From Desisto:

“Tertúlias Gráficas” are informal meetups for enthusiasts in the field, held at our studio in Santa Apolónia, Lisbon. Before we head off for a summer break, we’ve invited [João Queirós] to come by and share a bit about his work and journey.

Desisto is a graphic design studio established in 2013, and based in Lisbon, Portugal. They also operate a Riso printing lab. They have been organizing the “Tertúlias Gráficas” at their studio since July 2019. Porto-based designer João Queirós was invited for the 19th edition, taking place on July 17, 2025.

The type-only banner-like poster was Riso-printed in two colors (brown and gray) and features Plain Form’s Ready Active, together with Helvetica.

Maruxa is a monolinear script much like Veltro (1934), Kaufmann (1936) and Stempel Elan (1936). It was cast by the Spanish foundry of Gans.

By 1958, it was used for a promotional card by Pensão São Jorge, a boarding house on Rua Castilho, 59, in the Portuguese capital:

Lisbon’s very latest. Inn style. Comfortable rooms and suites. Most attentive Restaurant service. Very select, distinguished and cosmopolitan surroundings. First class. Unsurpassed treatment in Boarding Houses.

The geometric sans used for the address and phone number is Grotesca Radio, a follower of Erbar-Grotesk, also by Gans. “Direction” might be in Grotesca mercantil, a version of the design also known as Longina. “English, Spanish and French spoken” is set in caps from an unidentified grotesk. It’s probably one of the numbered “Grotescas” listed in a 1960s specimen by Gans, possibly Número 1362.

A Designer at the End of the Dream Career is a self-published book reflecting on the non-linear paths designers face as they begin their professional journeys. Developed in the final semester of the Communication Design degree at the Faculty of Fine Arts Lisbon, it explores the symbolic and practical weight of reaching the end of academic life.

The project began with a prompt: “A Designer at the End of…”. Each group completed the phrase in their own way, contributing an eight-page chapter that expressed personal and collective reflections. The task was then to bring them together under a shared theme, The Dream Career: the thrill of starting out, the disillusionment that can follow, and the hope that keeps us moving forward.

A unifying visual identity was created to connect all contributions, drawing from diagrams, maps, and charts as a nod to the soul-searching that shapes every designer's path.

Physically, the publication itself is divided into three interwoven chapters, inviting readers to choose their own entry point—mirroring the unpredictable nature of creative careers. Printed with the faculty’s Risograph machine and fully produced by hand—folded, stapled, and trimmed in the design lab—it was released in a limited run of 100 copies, each with a distinct, tactile quality.

EAMAN, the Eastern African Museum of Art-Nairobi, envisions itself as a world-class cultural institution dedicated to the collection, preservation, study, and display of Eastern African art. They strive to be a leader in promoting scholarship and art education, making Eastern African art better known, understood, appreciated, and celebrated in Eastern Africa and globally.

Their mission is to collect, preserve, research, and display the wealth, genius, and diversity of Eastern African art for the people of Eastern Africa and the world.

Their typography-heavy identity features Druk Wide for headers, and Sprig Sans Mono for body copy.

The fourth edition of BoCA (Biennial of Contemporary Arts) took place in 2023. Lisbon and Faro were the cities hosting a new and effervescent program from 2 September to 15 October.

Between commissions, world and national premieres by both established and emerging artists, performing in their own language or taking risks to create for other registers, BoCA built its 4th edition on the idea of “Invisible Present”.

Always aware of the current times – cultural/artistic, social and political – artistic director John Romão said he ‘wants to give visibility to living things that are not seen, either because of social, political, cultural, economic, legal or technological conditioning, or because we premeditatedly don't want to recognise the existence of otherness, to validate identities that inhabit the margins’. It is with this desire that the program reflected on issues related to the migrant crisis or gender identity, claiming the physical presence of what is not seen.

BoCA 2023 used two primary colors, gray and yellow, throughout its identity. It used one primary typeface within its permanent, geometric and mutable logo: Neureal by Laura Csocsán (released on ECAL Typefaces) – including for titles and descriptions. LL Replica by Dimitri Bruni and Manuel Krebs (released with Lineto) was used for displaying longer texts within the newsprint pamphlet and for smaller information.

Heritage Meets Modernity

In 2025, Voodoo Voodoo partnered with Altesse Studio, a Living Heritage Company founded in 1875 and known for French artisanal brushmaking. Following the launch of Altesse Studio in 2022 and its two lead collections – Prestige, a handmade luxury line, and Beauté, a premium performance range – Voodoo Voodoo was brought in to create a cohesive foundation that could unify the collections and balance heritage with a modern perspective.

