Take a look at the first edition of Legacy, Boca do Lobo’s design and craftmanship testimony, designed especially to the ones that have been supporting the brand during all these years and to the ones that are entering in the world just recently.
This is for readers who want to know our challenges and our motivation. This is so for design lovers, interior designers, for hand craftsmen, for marketers, for architects and for everyone in this industry or in any other industry where passion is the main ingredient in the construction of their dreams! You can download for free here.
This design magazine makes the tribute to all the manual arts that have been struggling not to disappear through the years. I wanted, by publishing their revelations, the importance and brand’s legacy to this cultural richness.
We want it to be entertaining and of informative character, at times contrasted, but above all useful. Inside you’ll find a mixture of descriptions, pictures behind the scenes, features, and testimonies, as well as a wide range of inspirations. I hope that through this magazine you’ll get to meet the soul of all the people that work in the daily construction of the brand, because once you’ve done that you have really met the soul of Boca Do Lobo.
THE BEGINNING
Boca do Lobo was born naturally, without any strain, without any obligation, was born as a need and desire at the same time. As a need to represent what no one until the beginning of 2005 had come to do: to duly represent Portugal’s talents and crafts and as a desire to create a brand that would endure and flourish through the years into something quite different from the rest.
Amândio Pereira and Ricardo Magalhães, the two design students who absorbed experience and inspiration from the capital of design and fashion, Milan, returned home with a clear objective- they would create a design a brand able to break the norms of conventional luxury and find a way to celebrate, the use of artisanal techniques by making a tribute to all Portuguese heritage and culture.
These were the early beginnings of a brand that years later would be distinguished as a brand with a unique design concept, courageous to experiment and too stubborn to desist. The first product and the first collection of Boca do Lobo Soho, although compared to today’s collections, seems quite timid and simple, for the time it was introduced created a reaction, strong enough to include Boca do Lobo in the world of luxury furniture with a unique design.
Boca do Lobo derives from the Italian idiom “In bocca al lupo” (Italian pronunciation: [im ‘ bokka al ‘lu:po],“into the mouth of the wolf ”, an antiphrasis to exorcise any bad luck to a friend. Same as Amândio Pereira and Ricardo Magalhães would wish to each other on their way to university, during exams.
The Head of the Wolf defines Boca do Lobo more than would the opposite, from a folkloric and mythological background the wolf has a decisive role in every narrative of native culture linked with courage, strength, loyalty, and success at hunting.
His bilateral temperament embraces perfectly the two sides of Boca do Lobo, the ability to evoke contrasting emotions: like shock and delight, pleasure and discomfort, amaze our outrage, as an explicit and refusing protest towards indifference.
“The history of Boca does Lobo reborn repeatedly, marking each year a new inspiration, a new challenge, but with the same objective and passion. The restoration of the antique ar ts of manual work, honouring the ar t of hand painted tiles, marquetry, joinery, upholstery and metalwork”
The collections that followed – Coolors, Limited Edition, Private show emotionally but also rationally, the evolution of the luxury brand, its maturity to the utmost control of the unexpected. If we symbolically compare the alpha wolf with the leading person (from an ideological and aesthetic context) of Boca do Lobo, the latter is Marco Costa.
Responsible for creating the most iconic and important brand products. He believes that the world is a place to be discovered and enjoyed rather than feared, embracing challenges with the ultimate objective to design and deliver products that would enthusiasts the public. This perspective apparently optimistic, but deeply audacious, has roots in all the brand’s physiognomy.
Iconic pieces such as Pixel Cabinet, Diamond Sideboard, Fortuna Dining Table and more, go beyond the furniture and its primary function, pushing the object to new levels, blurring the boundaries that would separate functionality with art. Most of the techniques and finishes used by Boca do Lobo, throughout the entire production processes are completely artistically and technical “inventions” of the designers.
This continuous self-challenge of the abilities and capacities it is a path filled with barriers and difficulties until they reach the final result. Precisely this ability, to transform these “creatures” in functional products, with a past and ready to create a present and then a future is achieved thanks to the communication capability and close collaboration between designers and artisans. Along the way, all the “crazy” ideas found understanding and talented hands to create unmatched products. Diamond (2008) is one of Boca do Lobo’s most sculptural pieces yet.
“A SMALL PORTUGUESE BRAND, IN A BIG DESIGN WORLD”
THE LEGACY
There is no secret recipe for success, much less for creativity. Everything is taught, gained, or improved through practice and experience. Our prime difference from all other creatures is the ability to learn feelings, memories, or histories. Nothing disappears, everything is rooted in the unconscious, to be displayed unexpectedly due course of the lifetime. This inherent ability of human nature, when “married” to a so-called creative mind, generates naturally the steps to the creative process. Precisely of the above-mentioned sensations, from the conjunction of the conscious and unconscious, from the co-living of the past and present, Boca do Lobo created the so-called “10 Creative Steps of the Brand”.
According to Marco Costa, the Art and Brand Director of Boca do Lobo, the designer’s responsibility is to identify and at the same time fulfill the customer’s needs. Although we are not referring to the essential needs of human beings, it seems that over time the spaces where we live, work etc., are transformed into patterns of our well-being and our feelings. This is the first step (1) that a brand should take along the creative journey, to treat spaces as a personal diary, where we will be able to read all the needs, desires and expectations of our customers.
