Mónica Pinto de Almeida

I was born in the north of Spain and spent most of my childhood between Spain and the north of Portugal. Having a multicultural family where Art in all its forms was always present since a very early age. So, when I started my academic studies, I fell in love with decorative Arts, the experience to work with raw materials such as natural pigments, plasters, canvas in different supports, like walls and ceilings gave me a new perception of volumes, a better understanding of the very nature of the materials and a new comprehension of the Art history and the endless search of the human being to be surrounded by beauty. I developed my studies in the areas of Frescoes, Trompe L'oeil, Decorative Painting, Restoration, XVI Hand-painted Tiles techniques, Drawing and Art history. After several years working in all these above areas, the interest and passion for Design appeared naturally, a new world where I was able to materialize the colors, the volumes, and the shapes that I have always worked in multidimensional pieces.

I started my studio in 1996 with everything related to Frescoes, Decorative Painting, Restoration, and creation of new mural painting techniques. In 2014 the interest and passion for light and Design materialized under the brand MOKKI as a lighting and furniture design studio. The studio is based in Portugal, Lisbon, a city bordered by the Atlantic Ocean just as my birth city. These social and demographic characteristics bring a strength to the pieces, along with a natural melancholy of northern Portugal and Galicia. The pieces tell stories, and challenge shapes, the Mokki language is graphic, architectural, and colorful. All Mokki pieces or objects are created and manufactured in Portugal.

Design for me is the translation of Art through a conscient thinking of everything which makes our environment more special and where “Each line is the beginning of a story”.

Having into account my background in Arts, chiaroscuro has always been studied in painting to create environments, emotions and stories. I fell in love without realizing, as always happens, with creating pieces, telling stories and giving them light. Lighting pieces might be the most challenging and passional to design, because without light there is no shadow, and without shadow there are no volumes, we need balance, the unknown, the dark and the light. I feel that every new design has to challenge us as a designer and as a human being.

I have no favorite piece, each piece is unique for me, because it reflects a time, a moment in my history. I have many moments and many passions that are reflected in my creations.

Usually my favorite materials are organics, but more and more I love to work with new materials other than organics and learn new possibilities and work techniques. Regarding platforms or technologies, I do not have a preference, it all comes down to what a design needs.

I usually feel more creative when faced to a challenge or a need. The people, the clients and their needs, the desires, everything creates that state of mind where ideas begin to unfold on their own. It is not a conscious process, but inspiration and creativity come from all the things that arouse my interest at a certain moment, feelings, experiences, travelling, cultures,… All these are stored and are a part of my design thinking process.

When I start a design in the paper, everything starts with a line, and every line has a story. Sometimes in the process of creation, which often is full of chaos inside the mind, full of sleepless nights, restless thinking, and an exhausting emotional process, after all of that, usually comes a moment of peace, where every thought and line comes together as one. And in that moment is when I realize and feel the story behind. And that story comes always with emotions, speaks through the piece/object/light, its truth.

I usually feel a mix of peace, responsibility and an enormous curiosity about the response and the interaction with the public in general.

For me a successful design is when you communicate with the user through the emotions, beauty and functionality of the same.

I usually consider first the aesthetics but always along with their purpose and functionality.

As designers we have to make life better, easier and more beautiful, always having in mind the whole manufacturing process, the materials we use and the impact they may have in our society and environment.

I think the design field is evolving in finding new materials and ways of working and producing in a better way for our environment. The future of Design may be bringing us more to ourselves and to our true nature.

My last exhibition was at LDF'2018 and Orgatec also in 2018. Taking into account the health problem existing this year with the covid'19 I hope next year I'll be able to attend new design exhibitions.

The inspiration for my works comes essentially from everything, from a color, a book, a painting, an artist, a city, a journey, comes from my background, from the city where I was born, from the Atlantic ocean... The way to feeding creativity is by staying alive, being aware of who we are and where we are, and look around you, always.

