Raquel Pinto

What is the story of your studio ? It is still hard to think of it as a 'studio', it is just me most of the time. I do hire interns to help me depending on the workflow. This also gives me the opportunity to teach, which is something I quite enjoy. But back to the question… I started freelancing while still in school and kept doing so whenever I had a chance – even during internships and my first professional experiences. For a long time however, I felt that working for some of the studios I admired the most would give me the best experience, training and opportunities. While I was working at Zak Group in London, one of the studio’s projects lead me back to Portugal. After its conclusion, I decided it was time to finally risk going on my own. So far, I’m quite happy with it.

Considering your background in different foreign cities, do you think it is important to have an international vision of graphic design ? I think it is important to see what is done internationally — in design, as well as in the field of art in general — but also what has been done before. The history of graphic design is key. In sum, I believe it is important to seek knowledge so you can have a ground to know exactly what you are doing. Firstly, having a global vision helps you avoid repeating contemporaneous work. Secondly, it gives you tools to find different sources of inspiration from whichever creative field it might be. To clarify, my experience working at studios in different countries was a combination of various motivations. I wanted to collaborate with studios whose work I admired and respected… the location was just a consequence. But personally I was quite keen on living in different countries and getting to know its culture. One experience lead to another (literally, by recommendation), so I consider myself quite fortunate to have had different challenges and to have worked with great people and learned from their methodologies. 

Where does your passion for editorial design come from ? I guess that is something I have been very interested in the past years. However, since I started my own practice two or three years ago, I have been working more broadly across the design spectrum. Nowadays my practice is more balanced encompassing not only editorial design but also visual identities, exhibition design, web design and even graphics for films. This approach creates new challenges and as such is presently more rewarding. I’m still very passionate about editorial design as I love what the process entails and represents. To create a book is very gratifying: analyzing its contents —and learning from them — considering a fitting structure, choosing the right papers, textures, techniques, formats and typography. My goal is always to achieve a book that will become an engaging and ergonomic object for its reader and, most importantly, that is truly pleasurable to read.

What is your relationship with digital projects ? I have grown increasingly more fond of digital projects in recent years, from digital publications to websites. Before I saw too many limitations, not being able to use typography freely, to take control over the layout, etc. Today, I think the very opposite. Not only there is more freedom to create custom layouts, as there’s a great variety of good web fonts available. In a way, there are parallels to the first stages of structuring a book, the choices taken into consideration when constructing the page, etc. I also think of it as a complete and complex process and enjoy considering an appropriate architecture for a website based on its contents and needs. Their inherent interactivity allows for unlimited and creative solutions. Interview conducted in May 2016 ©ktlg