Design by OOF’s studio is located at number 170 of Av. D. Afonso Henriques – the axis connecting Guimarães’ central square to the railroad station. This avenue runs through Bairro de Couros, or Bairro C, a place that is in the process of being nominated as a Unesco World Heritage Site. From day one we shared our space with Ondamarela, Ana and Ricardo’s company, with whom we have worked regularly and who invited us to join this project.
Meio Caminho (Halfway) is a walking tour guide to this neighborhood, developed by Ondamarela and Design by OOF for the Guimarães City Council. In this project, we tried to avoid the rules of standard guides: instead of a map, we proposed a route accessible by foot which can generate many more courses. It is a path between different places in Bairro C where, along the way, there are several detour possibilities to discover other places in the city, halfway.
The guide has a portable format and can be used autonomously by visitors, without the need for a mediator. For this, we developed several typographical hierarchies that guide the reader: there is a narrator, visit spots, activities and challenges, and halfway proposals. Along the tour, the visitor is also guided by illustrations intended to assert themselves as new symbols for the city.