Interview with Paulo Jorge Faias Pereira
Design Legend Interview
20 October 2018
As a child I used toys that the other children threw away, spoiled and broken I pick them up and restore and make up new toys with other pieces so in the end they came back to want the toys back.
In my youth I lived for some years in jungle areas where there was practically nothing we had to create parts and repair machines for mining, between Venezuela and Brazil, everything had to be invented repaired and improvised until the houses where we lived had to be made as the Indians built them.
After a few years when I decided to go to college, the arts already strolled in my veins, I did the equipment design course and then I did architecture.
In my youth I lived for some years in jungle areas where there was practically nothing we had to create parts and repair machines for mining, between Venezuela and Brazil, everything had to be invented repaired and improvised until the houses where we lived had to be made as the Indians built them.
After a few years when I decided to go to college, the arts already strolled in my veins, I did the equipment design course and then I did architecture.
First, I like to draw and how throughout my life I always had to create things through my drawings and think how to solve situations, this made me a designer and so I also like design.
In my opinion nobody is forced to be a designer by force, because it is an art that comes out of the soul and for that I believe it is only for people who hold this vocation.
I do design projects for equipment and architecture, so my drawings cover a great field, I do not limit myself to certain tastes, I do everything I can, it's always an interesting challenge, which leads me to learn more about the art of design and of conceiving.
I am not a legend of design, and I am far from being, but of course with a lot of work one day I can become.
My advice is to believe in yourself, work hard, be sincere when you project, try to be original have your own language, put a lot of energy in your work, only then someone will realize how much you are worth and will be graced for it.
My advice is to believe in yourself, work hard, be sincere when you project, try to be original have your own language, put a lot of energy in your work, only then someone will realize how much you are worth and will be graced for it.
A good designer and a bad designer will always be a designer, respect the environment, respect who will use your products and not copy the work of others, do everything thinking as if it were for ourselves the best we can.
Produce useful objects to be functional, robust, have an interesting aesthetic aspect.
The value of a good design can be translated into objects and design pieces whose function and appearance will be eternal, and make their creators recognized for eternity.
My projects are intended for use by anyone, there is no distinction, only individual taste can dictate whether or not someone wants to have something created by me.
Something that makes me fly, move through the sky for example, like a flying bicycle.
I always do the best I can, inspire myself in organic forms, with movement and rhythm, contemplating nature.
Leonardo da Vinci, Gaudi, Alvar Aalto, Ross Lovegrove.
I like very much Leonardo da Vinci's drawings, they are studies done by his own hand with ideas that are simply brilliant for his time, and that today the great majority of his ideas work are done and working.
It is a chair that I created for the final design work at design college, is made of recycled aluminum in sand mold disassembles to the point of being carried in a backpack, its appearance is very organic and can have several uses of course always for seat, can be used for waiting rooms, auditoriums and at home.
Creative thinking always using our own language, put everything we have better to give the project and others.
Being an architect what I really am, and It's a necessity for me to be always drawing.
Design for me is a way to serve people with something created by me that will be part of the life of this person and that will be useful and used will have a little of me in is life will possess something that I did with all my dedication.
In fact it was not many people, I had great support from my wife, Irina Sokolova who got me into her business that is very related to design that's where I had the opportunity to start.
I do not consider myself a great designer the life I have lived through and the places where I have lived, are an important part of my imagination and creativity since living in Africa, South America, and now Europe, make a mix of colors of forms and cultures that marked me and all this connected to my taste for art and drawing, is the cocktail necessary to be a different designer.
Dealing with the vast ignorance many people think that design is easy for anyone to do and after appearing done starts the deconstructive criticism. Portugal is a country that is still far from believing in the design that is made here, we buy foreign design, the industry is very good, there is an excellent manpower with tradition, but that alone is not enough to keep up with the market. To make these chairs I had to hear many, many times negative voices that are not there to help but we have to go ahead and mainly believe in ourselves and our work, I have achieved and it is done to be used and admired.
Register your copyrighted works immediately, then search for trusted partners willing to collaborate, participate in international competitions, where a specialized jury and competent people can give you the merit you deserve.
I will draw objects related to furniture and decoration, continue to look for what is best in Portugal there is better and pull by the workmanship of small factories that for many years carry generations experiences that I want to protect and make them grow.
Produce things that can be used to be admired and inspiring.
Now after the prizes many are more curious to see what I will do next because everyone knows that I will never stop, and already they ask me what I will develop next.
We the designers are and should be an important contribution to the care and protection of the environment educate the industry that often only wants to achieve objectives, provide better products to all, and contribute to the economy of a region and a country.
I am currently working on architectural projects but I always sketch some new ideas, that's how I feel good and I'm really excited, the prizes left me the will to do many more things.
I have already done some, but these two were the ones that made me very happy, they were appreciated on a positive note and I will be able to show them to the world.
