About Luísa

Luísa Pacheco is an accomplished production designer, art director, and set designer with over thirty years of experience in advertising, cinema, theater, and museology. Based in both Lisboa and London, Luísa has maintained an active international career since her studies in London. She excels in selecting and coordinating multidisciplinary teams and is always eager to take on new projects.

In addition to her design work, Luísa is also a multidisciplinary visual artist. Her artistic endeavors encompass spatial design, costume creation, painting, and jewelry design. She creates costumes for both film and theater, channeling her artistic disruptive vision into her work and enriching the dystopic contemporary art.

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Luísa Pacheco was born in Lagos, Portugal, and graduated in fashion design at IADE, the Institute of Art and Design in Lisbon.

She began her career as a scenographer and costume designer in theatre and in fashion, with a number of performances at the Manobras de Maio and, for television, designing the costumes and props for the children’s program Ícaro (RTP).

Moved to London in 1991, where completed her MA in Theatre Design at the Wimbledon School of Art, University of the Arts, where created and directed the staging of Law of Repression, with the collaboration of Paula Sá Nogueira and cast.

During this period, began her work and career in jewellery, having created collections for selected stores in London, such as the American Retro, Ruth Aram Shop, Ellectrum, Voyage, Sign of the Times. Of note in this period was the participation in the London Fashion Week, the cover styling by Dazed&Confused. At the same time, in theatre she participated in stagings by Michael Benenson, Padraig Tolan. In cinema, of note is her credit as Assistant Art Director in Anand Tucker’s film SaintEx and the BBC series Crucial Tales.

Moved from London to Lisbon, where in 2007 created AtelierZer0 in which, as creative director, headed a multidisciplinary team of professionals from different creative and technical areas. She continued to design jewellery for António Tenente, the Store of the Assembly of the Republic Loja da Assembleia da República and Pedra Dura, and authored an exhibition at Teatro da Luz theatre.

Luísa has professional experience in production design, art direction, scenography and visual projects in several creative areas, having developed works for theatre, cinema, television, commercials, exhibitions and design for museums and public and private spaces. She also works as a jewellery designer and was a professor of production design at Universidade Lusófona in Lisbon. At this university was awarded in 2014 the degree of Specialist of Recognized Professional Experience and Competence.

Her vast experience and portfolio include works with the directors Steve Rogers, Nick Gordon, Manu Cossu, Chris Smith, Fredik Bond and Andreas Nilsson, just to name a few. Or the Directors of Photography Hoyte van Hoytman, Mandy Walker, Ben Seresin, Barry Ackroyd, Javier Aguirresarobe. The brands Kenzo –LVMH, Old Spice, Natural Diamonds, Vodaphone, Skymobile, Oppo, Samsung, Heineken, H&M, Zalando, Jeep, VW, Alpha Romeo, Suzuki, Nissan, Volkswagen, have Luísa’s name in some of their commercials.

For Netflix, did in 2019 the production design of the series The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Of note in cinema and theatre, some names with whom she worked are Manuela Viegas, director, António Pires, stage director at Teatro do Bairro and Rosa Coutinho Cabral.

In Museography, of particular relevance are her projects for the Pavilhão do Conhecimento, for the Centro Ciência Viva in Lagos, Lousal, for the Centro Exploratório de Coimbra and the design project for the Centro Padre Himalaia in Arcos de Valdevez. Of special note is her work for the Museu dos Coches, one of the most prestigious museums in Portugal.

Internationally, she has implemented projects in London, Luanda and Shanghai.

She lives in Lisbon where she runs the studio under her own name. This is where, in her house on the Castle hill, she grows tea and aromatic plants in a small garden, a peaceful place in close contact with nature, fundamental for reflection and research of the various visual language projects. Here rises the dialogue between colours, materials, textures leading to painting and jewellery. The elements come together to form an alphabet of expression and communication, a language of reflection and creation. 

Over the years she has always used and reused materials for the purpose of plastic expression.