The project was guided by a brand platform rooted in longevity, intention, and ritual. Voodoo Voodoo refined the brand architecture, simplified product naming, and crafted a voice that is confident yet approachable. Every design decision – from typography and colour to art direction – was made to convey the brand’s craftsmanship while elevating the experience of daily care.

Typography sits at the heart of Altesse Studio’s refreshed identity. Avenir provides modern clarity, while Right Serif in Light and Spatial Fine styles introduces editorial rhythm and depth, and Founders Grotesk Mono adds precision, echoing the craftsmanship of the brushes. The brand is unified through Altesse Burgundy, a rich, resonant tone that anchors every application. Art direction highlights light, texture, and ritual, emphasizing the tactile quality of the brushes and the intimate gestures of use. Together, type, colour, and imagery establish a distinct visual language that balances tradition with modernity.

The identity was applied across digital touchpoints. The website was designed as Altesse Studio’s digital flagship – not just an e-commerce hub, but a calm editorial environment where heritage, innovation, and storytelling coexist. Extending the typographic and colour systems, it mirrors the brand’s philosophy of intention and ritual, serving equally as a space for commerce and a stage for storytelling. Social media was structured with editorial templates and thematic curation, consistently communicating the brand’s craftsmanship, rituals, and contemporary lifestyle.

Through these interventions, Altesse Studio now presents as a modern luxury heritage brand with a flexible foundation for growth. The refreshed identity allows the brand to communicate with clarity, engage audiences meaningfully, and carry forward its legacy, while remaining true to its artisanal roots.

Herokid (W Type Foundry) is used across all communication for the Arabic Design Archive (ADA). Different variants of the typeface are applied on the website and social media to maintain visual consistency. It is also used in posters and other printed materials, reinforcing the archive’s identity across different contexts.

According to their website:

ADA is a non-profit initiative that seeks to enable knowledge production about Arabic design and its history through a framework of collecting, digitizing, and exhibiting. ADA aims to provide an open and accessible platform for the public to counter the parallel, inaccessible, and non-existent physical archive of the second half of the 20th century.

The Arabic typeface used in this application is yet unidentified.

The Splendour in Venice exhibition at Gulbenkian 2024 immerses visitors in 18th-century Venice, showcasing works by artists like Canaletto and Guardi. Inspired by the Grand Tour tradition, it highlights the city’s grandeur and everyday life through its art. The visual identity draws on Venetian architectural perspectives and muted tones, blending seamlessly into the exhibition spaces. Developed collaboratively with curators, editors, and designers, the catalogue and overall design encourage reflection on both the city’s vast compositions and its people.

To design this visual identity, Lisbon-based graphic design studio Panorama used Injurial (Sandrine Nugue, 205TF), GT America (Noël Leu, Grilli Type) and Parnaso (Mário Feliciano, Feliciano Type).

More photos and information on Panorama's website.

We created the visual identity for Holy Vintage, an online second-hand clothing store that believes in the power of second (and third) chances – giving forgotten pieces new life and making room for new stories and unique styles.

The identity takes shape in a small character – a storyteller who changes form, just like the garments she rescues. She weaves together memories and possibilities, inviting us to wear stories and imagine new beginnings.

Lisbon based design studio and print shop Desisto is hosting the international exhibition RISOMA, dedicated to Risograph printing. The project draws a living, shifting map of a global network of creators – printers, designers, artists, poets, and musicians – united by a shared passion for this artisanal and experimental technique. Conceived as a celebration of collective practices and the tactile nature of printed images, RISOMA highlights simple gestures – printing, folding, gluing – that carry deep meaning.

The Systm font family shapes the exhibition’s graphic identity. Developed by Blaze Type, this modular type system is built from two basic components – a square and a quadrant – laid out on a strict grid. Its design references brutalist architecture, early interface systems, pavement patterns, and more broadly, any grid-based approach to graphic design. Within the context of RISOMA, Systm embodies a contemporary, radical, and rigorous aesthetic, without ever losing the playful spirit of typographic experimentation.

Alongside contributions from dozens of riso studios worldwide, RISOMA also presents a series of posters by twelve guest artists, as well as a complete educational program ranging from Riso fundamentals to advanced editorial practices. This exhibition isn’t just about printing – it’s about networks, happy accidents, DIY culture, autonomy, and the joy of making. With its modular logic and strong visual presence, the Systm typeface perfectly extends this graphic manifesto. It becomes the visual language of a movement that prints its ideas as much as it spreads them.