I hope that the design industry has respect for the environment, and protects and fosters skilled labor to create more jobs.
In my opinion I'm not sure but everything points to an industry too mechanical, cold and without the human touch.
Days of sketches and dreams, to make models, in different scales, to begin to execute in factory until seeing the piece ready and ready to be used can take about 8 to 12 months.
It always starts to be born in my sketch blocks, which I always carry with me.
Explore your dreams and make the idea happen.
In my opinion the trends come from the designers.
It is very important, I draw first by hand then I go to computer, but even then, there are details that I have to make full scale models so that in the factory can be transported to the material the desired shape.
I use Autocad, Rhinocerus, and Archicad.
They are part of the composition and language that I want to transmit.
I do not want them to ask, I want them to respond, they will always associate my design with something, they will see a way to interpret it quickly, to put their minds to imagine, that is what I intend to touch people and not pass unnoticed.
I feel happy, the way this object presents, its function, the way it was made, this colleague did something that moved me that is interesting, did the same that I also want to do.
For the creation I am like a triathlete, I do the competition alone, I have to put everything that I have to give and what I have prepared myself, to execute the objects I am already as a rugby team look for the ideal partners for the perfect play.
I don´t remember anyone having influenced me in my way of designing, as well as books and other very inspiring design objects already created.
Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, is one of my earliest books that I read when I was very young, did changes on my way of life, both in life and in everything I have to face the resistance to continue and make it well.
I still have many kilometers of way to be called master, but I'm already on the way.
But my skills are a sum of past situations that I had to go through and solve, always motivated to give my best to myself and others.
But my skills are a sum of past situations that I had to go through and solve, always motivated to give my best to myself and others.
Just talk to Leonardo da Vinci, the great master.
I've never had prizes in Design, it's the first time.
Color is Blue, the place Santorini, Mediterranean food, spring season, thing victorinox Swiss
Switchblade.
Switchblade.
happened to the little model of the rabelo lounge chair, that I delivered to a factory to them study and tell me if they could do it, and someone accidentally broke the little model and glued but everything wrong was unrecognizable, they couldn´t assemble the poor chair and the most interesting every one in the factory were attempting to do it, people are so accustomed to normal things that a different chair is a headache.
Having work to be developed, be it architecture or design, it does not matter, feeling that I am necessary for some one, that I solve their problems, that I make their dreams cam truth.
There was no talk of design in that time, and I did not even know what I wanted, but I was always highlighted in all classes as the best to draw, and to create my own toys that my friends put in the trash, I gave them new life rebuilding them with other parts and pieces, so I can play with them again, the point was that they later wanted them back.
Surely something, good or bad, that no one knows, but if men do not collaborate more with each other it will be complicated, so there has to be more cooperation between people, countries, unity is strength, and it has to be a positive force.
I am very grateful to the A'Award Design competition for this initiative to make a great contribution to the design and to designers and architects that are hidden by this world whit no opportunity to show their interesting works.
Soon I will bring to this wonderful contest more objects that I will create with great affection and dedication worthy of a competition like this.
Soon I will bring to this wonderful contest more objects that I will create with great affection and dedication worthy of a competition like this.
Designer Interview
20 October 2018
The need and the will perfects the art, since I was little and in all the schools that I went through I always excelled in drawing or manual work, and my dedication was always more towards the arts than for grammar or mathematics or any other discipline.Outside of school I was forced to create my own toys, taking advantage of those my friends threw away, remodeling them in such a way that they even wanted it back.In my youth I ventured into the jungle between Venezuela and Brazil, working in the golden mines, where everything was invented, engine parts, machines, and even the houses were sometimes made only to sleep one night.In the background I have always had to create, develop, make to use very quickly and to be functional, this is the purest and primitive design that accompanies the man since he is man.As soon as I had the opportunity i went to a design college, having then made also architecture.
My company was created by my wife Irina Sokolava, she discovered a need to fill a gap between customers and factories where we came to intervene to bring our customers' wishes to be understood by the factories and be produced properly.
Design is a clever way to create objects, tools and utensils to give man comfort, safety, and improve his way of life.
I like to draw everything, I'm an architect and designer, I draw the furniture and the house up to the door lock, if necessary, there is nothing that I having a paper and a pencil in my hand I cannot be able to draw.
The favorite drawings are all those that are stored in the leaves of my blocks and which I keep as a family album, I visit them often to inspire me in certain details and old ideas.
Porcelain stoneware pots whit large in size to serve as interior and exterior decoration.
My favorite material is metal, wood and ceramics.
I feel more creative from the moment I'm ordered to work, or I start to feel the need to invent something, then I lock myself in the office forgetting to feed myself and the hours pass very quickly, just rest even when it's settled and done.
Form, function, and ergonomics, so that the result is something interesting and unique.
