Tanus Saab @ EMC Go Live Event

The Brazilian Perspective

EMC Go Live presents one of the most famous designers from one of the most festive countries in the world

’’Architect and urban planner by training, decorator and teacher by passion’’. This is how Tanus Saab describes himself. Being a second generation florist, he learned his first lessons about flowers from his mother that owns a flower shop. She introduced him to the world of flowers and also she encouraged him to go to different schools and learn. When it was time to choose his profession, Tanus chose architecture where he gained knowledge about landscaping, creating projects, history of art, colours, all this things that he could apply in the floral industry as well.

With over 1,000 decoration projects throughout his career, Tanus has extensive experience in architecture and landscaping, decorating major events, weddings and ceremonies. Since 1997, he has been making floral presentations at events organized for florists in Brazil and abroad, in addition to courses in this field. He loves to share his knowledge with his students and he is now a teacher at the Escola brasileira de arte floral, teaching fundamental and advanced courses and also at Sikastone. He likes very much to teach the fundamental classes when people don't know anything about flowers.

He thinks that it's beautiful to introduce the flowers and the techniques to people and he likes to be the first teacher for his students because ’’You never forget about your first teacher’’ as he says. He is also teaching courses about major events, where he guides his students through the whole process of creating a project, showing them the practical aspects, but also the struggles one can have, especially when it comes to dealing with large-scale events. He always speaks from his experience and he tells his students that having a good team, planning ahead and always finding solutions in every situation are the keys to success when it comes to carrying out a project. He believes in the idea of constant learning and he is always challenging his self. He has attended international competitions such as Cancun, Mexico America´s Cup “Gateway to the Americas”, Brazil, Brazilian Cup of Floral Design and also Fleurop - Interflora World Cup 2015. He is committed to passing on to his students all the valuable lessons that he has learned through these global experiences and from his interesting and complex background. 

His work is absolutely remarkable and his vision is simply inspirational. His spirit is authentic and very well anchored in the rich cultural heritage of Brazil, which transcends in his colour palettes, shapes and integration of movement. He is a guest speaker on the "Expanding Creativity Through Small, Intimate Events" panel discussion at the EMC Go Live Event. 

If you were to describe what you do in the wedding industry and what do you think sets you apart in your line of work? What makes what you do unique?

What I do in the wedding events industry is try to find a way to read my client's needs and project the event he would like to offer his potential customers. With this reading and analysis, I start the process I like the most, which is creating something that meets this need and is unique and special.

For the event to have this unique characteristic, made for that customer, it is essential to combine the customer's needs, listen to, and understand him/her but also to have the ability to translate this into the project as possibilities, expanding and reverberating his desires. The union of art and technique is fundamental.

The desire to do the undone motivates me a lot. I feel challenged with every new project which is very good. The feeling that I'm using my creativity, using my knowledge and learning and giving shape to something that will mark people's lives.

What inspires you? Share with us what are your main sources of inspiration and why they resonate with you.

My biggest inspirations are art, culture and nature.

Art is the expression of an ideal of beauty represented throughout history, in different artistic manifestations. Human beings are incredibly artistic, creative and study art…their movements and manifestations enrich me and broaden my vision.

Culture is this “broth”, this mixture, this set of social, religious, intellectual and artistic structures that characterise us as a society. Dive into these stories, study and learn about who we are and the references we have that provide an understanding and respect for the customer, their needs and expectations.

And nature, with its splendid botany. …As a florist and architect, I try to bring a floral experience with botany, showing how it can be simply amazing, how I can recognise and recreate it in structures, scenery, environment or floral architectures.

In your professional experience, when working with different cultures, different people, each with different stories and personalities, how do you keep your creativity from getting lost?

As I answered above, culture feeds me. I feel inspired and motivated by all the diversity that emanates from it. What I think is important is that we need to know who we are, to feed our essence, our unique look. Knowing who we are and interacting with different cultures, people, stories and perspectives only adds, expands and reverberates who we are.

How connect your ideas and plans to your clients’ expectations? What are the main 3 things you consciously focus upon when creating and building a relation with the client?

I've always worked looking for win-win relationships, I believe it's possible and that's how it should be. My focus in the relationship with my clients is transparency, respect and a genuine desire to get it right, to offer my best.

What is your thought process focused on when creatively contributing to a wedding-event concept? In what way have the expectations of your clients changed in recent years, especially in the last year, since the pandemic certainly hit the event industry all over the world?

First of all, I believe in the strength of questions, in the genuine interest in the customer. From a good initial conversation, I aim to get an excellent briefing to start my creative process. With the briefing, I create a mood board, which is a very useful tool. A panel full of references, which captures the “temperament”, the “personality” of that party.

Here in Brazil, I have certainly felt a change. Wedding celebrations used to take place in large urban event halls, and I have found that in recent years, couples have preferred a different experience. Weddings on farms, on beaches and in general close to nature, have become a desire of many couples.

I'm Brazilian and I work in Brazil, a very festive country, where people like to celebrate all the moments of life that bring people together. The wedding celebrations in Brazil used to easily gather upwards of 300 people, which during the pandemic became unfeasible. Many couples have adapted to the moment and have opted for mini weddings. Others have been waiting for this moment to pass so that they can celebrate by bringing as many people together, as they did before the pandemic.

In the recent history, everybody in the wedding industry had to shift focus and consider new approaches for how events will transform. What aspects did you focus on to adapt your business to all the changes?

The pandemic has brought us many reflections. We have come to appreciate more of the little things in life, the meaning of our human existence. I saw, during the pandemic, a reheating, almost rebirth of floricultures in Brazil, which were asleep on the great commemorative dates. People used to prefer a new cell phone as a gift to a pretty big floral bouquet. Now, the inherent meaning of flowers has had a new appeal for these commemorative dates and we have seen  great sales reboots in floriculture.

Also, I noticed during the pandemic, a desire to study, to learn new things, to deepen knowledge in their profession. This has been another market that I have been operating in.. ie. the professional training and qualification of florists.

With the arrival of vaccines and entire populations being immunized, I believe that the desire and the possibility of celebrating in larger groups and bringing people together, again, will revive our event market.

What are the most important lessons you consider to have learned in witnessing the world of wedding events completely recreate itself? How does “INTEGRATION” as a creative concept resonate with you and how would you consider it influencing the future of weddings?

I think that one of the most important lessons I have learnt or something that has been reinforced to me, is something I have always believed and that is the power and the force of nature. What do I mean by that… Historically and, if you believe, biblically, we have seen nature heal , change and transform itself over and over for hundreds of thousands of years..

So, we as a specie and the world of wedding events as an entity, has its own inherent ability to recreate itself even metamorphose just from its relation to nature. And I personally will always continue to look to and follow the lead of the nature.

^{blog & interview by Ana Maria Grigoras}