I like to say that my work changes and changes because it's natural, it's an expression of ourselves and our personal growth. I like to combine the human spirit with artisanal heritages, craftsmanship, new technologies and visions that may follow the MOKKI Philosophy. Art is for me the purest form of the humankind expression, where all the questions, doubts and restlessness of the soul and mind become matter.

I live in Portugal, and the cultural heritage not always has an influence in my designs. However, it's natural that even unconsciously certain aspects influence me, cultural or artistic ones. The north of Spain, in particular Galicia, where I was born has a very enigmatic and melancholic aura, that I always carry with me in some way and nowadays living in Portugal, together with my family, I feel similarities between these two places that maintain a very special connection with traditions, with the sea, with the people... As living in a not very big country, we all know each other and maybe we can support each other more, but in terms of production I do think that our industry and manufacturing needs to be more rigorous in its production and look at Design with the excellence that it deserves and needs.

Allow them to be creative, to have their own voice. Companies can select a good designer by looking at their body of work, understanding their philosophy, to see if their partnership will make sense and create a successful path.

My design process starts with the idea, then translate that idea into something physical, drawings, sketches, color studies...later starts the 3D work on the computer to see everything, all the components functioning together. The next step is the production of a prototype where we have a better understanding of the piece, the things that are right and wrong, readjust every necessary step and finally starting the production of the same.

The lighting items, chairs, mid-century design furniture, old pieces without a particular style but history and pieces of art.

There are so different days, the only thing that remains the same is my first cup of tea in the morning. Some days continue in a very busy way, others are spent in the factories, others I have meetings and others I work with my team and at the weekends I try to charge the creativity and be with my loved ones.

Study a lot and learn a lot from the great designers, understand why things are so important, question everything, be humble and work hard.

For me, the positive aspects are when I feel that the public relates to and loves my projects. The negatives may be that sometimes it is a long journey to be recognized but we should never stop.

Sensitivity, power of observation and the anticipation of a need.

Pencils, notebooks, papers, watercolours, sketchup software, autocad, solidworks, books, art books, colors, paintings...

Sometimes it can take a month, sometimes several months or even years.

Building up my own studio, first with the decorative arts and later with the creation of the brand MOKKI and the design studio.

I develop the designs myself but then I work with my closest team and production team as well.

I have several furniture pieces that are being studied now and some lighting features are in the concept stage.

My experience as a designer starts around the year 2014 as a natural follow up to that date. I have education in Decorative Painting, Mural Painting, frescoes, furniture restoration, 15th century tile making, drawing and art history. All my life I have been surrounded by art and design. I opened my first atelier in 1997, and I had this evolution and passage to design in a very organic way and even as a challenge from my clients who wanted me to design different pieces for them.

I became a designer as a result of an evolution and professional growth, it was a natural passage, a move from painting to creating pieces, a discovery of new techniques driven by much personal restlessness. This is how my passion for design truly began. Gradually I learned product design in a self-taught way and in 2014 I started to outline a new professional path and together with my partner and mother we created the brand Mokki Design. It has been a very arduous path, I'm always in continuous learning, but at the same time it has been extremely rewarding and very interesting to see how all my background and training in the arts plays an enormous influence on the design that I do today.

My drawings are very much inspired by my emotions, my passions, the things I admire. I think that any designer, artist has this characteristic, there is a greater force that impels us to create and that is out of our control. Then comes a more rational part that helps us structure a design. It's important to know what we want to transmit with a design and if its function can actually be beneficial, what it can bring to the world. I usually start the designs with drawings, sketches by hand, and then move on to a more technical phase with the help of 3D programs, and then for some designs I make full scale models to understand the volumetry and proportions. The final phase of any piece will be the direct collaboration with the manufacturer to start the first prototype and study if there are changes to make or not and the study of the light in the case of lamps.

The emotions I feel when designing are several, usually there is an initial excitement, like when we are in love, in which even sleeping becomes difficult because my head won't stop, then comes a calmer phase of consolidation, to finally have again an explosion of excitement when we see the first real pieces in front of us, that is, to see the materialization of the idea is very overwhelming.

