AFTER PORTO: Livraria Lello Launches Campaign to Celebrate Porto
AFTER PORTO marks the birth of Livraria Lello Curates and transforms public space into a literary and emotional territory. Porto is everywhere — in the streets, in gestures and in words. With more than 300 billboards scattered throughout the city, Livraria Lello presents AFTER PORTO, an urban campaign that marks the launch of its new publishing label, with the presentation of the first book Livraria Lello Curates Porto.
AFTER PORTO is a sensory and emotional reading of the city — a visual and literary statement about what remains in us after experiencing Porto. The campaign extends the gesture of the book into the public space, taking the word off the page and transforming everyday life into heritage.
The campaign embodies a simple but powerful idea: After Porto, nothing stays the same.
Each billboard features an original phrase, created from what is unique about the city — its own language, its rituals, its way of caring with directness. The phrases arise from a process of actively listening to the city and its people. More than slogans, they are fragments of the soul of Porto. The swear word is said with affection. The granite warms you from the inside. The fog reveals intimacy. Half a dose is enough when it is served with love.
“Porto has its own language. Tough, but tender. Rough, but generous. With this campaign, we wanted to translate it into phrases that come from the street and give them back to the city as if returning a gesture.”
— Francisca Pedro Pinto, brand director at Livraria Lello.
One of the most iconic billboards shows a young woman smiling while being “hammered” with the traditional São João hammers. The accompanying phrase — ‘After Porto, swear words taste like home’ — clearly reveals this identifying trait: in Porto, what seems rude is often an expression of affection. Here, affection is expressed openly, with laughter and contact.
"Livraria Lello believes that culture is also made up of invisible codes. In this campaign, we give prominence to the gestures that define us — a São João hammer, a word spoken with force, a fog that ultimately embraces. The book is just the beginning." — Francisca Pedro Pinto
Livraria Lello Curates Porto is the first volume in the new Livraria Lello Curates collection — a publishing project that invites readers to discover Portugal through time, beauty and memory. Through a curated selection of photographs, texts and illustrations, the book offers a layered reading of the city, full of affection and silences.
The campaign is the result of a partnership with Porto City Council and part of a shared commitment: to value the city's living identity and involve the community in its own representation. Livraria Lello has also joined the Porto card scheme, offering priority entry to all participating residents — in a gesture of symbolic gratitude to the city that inspires it every day.
AFTER PORTO also extends to Livraria Lello's social media, with an invitation to the community to participate in the question: ‘What changes after Porto?’ Because there are cities that pass us by — and others that remain.