About · 01
A designer with a slow shutter.
The studio sits between a port and a pine forest, which is a fairly accurate description of the work: half structured, half instinct. I spend my days making brand systems, websites, and the occasional poster, mostly for people building something that wasn't asked for.
Before going independent in 2020, I was a senior designer at a mid-sized agency with two too many meeting rooms and a product studio with not quite enough. The lesson from both: the interesting work shows up when the brief is still a little wrong.
When I'm not at a keyboard I'm usually outside with a Yashica T4, reading about typefaces I'll never buy, or ruining a sourdough starter.
Principles
Four things I keep believing.
Taste as strategy
Taste isn't a nicety — it's a shortcut past the obvious. Every brief begins with the question: what would a more interesting version of this look like?
Built, not decorated
A decision you can ship is worth more than a moodboard you can't. The work leaves the studio as a system — tokens, components, and judgement — not a hand-off.
Restraint, then a flourish
Quiet pages. Generous type. And then — on the third scroll — something unreasonable. A little theatre goes a long way when everything else is in line.
Long tails
I'm not interested in the launch-day lift. I'm interested in what the work feels like on a Tuesday, three years in, when the screenshot is gone from Twitter.
A path, loosely
Work & study.
- 01work
Independent Designer
Rowan Vale Studio
Running an independent studio focused on brand identity, considered websites, and the occasional editorial or spatial piece. Working with founders on projects that want to be remembered rather than benchmarked.
Porto, PT · 2020 — Present
- 02work
Senior Designer
Forma & Co
Design lead across identity and digital for a twelve-person studio. Shipped brand systems for cultural institutions, a fintech, and a national broadcaster. Built the studio's first component library.
Lisbon, PT · 2017 — 2020
- 03study
ECAL — Type Design intensive
Education
Two-month intensive in type design and editorial systems. Shipped a single-weight display face inspired by mid-century Portuguese signage.
2019 — 2019
Toolkit
What's on the desk.
Identity
- Figma
- Glyphs
- Blender
- Risograph
Interface
- React
- TanStack
- Tailwind
- Framer Motion
Editorial
- InDesign
- Fraunces
- ITC Garamond
- Letterpress
Practice
- Obsidian
- iA Writer
- Pen & Post-it
- Long walks
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