“If yesterday is a story already lived, tomorrow is a voyage still to be explored. Let the journey begin.”
from the story of Janus
Octaevo is inspired by the Mediterranean lifestyle and landscape. Their atelier is in Barcelona and from here they start travelling in the search for unique visual stories about the southern sun, the salty sea or tales of the Greek gods…
“This project started with my family album, says Creative Director of Octaevo, Marcel Baer. Images of my father Kurt in his late 20’s, working on the high sea surrounded by the wind and the waves. Black and white memories of him deep sea diving and exploring the unknown. The sea was his passion and his stories were full of adventures.
From my Spanish grandmother, Marieta, I have inherited hundreds of hours of Super 8 footage, documenting her family trips in the early ’60s, Marcel continues. The jet-age was just about to the change the world, and we see them traveling along the Mediterranean coast from Rome to Athens, Beirut until Tel Aviv… idyllic captions of a time long past. I was born in Zurich, and even though I spent all my summers at my grandparents in the South of Spain, I never thought that I’d be living in Barcelona one day. It happened by coincidence, and it felt right, because it felt like home.”
You can find many of the beautiful design of Octaevo in the shop of Nuovum. I am particularly fond of their handcrafted paper flower vases with single-line-labyrinth drawings or geometric seascapes and landscapes or their design collection depicting Janus, the ancient god with two faces. The collection of Octaevo includes beautiful stationery, home decoration objects, ceramics and cushions and their current adventure is sailing around the Mediterranean together with sailing vessel Narinan :
Rutes de Barcelona 