This project started as a service intended to support Portuguese black pottery artisans. I spent time meeting different professionals, learning about how they work and listening to the difficulties around keeping these practices going. Being there changed the way I thought about the project. I became much more aware that design intervention also has to respect the conditions, scale and place in which people already work.
Instead of asking artisans to leave their communities and come towards the design process, the service was built around going to them. The idea became a weekend journey from Lisbon to different pottery communities, creating opportunities for people to meet the artisans, see their work and experience the context themselves.
Occo combines the service with a contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional Bilha dos Segredos. More than the final object, what stayed with me from this project was the experience of actually spending time with the people involved. It made design feel much more personal to me: less about designing from a distance and more about understanding who is there first.