The accompanying sans serif used for all information is Area, see comments.

Under the motto “To play (with type) is to resist stasis,” Lisbon-based design studio Desisto initiated typography courses with the intent to share enthusiasm and knowledge regarding type in the Portuguese community.

The first workshop is about Desisto’s very own modular font TBD Brick, the second one is a Masterclass and Workshop hosted by Nikolas Type.

Risograph-printed posters use the grid system of  TBD Brick, paired with the workhorse Neue Montreal Mono (Pangram Pangram) and Solare Intense from Nikolas Type.

Source: eliserigollet.com Élise Rigollet. License: All Rights Reserved.

Branding, art direction, printed matter, website and online presence for Disco Wheel.

Disco Wheel is a transformative ceramic shop and workshop studio in Lisbon, Portugal, with an emphasis on the creative journey. Aimed at culturally curious and creative individuals, the workshops challenge you to use your hands to craft art on the wheel and experience a timeless moment with a curated playlist, scent and selection of natural wines or kombuchas. It opened in May 2024 at Rua De São Paulo 150, 1200-149 Lisboa.

Photography by Gonçalo Vilardebó.

Source: eliserigollet.com Élise Rigollet. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: eliserigollet.com Élise Rigollet. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: eliserigollet.com Élise Rigollet. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: eliserigollet.com Élise Rigollet. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: eliserigollet.com Élise Rigollet. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.instagram.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.instagram.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.instagram.com License: All Rights Reserved.

SIZA held by the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum is a “temporary exhibition dedicated to the work of one of the greatest living figures in global architecture and urbanism, Álvaro Siza Vieira, bringing together original material from his archives as well as a series of reference works for his practice".

The exhibition, curated by Spanish architect Carlos Quintáns Adas, covers all facets of Siza’s creative career. The graphic design, done by José Albergaria in collaboration with Júlia Garcia, features the typefaces Basilar for titles and captions, Rizoma for text, A2 Beckett for the exhibition’s name.

The exhibition catalog is entirely set in Rizoma for the body text and Basilar for headings and captions. The cover and spine of the book also feature the name “SIZA,” set in A2 Beckett.

SIZA held by the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum is a “temporary exhibition dedicated to the work of one of the greatest living figures in global architecture and urbanism, Álvaro Siza Vieira, bringing together original material from his archives as well as a series of reference works for his practice".

The exhibition, curated by Spanish architect Carlos Quintáns Adas, covers all facets of Siza's creative career. The graphic design, done by José Albergaria in collaboration with Júlia Garcia, features the typefaces Basilar for titles and captions, Rizoma for text, A2 Beckett for the exhibition’s name.

The exhibition handout, printed in a distinctive newspaper format on traditional newsprint, is entirely set in Rizoma for the body text and Basilar for headings and captions. The first page of the newspaper also features the name “SIZA,” set in A2 Beckett.

Village Underground Lisboa is a creative cultural hub that provides the perfect conditions for artists to create and showcase their work, for companies to discover new perspectives, and for visitors to enjoy a complete and alternative leisure experience.

The visual identity created by studio Poets&Painters uses Basilar and Basilar Mono along with a modular custom geometric lettering that unfolds and reconstructs across the branding system to identify different aspects of the hub’s activities.

Cover image: Vitória Cribb – BUGs (2023) video still. Courtesy of the artist.

Contemporânea's issue #10 is a 256-pages-long art magazine, centred around the subject of "more-than-human — perspectives on technology and futurity".

With 26 visual and written essays, the use of diverse typographies was essential to create a different feel for each essay, without compromising its overall structure. The two main typefaces — Neue Haas Grotesk and Freight Text — are used to differentiate the two languages (Portuguese and English) and are the backbone which then sustains the use of a multitude of fonts. In addition to those shown and listed here, these include Liquido, Slack, and Messina Sans Mono.

Issue #10 of Contemporânea features works from the artists Alexandre Estrela; Alice dos Reis; Alison Nguyen; AnaMary Bilbao; Andreia Santana; Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme; Cao Fei; Cécile B. Evans; Diogo Evangelista; Gabriel Abrantes; Igor Jesus; Isaac Chong; Isadora Neves Marques; Lou Cantor; Maene Maisha; Miguel Soares; Odete; Pedro Barateiro; Salomé Lamas; Seba Calfuqueo; Trevor Paglen; Vitória Cribb; and Zach Blas.