I'm out of the world as a child, I remember that for some quiet time they would give me a sheet of paper and a pen or pencil for me to draw. I am in a completely different state from the normal state of life, it is good, there are no problems, there is no pain, no hearing, it is what we are creating and nothing else.
It is a satisfaction, to be able to see that what we think and design is there, finished in front of us, ready for the world.
A good design is a set of details and details that complement one single object to give it a particular function and aesthetic, created from our effort and great dedication.
Firstly meet the objective for which was created be functional, resistant, and have interesting aesthetics.
We are responsible for what the industry produces, and this production can not endanger the environment or public health.It is we who influence the masses with our tendencies, create jobs, help develop new products, new production techniques, develop economies and create jobs.
The design in my view is going well, is creating an idea of the ecological, protect the environment, create new production solutions with new products much more ecological and of course the aesthetics linked to ergonomics has evolved a lot to good.
I have never done any exposure, and for now I do not know yet where I will be able to expose my products.
I always really liked the Art nouveau style, I like to see things with movement, rhythm, the man is not square has an organic shape and the things that nature produces as well.
My style is organic has to have movement, I really like the works of Gaudi, that's what makes millions of people visit Barcelona, they will not go there to see architecture boxes or square pieces, they will go to see forms full of live, and that's where I feel good developing things, they have to have life and movement.
My projects carry the places I went through and I lived, Africa, South America, and now Europe, and Portuguese history and culture has a lot of influence in my projects and I explore it, it's an identity of mine.The pros and cons of developing my projects in Portugal is that here people still do not fully believe in the design or they dont know the power that he as, you have a very good workforce but that's where we designers have to walk almost parallel to the industry, and I want to take advantage of looking for partnerships, to recover the best that here we can do manual work, it is very good there are craftsmen who pass from generation to generation and I intend to foster this helping.
I work on my own, do the development of the drawings and models, then I go to the factories with whom I work to produce my pieces.
Companies need to always be producing new things, consumption is demanding and always new proposals for this reason it is necessary to have in the production lines designers that of course can keep pace with the market.
It is a simple process goes through an idea or an client order, many drawings by hand raised, then computer drawings, make models, different scales then fabricated prototypes and completion of the pieces.
In my house only my bicycle cannondale scalpel with a lefty carbon suspension, my chairs, an antique table lamp the rest is banal.
I always get up early, I go to work by train or motorcycle, I make lots of drawings on my blocks, solutions for architectural projects and almost always many chairs is a challenge I have helps me clearing my head and make a pause, at the end in the afternoon I return home and I go again make more works that I have architecture and design if I have some time I still do a roller training with a static bike.
For a young person who has this vocation, because it is a vocation is a different way of living, study work hard for this purpose, believe in yourself, nobody will do the work for him, and fight for a place in the sun and of course always make your projects as if they were for him, attractive, robust, put everything the best you can do.
Because we are different they call us many times crazy, but of course our way of being in the world is different, we live in another world always dreaming, and other people after seeing our works concretized do not give the fair value, because after being done it seems like it was easy and anyone could do the same and even better.
Explore your dreams and make the idea happen.
Know how to draw the hand with your mouth or feet, print the ideas that we have in our head without resorting to other means such as computers, do mockups with materials equivalent to our proposals, never 3D printing is too easy and will not give us the perception of some difficulties that we pass on a smaller scale.Observation of all that surrounds us, from forms are born forms.And seek to be informed about new materials and new production techniques.
Tools, sketchpad and pencil, proxxon small work machines, Rhinocerus drawing program, I search in internet details materials and ideas to include in my works.
First thing is to do it calmly, I'm going to draw ideas and assembly forms almost in detail, second stage is to prepare the model to see if it can be assembled easily, after all done I go to the factories.
From 8 to 12 months, sometimes more others much less.
Is not to ask questions but to give answers, and to present solutions.
It was my first chair that I did for college, some teachers liked others hated, later I realized that I had created something that touched people, nobody was indifferent, they and stopped to see her and talk about her.
I do not have specific clients.
I like everything that has to do with design and architecture, I do not limit myself to this or that, what appears since it is executable is a challenge, and it is the challenges that make us grow.
Now I have to give continuity to these pieces, they have to go to the fairs and later comes their commercialization.And continue to make articles for home and decoration.
I develop my projects on my own.
At the moment I have already made models that need to be reviewed and other projects are on the way but nothing special until I think it they are ready and ready to go to the factory to make the prototypes.
By my email pffp.arq@gmail.com and by phone +351 962775985.
I am very grateful to the A'Award Design competition for this initiative to make a great contribution to the design and to designers and architects that are hidden by this world whit no opportunity to show their interesting works.Soon I will bring to this wonderful contest more objects that I will create with great affection and dedication worthy of a competition like this