© Dani Codina
Designer Tati Guimarães with her Bakus placemat.
This Brazilian artist got hooked on the world of design at the age of six. “I was very little, but I liked making my own toys and used to make gifts for the whole family. I somehow knew where my vocation lay, but I didn’t know what profession might suit me.” She began by studying advertising and switched to design two years later. Her environmental awareness emerged slowly but surely. “I’ve always been very closely linked to nature. At the age of 14 I began to take an interest in organic food and questioned the source of materials, clothes and food. When I started working in advertising agencies I was worried about whether the ink was toxic and reused and leveraged materials as best I could. This attitude has always driven the way I design, and it also reflects my personal life,” she confesses. For Tati Guimarães, the city of Barcelona is a source of inspiration. The Brazilian designer has been living in the capital for 15 years, and set up her Ciclus studio here in 2001.
Recipient of the IDEA/Brasil Ecodesign Award for her Cavallum product, which was also named one of the most innovative new products of 2009 in London’s Global Innovation Report, Tati Guimarães has been internationally recognised with several awards. In 2011 she was mentioned in Taiwan Design Week as an example of a design professional whose creations promote well-being, sustainability and humanisation. Her designs were exhibited at the SaloneSatellite in Milan this year, and the MoMA in New York selected her Bakus product – table mats made using wine-bottle corks – for the museum’s catalogue, to be distributed internationally under the designer’s brand and signature.
How does she understand ecodesign? “It’s basically an attitude: the idea is to use the minimum amount of material, water, energy and transport. In addition, there’s a mentality of choosing certified, local materials, using clean production processes that generate minimal impact.” One of the creative aspects she likes most is related to selecting materials. “I want them to be consistent with the functionality and durability of the design and also to provide beauty and harmony,” she explains. She draws her inspiration from “observing everyday life” and loves to reinvent what she sees.