What shaped me most as a designer was my experience with materials due to my artistic background. Knowing where the materials come from, knowing how to work with them manually, knowing how they behave is extremely important and enriching nowadays when I make a design. I know how colors behave, I know how to work with natural pigments, I know how to make natural waxes for wood, I know how to work with shadows and perspectives due to Trompe L'oeil painting. All of this is carried to my current experience as a designer, all of which have become invaluable tools that shape my designs as well as the influences I can bring from my passions, such as architecture and the great painters.

My growth is everyday, with each new design or project I learn. In my plans is the presence of the Mokki brand in more and more countries and I embrace more and more projects that can be creatively challenging. In the future I want to continue to be myself and that people can look at a piece of me and feel a connection to their story, that arouses some emotion is always my dream and of course continue to work with light which is something that fascinates me.

The advice I would give to young designers is to always stay true to their language, without that we don't have a truth and without that we don't have true design or soul. Always try to create a support network around us is also extremely important, to have good collaborators by our side is what allows us to propel ourselves, to have people by our side with whom we can learn and grow, they can be friends, colleagues or teachers, it doesn't matter, the important thing is that they can always show us a different point of view and that we can grow.

What can I suggest to other designers? To remain true, to always try to bring something better to the world, not to follow fashions or trends, to think about the future, and to be kind to each other.

My daily routine always starts with a big cup of tea and after catching up on the normal household chores and family logistics I go to my office and go over the list of tasks I have for that day, chat with my partner, check the mails, design news...and then the concentration starts. I have many hours of office and computer time, but my favorite things are the meetings with the manufacturers, the meetings around a cup of tea in Sintra and being with people, just observing the day.

I always follow my line and vision without following the trends, but I am always up to date with the latest news, the latest materials, the new emerging designers and to understand what are the trends or phases we are in, because it also gives us a social-economic-environmental notion of our days. I don't follow trends at all, but rather adapt or evolve in what makes the most sense to me, such as sustainability issues in design and its entire sphere. My inspiration always comes from subjects very dear to me, nature, the arts, materials and colors, and architecture.

What makes a good design a really good design I think should be the combination of beauty and function and the capacity to surprise us

The decision about whether a design is ready or not, is very intuitive, it is something we feel and sometimes we can also verify supported by a strong method of experimentation, of questioning everything and listening to opinions. When we have the feeling and have the verifications then yes, we can think that a design is indeed finished. But there are also cases of some designs that can always be evolving over time.

I consider that I don't have a greater work than another in terms of design, all of them are very important to me at their moment, there is a great passion always for all of them during their creation and development. All are very special to me and all have very different characteristics. Right now I'm working on several new designs simultaneously which is really exciting, one of them is all metal and involves metalwork, manual handling on my part, and the others involve different materials like glass or textiles for example.

I don't have a favorite designer, I have many. I love Jaime Hayon, for me he represents very well Spanish design and the influence of culture, colors and characters in design. I love architecture, so Corbusier, Ricardo Bofill, Zaha Hadid, Walter Gropius ,are some of my favorites. I love Philippe Starck's personality, I love to listen to Kareem Rashid's lectures...There are so many, I also love fashion design and also ancient architecture and to know the geniuses behind some cathedrals and of course the great artists like Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Gauguin, Matisse, Rodin, Camille Claudel or photographers like Imogen Cunningham.

I currently live in Sintra, Portugal, next to Lisbon, Sintra is a town, a Unesco world heritage site, and has a mountain range that goes all the way to the sea, due to these characteristics, a microclimate is created where we have almost every day some fog and a somewhat melancholic atmosphere. Curiously, this reminds me a lot of my hometown in Spain, Vigo, in the region of Galicia, where we also have a very particular climate, with a lot of humidity, fog and the smell of the sea. For me to live I have to be in a city with sea, the Atlantic influences me a lot, the landscape, the characteristic smell of the sea...it is something that inspires me. I also use music in my daily life, I never work without music! It is very important to be surrounded by what makes sense to us as individuals, so that creativity can flow. More and more I look at things with a more critical eye, a more "design" look where we question more the function of everything and the emotions or experiences that a piece brings us.

