is a national reference in everything that respects cycling as a means of transport and a more contemplative way of cycling on road and travel cycling.

Velo Culture is very concerned with more conscious consumption, and its customers are people who buy less but buy better.

This project was short, lasting one month—a mentorship structured around three chapters. The first was dedicated to the magazine readers, the second to the editorial strategy and the third to the business model and the possible ways to professionalize the team editorial and content creation experience.

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.