Only after we have read and understood the language of these “secret” diaries will we be ready to go through the second step – Design Minds (2) Once you develop a passion for learning you will never stop growing and Design Minds is the tool that the creative staff of Boca do Lobo embrace to ignite their imagination. When we mention Design Minds, we are referring to visiting museums, galleries, expanding horizon’s and shifting mindsets, with a natural thirst to learn the unthinkable.
The contrary of this would be ignorance, (3) that for Boca do Lobo is the resemblance of innocence and genuinity. While embracing a new idea, “out of the box”, the problems and challenges start immediately when your idea attempts to gain shape and weight. We remind you here of one of the most elegant products of the brand – “Venice” mirror, from the moment of idealization, sketches, technical drawing to the production, it took no less than 360 days… Boca do Lobo “artists” (4) spend a good part of their lives in the search of handcrafted.
During this research and exploration, the visits to the settlements of these talents, they learn the most interesting details of their work. Capturing the details and the peculiarities of the materials, sometimes standing on the tables and other times laying forgotten or thrown away in a corner is one of the crucial steps of Boca do Lobo’s creative journey.
Trust and confidentially (5) are two of the values that the brand gives great attention to the relationship with the customer. This close relationship with customers, the ability to transform the relationships into opportunities of learning, provides the best advice and later on the best ideas for the designers. The customers quite often sculpt the best structures of the brand.
We arrived now effortlessly to the (6) steps of the creative process of Boca do Lobo – Mistaking! Sometimes we develop things that at first glance can be considered as an error, or a failure, when surprisingly for many others might be that special touch, assumed as the most interesting detail of the product. The castings oxidations are “errors” that now are an inseparable part of the brand’s character. We can remind here as the most beautiful error the Emporio Chair, with a broken leg, an error that was transformed into an iconic and design desired piece.
“Always lead, never follow” (7) this the brand´s daily refrain, refusing to accept any boundaries between the possible and impossible. Imperfectio Sofa, Heritage Sideboard, Diamond Sideboard and many others, would be just sketched desires if the brand wouldn’t challenge itself. There isn’t greater satisfaction than exceed everyone’s expectations.
From the other hand the cultural heritage (8) of a land that grew from the mixture of all the people who inhabited and traded in the region over the centuries, is not solely part of brand’s DNA but also the soul of each furniture.
The Portuguese explorative and wandering spirit (9) has great contribution in the creative process of the brand. The last but decisive step is the passion (1o)! Passion is the only ingredient that can not be learned or copied. It is the most authentic feature, it is the most inexhaustible power to convince your work towards your purpose while and inspiring everyone else. Is the soul’s duty to be loyal to its own desires.
CREATE. DESIGN. INSPIRE.
Designing for Boca do Lobo is every designer dream. It’s an inspiring way to create and tell unique stories. The complexity of detail, the strong features, the classic heritage and the audacity that every piece can take is mind-blowing, seams that there’s no limit, and to create pieces made to fill up a room… There’s no better recipe.
I’ve always been inspired by Boca do Lobo, mostly in its strength, the way it has been treating the noblest materials over the years, it’s colors and shines and above all its motto, passion is everything. Since Boca do Lobo was founded over a merger of classic and contemporary, I chose emblematic product typologies to start and I told its story through the brand. I searched for new characters in a new story.
I try to recreate and reinterpret each piece, each story, I wanted to continue these design narratives but through my vision. Although the Boca do Lobo has a strong identity and a defined style, the ambition of any designer is to leave their personal signature in this brand. I think that is the richness of design, Boca do Lobo success comes from the knowledge from our ancestor, but seen with a contemporary way throughout different eyes and hands.
The fascination in creating the unexpected and defying the boundaries between art and design is what inspire us. It’s the strong DNA of the brand that fascinates and conquers the public. We stay true to our values, the respect for our past and excitement for a bright and challenging future is what motivates us. Our culture, the talent of our daring designers, the tradition of working with noble materials, the wisdom of our artisans and the love and dedication of our team keep pushing us to always better.
The reinterpretation of the past with a contemporary touch is part of the core values and aesthetic of Boca do Lobo, combining good design with exceptional production skills. The richness and variety of our cultural heritage with centuries of history, the Portuguese legacy couldn’t be more fertile to our designer’s inspiration. A unique universe which continues to fuel the creative minds behind the brand. Extraordinary design projects of top architects, refined interiors created by the best interior design firms, amazing work of groundbreaking artists, whose influence changed the world as we know, are a great source of inspiration that motivates us to do more and better.
Boca do Lobo is continuously reinventing itself, we come up with new concepts, designs, materials and exclusive pieces that have been inspiring and “shake” the design industry. It is necessary to follow the evolution of new generations, people have changed their consumption habits and the competition is getting bigger. We are overwhelmed by the influence of social media, thousands of images passed for our eyes, capture our attention and inspire our audience.
BEHIND THE SCENES
PIECES WITH A STORY