Catherine Pacheco is part of a new generation of Portuguese designers who have been claiming at the national level, but especially on the international scene by promoting the concept of Portuguese design. This young designer tries to envolve in her projecta personal touch based on her origins but also on a constant evolution in terms of methods and materials.
You're almost a nomadic, you travel to different countries in search of new experiences, had many internships in many companies. How did it start? When did you feel motivated for this kind of experience?
Catarina Pacheco: Beginning in the travel, always I had a great taste for voyages, I travel since little with my family. When I started studying design immediately I knew wanted to do Erasmus, which is a special program to study abroad for a semester, I went to England and from there I got the "bug" to make trips, work and gain experience in certain countries. Later, there was an internship for Switzerland and I ended up staying two years, I was in England again by Leonardo Da Vinci scholarship, went to work for an independent design studio, Glithero, but also had other specific collaborations in Paris worked with a group called Stihl where I built furniture. Currently I'm working as a freelancer and I'm between Switzerland and Portugal, being outside and inside is part of my way of being.
How does this influence the pieces that you create?
CP: An interesting thing happens to be out of Portugal realized how everything is different, the environment, climate, culture and when I returned to my country after these stays I looked much more attention to the materials, craftsmanship and there have made an artistic residence in the Algarve, where I was working a craft techniques and local materials. The inspiration for each project depends largely because it has to do with my day-to-day, some photos I took, a detail in a building itself, or in nature and also of where I am. But always has this look out for Portugal, has to do with my origins.
So how you print your fingerprint as a designer? How do we know that is a product Catarina Pacheco?
CP: Well, that's a good question. I think I'm still building my identity in every project I do, whether personal, from an artistic residence, or an interest I have, such as for a customer, or a brand, as in search team through materials, or a target audience. But I think gradually this identity is growing has a lot in its origin to do with my interests, I like to use color, transparencies and working with my hands with craft techniques, but it is not something tight, evolves.
How have this facility to be here and out, what is the view of Portuguese design from the outside?
CP: From what I know, and I started working in the area for five years, I think the Portuguese design had a very positive development, at the industry level we have exported more and there is already a recognition of what is Portuguese, as a product that it is designed and manufactured with quality. On the other hand, in an area not as industrial design, but more to the craft level of own production, what I notice is that there are more people doing very interesting collections and there is a greater diversity and this is very good for the area .
As a designer which is the emblematic piece that defines you? There is some work where we note that Catarina Pacheco design?
CP: I do not know, all my works represent me and are of a certain stage I went through, but there are some that are more striking than others, for example, was very important to me the masks set in the artistic residence in the Algarve. The solistice I and II was a turning point for my most copyright design. But all my projects are important because they are part of my journey of transformation and evolution in terms of my career.
Are there any more difficult or less desirable material in terms of concept?
CP: I think not. I like working with different materials, because each project has a different story, because each material is different and it is a new challenge, even if at first I do not know if it has to go to the factory, or a craftsman, I try to understand how it all works.
And some of these materials surprised you?
CP: Yes, the one that surprised me was the porcelain because when I was doing a residency at "Vista Alegre" I had a very direct contact with the production and how I had never worked with this material was a brutal process and actually in terms of way you can do almost everything in terms of porcelain. That's incredible.
In relation to your own projects, what you intend to do in the medium term?
CP: I'm currently inserted in a project in Switzerland, it is a rebranding of a brand of organic products, this has more to do part of the graphic design. Regarding the objects of design, I am preparing a new collection that is still in prototype stage, so I cannot talk more about it.