In my work culture the human factor is always above all, it is the most important for me to work, to collaborate with people I really like and with whom I identify in work methods. I am very demanding at a professional level, there has to be a seriousness, education and respect underlying everything.

As a designer I have a great responsibility to contribute to this field in a positive way, creating pieces that can have a positive impact and contributing to the education of young designers and beyond to understand the impact good design has on our society. I love it when I am given the opportunity, to speak to young people who may be starting out on their journey.

By participating in the A'Design Award the learning I get from each application is enormous! During the whole process I am forced to see and think about the piece in a deeper way, and I learn to express many of the things that sometimes stay only in our heads, such as the concepts behind a design and its inspiration. I consider the A'Design award extremely important in that we grow as designers when we are given feedback by other professionals, when we are evaluated by such an extensive jury it gives us other certainties or raises questions. Finally, of course, when we are awarded, it consolidates our vision and recognition of our capabilities and helps our design to have a huge visibility platform. Being the designer of the day makes me feel immensely happy, recognized, and I hope I can continue to give back for many years to come with good design!!

My whole life has been surrounded by Art in general, my family is multicultural, and has always been very supportive in terms of education and led me down a path that I could love and relate to. My grandfather drew and was a history lover, my mother wrote poetic prose and my father painted, no doubt this had a strong impact on my early growth, development and later on my career. My graduate education was in Decorative Arts, Frescoes, Restoration, Drawing and Art History.

I became a designer in a very natural way, it was something organic. It started with the discovery of going from painting done on a plane, like mural painting, to suddenly creating with volumes. Everything motivates me to design, but especially the desire to make something beautiful, to play with shapes, to play with light and perspectives.

Mostly I design lighting objects, there is something very magical about working with light, there is always a discovery in each piece, there is always a learning in each new project and there is also a kind of addiction in the study of light, we always want more... I hope to continue exploring light for many years to come.

I think young designers should focus on working hard, studying a lot, and questioning a whole lot. And above all they should never sacrifice their style, which makes them individual beings with a unique thought and vision. We need unique visions that make us see the world from another perspective and learn from each other, I think that's where the beauty of design lays.

In my opinion what distinguishes a good designer and a great designer is the power to see ahead of our needs.

What makes a good design a really good design I think should be the combination of beauty and function and the capacity to surprise us.

The value of good design, design is in everything we touch in our daily lives, good design should be there to add something, be it functional or emotional. Everyone should invest in good design in order to create a better environment for humans, to satisfy our wants and needs.

I think I would like to design a school for my son and a house in nature.

I love all my projects, I don't have a particular dream, just keep working maybe is my dream.

Well, if I tell you what my secret to success is, it won't be a secret anymore...Just kidding, I don't think there are any secrets, there is a lot of resilience, hard work and true commitment to our vision.

There are so many..., Jaime Hayon, Zaha Hadid, Kareem Rashid, Eames, Ini archibong, Corbusier, Jacobsen, Eileen Gray, Picasso, Miró, ...

I love a particular desk from the Eames due to its simplicity and colors. I love the Egg chair by Jacobsen, the Theia lamp by Matthias Hahn and the furniture by Pierre Cardin.

To be honest, I don't know if there is a "greatest" design, they are all the greatest at their moment. If we didn't think that way, we wouldn't create them. I can't choose one, I can't, for me they are all great, they are all my great passions and reflect a moment in time.

Studying hard, never stopping to study, being up to date with trends, new materials, new manufacturing systems, and learning from the greats.

Design to me is the translation of Art through a more conscious thought, a more objective thought, a desire to transform our environment, an ability to see the needs of the human being.

Who helped me reach these heights, was my family, particularly my mother and my partner, and my biggest fan is my son, without a doubt, a true cheerleader!