WO Design

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Translation results
The wallet was created “for fun” but it was so successful among friends and acquaintances that it made it clear that something more would have to be born out of it. Nádia Barbosa and Ricardo Santos, who have always been passionate about organic and functional design, ended up launching, in 2014, WO Design. The Portuguese brand of wooden accessories has as values ​​the minimalism in design, the functionality of the pieces and the sustainability of the materials.
Ricardo grew up watching old furniture gain new life in the hands of his father, who is doing restoration work in his small workshop. The taste for wood ended up passing from father to son and Ricardo became a CNC machine programmer – responsible for cutting materials –, dedicating himself to wood for furniture. That’s why WO Design’s parts are first cut by machine and only then go through the manual work of sanding, treating, pasting, engraving. “The machine leaves the piece unbleached and then a lot of detailed craft work is needed”, explains Ricardo.
The wood used always comes from the waste of other larger pieces, produced either by factories or by Ricardo’s father’s restorations. And with the exception of special editions, in which rare exotic woods are used, local ones are privileged, such as walnut, ash or oak.
In addition to the WOwallet – the wallet that carries cash, coins and up to seven cards – there is also the WOpod, a small box that supports and protects earpods, and also the WOcase, the brand’s bestseller. It is a mobile phone case in natural wood sheet, produced through injection, which allows the wood to have 0.3 millimeters, the right thickness to be minimally malleable and very comfortable in the hand.
All product packaging is thought to detail and handcrafted by Nádia and Ricardo, who also choose to use recycled materials here. “We export to countries around the world that we’ve never even heard of.”