Sheep of Portugal

This is our new poster, dedicated to the Sheep of Portugal! We created this piece to help promote each of our native sheep breeds, teaching a little more about the incredible diversity of their wool, something unknown even to those who are passionate about textile fibres! We wanted to create a beautiful piece (I think we succeeded!), but one that would stand out for being technically accurate and carrying interesting information, which, as you know, is hard to find.

It is a double-sided poster: on one side, we find a map of Portugal populated by our native sheep breeds, helping to locate each one in our territory. On the other, we find them organised according to the type of wool they produce and a short description of that type of wool, including an indication of the main groups: Churro, Bordaleiro and Merino.

It is a seemingly simple piece, but in fact it summarises more than a decade of research and work. We hope you like it, that you want to put it on your walls and give it to your friends!

The educational content was created by Alice Bernardo. The graphic design was developed by Estúdio Ofício, with creative direction by Alice Bernardo and Miguel Barbot, and art direction, illustration and design by Maria Helena Silva.

You can find it available in our online shop and in our physical shop.

How we illustrated the Sheep of Portugal

The illustration work of the 16 Portuguese sheep breeds was done entirely ‘at home’ by Maria Helena! Take a look at her work in the video. It was a long process involving many technical adjustments to ensure that each illustration accurately reflected the breed standard, but also the illustration style we have been developing at Saber Fazer, which is also partly Helena's style, as she has been working with us for many years. We wanted people to be able to identify the key characteristics of each breed when looking at the poster: the horns, the face, the specific features of the fleece, its colour, etc. And we wanted it to be such a beautiful poster that, despite the niche theme, no one would hesitate to hang it on their wall!