Leading a Brand with Purpose

Finding our purpose is something we all aspire to do. We want to understand what drives us, what makes us feel connected, what we can do to leave a mark in someone’s life or on the planet. Somehow, we all want and need the same thing - to find our purpose.

Last Friday, we had our second virtual event precisely about purpose and finding meaning in all we do, particularly in our work. Lara Seixo Rodrigues, our speaker, shared how finding her purpose has helped define her job and her projects. She’s the founder of Mistaker Maker, a platform for artistic intervention with a meaningful purpose that she shared with us throughout the talk.

Before Mistaker Maker, Lara worked as an architect for more than 10 years, but she felt held back by the bureaucracy. At the core, what she really loved is the social environment of a building, how it connects people and can have an impact on the community and the neighborhood. While she was still working in architecture, she started to have  parallel artistic and creative projects allied with her field.It all started in Covilhã, Lara’s hometown, where, together with her brother and sister-in-law, they gathered their community in the first street art festival in Portugal. All around the city, street artists displayed their work on old buildings or empty facades. In Covilhã, they also did an inside-out project with the oldest workers of a factory, portraying these valued employees through large portraits on the exterior of the building. In 2017, they paid a tribute to the firemen after the massive fires that summer, all with street art. The connection between all of these projects was the impact of street art and the involvement of the community. These were, and still are, important values for Lara, as they give purpose to these projects.

Mistaker Maker also undertook a project around S. Bento station, in Porto, where illustrators were invited to share stories of some well-known people of the neighborhood through street art. The results were incredible, and the involvement of the whole neighborhood and the illustrators was so meaningful in bringing connection to everyone there, both old residents and new.

Another project full with purpose, which embraced the power of community,was for Federação Portuguesa de Futebol, a festival that occured all across the country and ended in Bairro da Jamaica, a social neighborhood in Setúbal. It was a tough community to work with, as Lara and the Mistaker Maker team had to work with the leaders first in order to finally reach the kids. To the organizers’  surprise, they found these children couldn’t easily articulate dreams and visions for their lives.t Instead, they were focused on surviving, rather than envisioning a purpose for the future. So, the main work there was to help the youth understand they could dream big. The result was a huge flag hanging in the center of the neighborhood saying “Conquista o Sonho” built with the help of all of the community.

In all of the projects Lara developed, she was expecting more young people to be around when the artists were working on the streets. However, it was interesting to find out that seniors were their most interested audience. They were always around and asking questions. So, Lara thought, why shouldn’t seniors connect, learn and be part of street art? This led to a new project called Lata 65, which started as a workshop about street art for seniors. They learned the history and theories behind street art, they picked out their own graffiti names and finished the experience by painting a wall with their own masterpieces! The receptivity of this initiative was huge, and this project is now in several countries, such as Spain, USA, and Brasil. This project definitely shows how art is for everyone and that age is just a number!

More recently, for these strange times in which we’re living, Mistaker Maker created something really cool called Sebenta da Quarentena.  This colouring book was designed for elderly people in isolation during this pandemic, but it has grown and spread to everyone of all ages. Sebenta da Quarentena, made with the participation of 40 artists, has gone from just being a colouring book to inspiring much more creativity. People using the book are being so creative,using different materials and even embroidering  the illustrations. It’s incredible how the purpose we give to something we build and develop can grow, change and adapt to people’s needs.

Lara is purpose-driven. She wants to make a point. She wants to give power to communities and has learned street art is a fast way to do it, faster than architecture. “I believe the arts have the power to transform society”, she said, and I must add, she proved it true with all of these amazing projects. Keep on going, Lara!

This event was full of art, energy and social impact and it was absolutely amazing and inspiring, particularly in times like these where many of us find it difficult to find a purpose. So don’t give up on finding your path or your purpose! We all have it, so pay attention to the signs along the way and everything will drive you there!

Text by Ana Sousa

Photos by  Irina Konova and Sónia Ramalho