One of the many exciting elements of my career is to commission other creatives to help me fulfil my ambitions for the projects I work on for my clients, and over the years I have had the greatest pleasure of working with some very great talent. In this post I am going to highlight one of these great talents, an artist I commissioned for a very small project during my time as the creative director for the British chocolatier Hotel Chocolat.
I was first introduced to the work of NUNO da COSTA by a colleague when I worked for Vanity Fair in London. Immediately I saw his worked I admired its qualities; the elegant lines and glorious handling of colour and texture.
Over the years I have come to believe that art is an important visual dialogue, not only in its own right for it’s ability to evoke emotion and style, but also as a much needed visual breathing space in between the huge amount of photography published in magazines and online, which can sometimes wash-over me purely due to the endlessness of it all. A different form of stimulus can prove to be invaluable. During my time in India, as the art director of Vogue India, I was delighted to be in the position to commission an eight page illustrated portfolio of fashion designers with their ideal muses. It was also testimony to the editor that she agreed to the concept.
Back to Mr da Costa. It was quite a long time after I first met Nuno that I had a project which I felt he would be prefect for, not that I was sure that he would agree to do it. Of all things it was a small work of art to go on to the paper cups in which we served hot chocolate in the Hotel Chocolat cafés. To my great delight — and after telling Nuno that I wouldn’t be offended if he didn’t feel it was right for him - Nuno agreed. The fluid quality of his work I felt was prefect for my concept of melting edible luxury. It was a bonus of sorts that the Queen of Shops Mary Portas appreciated this added detail to a simple paper cup. Since that commission — and in no way due to it! - Nuno’s work and career has gone from strength to strength having been commissioned by Vogue, Chanel, Dior, Harpers Bazaar and Tiffany to name just a few
The beauty of his black line work with the elegantly refined colour and textured details is making his work ever more sort after and, it would be remiss of me to neglect to say that I feel at the very heart of his work is his kind spirit and thoughtful and generous manner. There is a calm fluidity and confident elegance throughout Nuno’s work. Sublimely modern but in the same stroke timeless.
nunodacosta.com