Colönia is an emergent design studio that came to life through a focus on creative direction and communication design. The brainchild of Portuguese creative duo, and co-founders Joana Machado and João Cruz, Colönia studios were founded in 2010 with the philosophy of an ideas-led approach to collaborating and creating for themselves and clients.

Based in the Portuguese town of Porto, Machado and Cruz’s co-founded Colönia with the intention of providing a unique platform for artists. Machado comments on the inspiration behind Colönia saying, “the will was to create our own context or platform to be able to develop our work through our own vision and perspective. We wanted to create our own aesthetics, through a connection to arts and to other disciplines.“

“Colönia is an independent design studio with a strong trans disciplinary approach, that crosses several disciplines. We develop both commercial and independent work, which means that some projects respond to a specific briefing from clients, and others are just a will to give a perspective about things or to communicate our own ideas.”

The studio's first independent product design ‘10’ is the embodiment of their philosophy. Described as one of Machado’s favourite projects, ‘10’ is an intricately designed personal stamp set. It was created with the intention of being marked a celebratory 10 out of something, and was forged with the intention of marking special meaning in your life.

http://colonia.pt/vtoo/

Words/ Bridgette Hungeford