Nuno Tenazinha shared a beautiful typography and interior design project. From the 21st to the 26th of June 2021, the 10th edition of Algarve Design Meeting (ADM) took place at Fábrica da Cerveja, an old beer factory in Faro, Portugal. The University of Algarve, together with Faro City Council and Designers’ National Association, have been hosting ADM since 2011, giving design national and international centre stage once more by connecting designers, companies, academia, the industry and society. In 2021, KOBU™ Agency joined the event with an exhibition, a live wall-painting performance and talks.
In an event that gave design and designers the spotlight, KOBU™ Agency set up an exhibition named “The Type Factory”. The exhibition was developed in the context of an in-house project launched in 2019 called KOBU™ Foundry, a love letter to the inventive world of typography, but also a way to share the work that the agency has been developing over the years with its community. In this sense, “The Type Factory” aimed to immerse visitors in the world of typeface design, introducing them to the narrative-oriented typefaces developed by KOBU™ Foundry over the last two years.
Beyond that, the agency carried out a live wall-painting performance throughout the whole event, stressing the motto “forge your own singularity”. This artistic performance intended not only to reinforce the way variable fonts can transmit versatility and allow graphic dynamism to leap forward, but also urging designers to find and forge their own style and language, by using them as vehicles to convey narratives and stories as well as express visual concepts capable to sparkle and expand one’s imagination.
To emphasise the amount of importance KOBU™ Agency puts on typeface character, the agency also displayed an exhibition of the KOBU Text custom font specimen, a custom-designed font made to reflect the general mood of the KOBU™ brand developed by KOBU™ Foundry. All the while, a projection of selected works from the agency’s portfolio was also at play, displaying the several projects the agency has been able to develop in Portugal and abroad.
Additionally, Algarve Design Meeting held several talks around creative topics, in which the agency had the opportunity to be a part of. Brígida Guerreio, KOBU™ Agency’s graphic and type designer participated in the Alumni Talk “On Creative Process”, as Nuno Tenazinha and Sandra Lopes, the agency’s managing partners, held a presentation “On Weirdness, Boundaries and Meaning”.
For more information on “The Type Factory” exhibition please visit
Exhibition created by KOBU™ Agency: André Gonçalves (Copywriter), Brígida Guerreiro (Type Design and Wall painting), Miguel Spínola (Wall Painting), Nuno Tenazinha (Creative Director and Wall Painting), Pedro Santos (Motion Graphics), Ramiro Mendes (Photography)
