Vitrine® — independent design studio
Lisbon & Copenhagen
Est. 2014
On view: 8 plates
Work worth hanging on a wall.
Vitrine is an independent studio for identity, packaging and spatial design. We make brands for companies that make things slowly and well.
Plate 01 / 08
Vale House
Vale Architects, 2026
Identity, Signage, Website
The studio
Collected by
What we make
Names, wordmarks, type systems and the rules that keep them consistent after we leave.
Strategy, Naming, Logo, Typography, Guidelines
Boxes, labels and bottles that look right on a shelf and survive the trip home.
Structure, Labels, Print production, Photography
Websites and stores built like exhibitions: one idea per screen, nothing in the way.
Websites, E-commerce, Motion, Framer builds
Signage, wayfinding and interior graphics for places people actually walk through.
Wayfinding, Signage, Interiors, Exhibitions
11
designers, writers and makers
64
identities still in use
9
countries with our signs on the wall
12
years of printing the first proof
How a project runs
Typical identity: 10–14 weeks
Brief
Weeks 1–2
We rewrite your brief together until it fits on one page and everyone agrees on what success looks like.
Direction
Weeks 3–5
Two or three routes, each printed and pinned to a wall. You choose one; we explain why we’d pick it too.
Design
Weeks 6–11
The chosen route becomes a system: type, color, layouts, applications, tested on real materials.
Delivery
Weeks 12–14
Guidelines, master files and a handover session. We stay on call for the first print run.
From the visitors’ book
Inês Vale
Founding partner, Vale Architects
From the journal
Process
Why we still print the first proof
Screens flatter everything. Paper tells you the truth about a typeface in about four seconds.
Essay
A brief is a design object
The best projects start with a one-page brief that the client writes and we rewrite together.
Studio
Notes from the Arc Transit install
Nineteen stations, eleven nights and one bracket that saved the budget.