It also includes texts by Alberta Romano; Alejandra Rosenberg Navarro; Ana Salazar Herrera; Anne Faucheret; Audrius Pocius; Cristina Sanchez-Kozyreva; David Revés; Eduarda Neves; Gabriela Vaz-Pinheiro; Isabel Nogueira; João Sousa Cardoso; Luísa Santos; Manuel Bogalheiro; Maria Kruglyak; Marta Espiridião; Paula Ferreira; Rômulo Moraes; Sara Castelo Branco; Sara Magno; Sérgio Fazenda Rodrigues; Sílvia Escórcio; Sofia Nunes; and Tobi Maier.

Fonts in use: Neue Haas Grotesk, Freight Text, CirrusCumulus

Fonts in use: Neue Haas Grotesk, Freight Text, Molle

Fonts in use: Neue Haas Grotesk, Freight Text, GT Planar

Fonts in use: Neue Haas Grotesk, Freight Text, Ballare

Catalog for the exhibition held at the Centre Pompidou, in partnership with the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, focusing on the artistic relationships between Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso and Sonia and Robert Delaunay.

The catalog comes in two versions: a Portuguese edition with an orange cover (Correspondência) and a French one with a green cover (Correspondences).

From Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian:

This edition explores the relationship between Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (1887–1918), Sonia (1885–1979) and Robert Delaunay (1885–1941) based on a selection of the correspondence between the three artists published by Paulo Ferreira in 1972: Correspondance de quatre artistes portugais, Almada-Negreiros, José Pacheco, Souza-Cardozo, Eduardo Vianna avec Robert et Sonia Delaunay (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France).

The catalogue also features images of all the works on display, 17 by Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, five by Sonia and six by Robert Delaunay. The curatorial text by Helena de Freitas and Angela Lampe is also a correspondence between the two curators and introduces the meeting of work that was developed by both in Paris, precisely around the idea of sharing and the relationship created between the two collections: CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian and Centre Pompidou.

Description of the project from the website of publisher Monade:

The Order of Landscape presents a powerful insight into the work of a forefront figure in contemporary landscape architecture, João Gomes da Silva. Through an extensive duotone photo essay by João Carmo Simões, a collection of texts and a set of plans, the book unveils this seminal body of work.

The book is entirely set in Suisse Neue, the slab serif member of the Suisse family.

TT Firs Neue is the new signature font of LEFFEST.

The Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival (LEFFEST), formerly known as Estoril Film Festival and also as Lisbon & Sintra Film Festival, is an annual international film festival held in November in Estoril, on the Portuguese Riviera. Founded by Paulo Branco in 2007, LEFFEST has established itself as the great festival of reference in Portugal (and “one of the most fantastic festivals in the world”, as Jonathan Demme or Jim Jarmusch said), and brought to the country, over a decade and a half, the great names of cinema, as well as literature, music and the arts and great personalities of world culture, who gather here over the course of ten days and share their works with the public.

From the beginning, LEFFEST has hosted big names such as Francis F. Coppola, David Lynch, Bernardo Bertolucci, Agnès Varda, Emir Kusturika, James Gray, Lucrecia Martel, Wim Wenders, David Cronenberg, Nan Goldin, Pedro Almodóvar, Wes Anderson, Jim Jarmusch, Nanni Moretti, Werner Schroeter, Léos Carax, Abel Ferrara, Piotr Anderszewski, Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Teresa Villaverde, Isabelle Huppert, Don DeLillo, John Berger, Peter Handke, Wagner Moura, Maria João Pires, Fanny Ardant, Robert Pattinson, Monica Bellucci, Catherine Deneuve, John Malkovich, Alice Rohrwacher, Willem Dafoe, among many others.

In 2024, LEFFEST will return to Lisbon for another surprise-filled edition, from November 8th through the 17th.

Art direction and graphic design by Catarina Sampaio, together with André Carvalho.

The exhibition O Tesouro dos Reis. Obras-primas do Terra Sancta Museum / Treasure of Kings. Masterpieces from the Terra Sancta Museum at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon showcases the pieces donated by European monarchs to the Holy Land. These are artifacts that have traveled from Jerusalem to Portugal.

In the creation of the exhibition's identity, Panorama Design Studio used Rizoma from R-Typography as the main typeface, along with Futura.