Good impressions: Lisbon’s O Momento combines print and craft in its stationery design space
Part shop, part shared working space, O Momento is a testament to the ageless power of print.
“The idea was born from the shared pleasure and joy of working with print, design and paper,” says O Momento’s co-founder João Costa. After years of running a print studio in Lisbon’s Baixa neighbourhood, he knew that there was an appetite for something bigger. So when the shop next door became vacant, Costa and his business partner, Cláudia Baeta, saw their chance to take the next step.
O Momento – which combines a shop, a co-working space and a printing house – opened in 2024. Here, customers can find exquisite craft paper, rare journals and high-quality pencils, as well as locally made prints.
“There were so many materials and supplies that we had been using for years and it made sense to share them with the public,” says Baeta. “The best thing in the world is when people ask us what type of paper or binding to use for a certain project.”
In the co-working space, workshops introduce Lisboetas to new printing techniques. Recently, Baeta ran a course alongside Pedro Salgado, the leading scientific illustrator in Portugal. Their gyotaku workshop introduced participants to the 1800s Japanese art form in which you apply ink to a fish before printing onto paper. “We brought these enormous fish into the workshop and a group of very brave people tried to master this technique,” says Costa. “It produced some spectacular works.”
During Monocle’s visit to O Momento, we see its “ephemeral cabinet”, which features Portuguese stationery that you can’t find anywhere else. “We travelled up and down the country in search of old shops or factories that had this stock in a warehouse,” says Costa. “They were very happy to see us pick up these things that they thought no longer had any value.”
While digital reigns supreme in so much of our lives, places such as O Momento remind us of the power of physical media. “Print will never disappear because people have a tactile relationship with the objects that they like,” says Baeta. “Print is irresistible.”
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