Interview: Ivomaia design

I don't feature many personal accessories but the Ivomaia bags are so pretty that I wanted to make an exception - especially when designers Ivo Maia and Liliana Reis were kind enough to agree to an interview! Ivomaia specialise in both interior and product design and are based just outside of Porto. Their website acts as a boutique although their products are already widely available in shops across Portugal, Spain and France. Over to them.

1. Tell us a bit about what you do and what first inspired you to do it?
The company tries to spread Portuguese design, telling a story with each bag. By designing bags, we're able to create graphic projects that can be worn. The designs are simple but creative.

2. What do you do when you're not creating/selling?
We find it hard to disassociate the act of designing when we see inspiration everywhere we look. We get inspiration from the world around us and our minds are always on our next project. We spend most of our free time visiting expositions, reading and spending time with our friends.

3. What's your favourite piece / the hardest thing for you to sell?
We don't have a particular favourite piece but we try to create collections around a certain theme. The first pieces of each collection are the hardest ones for us to part with simply because we've worked so hard on them that we think of them as our children!

4. What is your most valuable possession?
Our most valuable possession would have to be our creativity - without it we couldn't exist in the design sphere!

5. What are your plans for the future / new ranges?
We want to concentrate on selling outside of Portugal and making our brand more international.

6. Complete this sentence: "Happiness is..."
Happiness is....doing what we love!