The market (Pitch Market) was launched two years ago in Praça do Comércio, only with one-third of the total of representations unveiled this year. It has been able to double the number of stands since 2015, having brands which represent the Portuguese design and décor, most of them making the most out of the region resources, in a way to maximize the potential of the locals.

This year Pitch Market counted with a remarkable turnout, doubling the number of brands of last year. It was visited, according to the fair’s director, Tiago Miranda, contrary to what one could initially expect, by many Portuguese, who intentionally visited the fair to look for specific products, taking their families and children with them. Even though the market’s location is an important tourist spot, it was the Portuguese people who accredited it with acknowledgement and interest. The space itself and the containers, where several brands and products were housed, many from the whole country, were kindly leased by the City Hall of Lisbon, which, according to Tiago Miranda, showed its will to collaborate from early on, as well as its enthusiasm with the initiative.

The event’s director defines this market as a point of sale for Portuguese products, specialized in décor and design, a theme that, up to this point, had yet to be explored by points of sale with such traits. The products, most of them for the household, are sold in the street, they aspire to have top-notch quality, and they can be purchased for high prices or for a very low cost, depending on the wallet of each customer. Fábrica Bordallo Pinheiro, also represented at the fair, flaunts the latest pieces of the factory, in ceramics. A challenge accepted by the cartoonist António, and one that consisted in giving a three-dimensional shape to renowned figures such as Mário Soares, Eusébio, Pope Francis, Barack Obama and Angela Merkel, the latter having a prominent spot on the stand. Without forgetting, of course, the mordacious and facetious tone with which the pieces are treated, ever so typical of the spirit of caricature works, and also a trait of the factory itself, engulfed in humour and political satire, akin to its tradition.

On its left and right sides, one could find the stands occupied by Fábrica Vista Alegre, where, in a true stadium-like atmosphere, two artisans, each with their own space, (properly illuminated), were painting the white surfaces of the dishware, with meticulous shapes, with slender and smooth lines, in subtle tones. First a watercolour drawing, placed in the oven right away, and then the following layers, brushstrokes with more minutiae and detail. In one of these stands, an artisan was painting a bird, still white at that moment, with fine and meticulous brushstrokes, outlining, with a firm hand, parallel traces, in order to give the feathers a coloured texture. It was a piece from Sam Baron, La Dame aux Oiseaux. Adding to a whole lot of prominent brands, of household products, Pitch Market counted with the presence of the brand Corque, which develops furniture based on corkwood, leaded by Ana Mestre; Laboratório d’Estórias, which has accustomed us to its table Christmas trees, geometric and stylized, in ceramics; Abelha Mukaki, with its tropical style, one that, in a certain way, unfurls memories alluding to a remote colonial legacy; the brand Alguidar Knit, with geometric shapes in wool, made with a hand-loom; the brand So-So with its gentle and sweet wooden toys; the cork products of Tiago Sá da Costa, aligning the laser cutting technique with handmade processes, and concatenating agglomerated cork sheets which unfold themselves in multiple shapes; the brand Trinta Por Uma Linha, one that magnifies the number of mundane objects through the use of cork, wool and pine. Other brands were also represented, such as Projecto Tasa, with Arte do Latoeiro, of Henrique Ralheta; Egg Electronics; JMGlass; De Raiz; Eco Solutions; among many other projects and brands with the same quality.