From balloons to volcanic sediment, Diogo Potes’ typographic posters appear made of unusual substances

Take yourself on tour through Diogo Potes’ many posters, and you’ll find yourself encountering a mesmerising mix of types and letterings. From words that appear scribbled by hand with coloured pencils, assembled from children’s building blocks, or bubbly letters made up of shiny pink balloons, the array of styles on offer is really something to behold. It makes sense, therefore, to hear that typography is “always the starting point” for Diogo, whether it plays a simple role in the final piece or one that's more central and illustrative.

This comes from Diogo’s rejection of a restrictive or rigid design approach. Instead, he focuses on surrounding himself with “beautiful things”, and harbouring a keen interest in creating beautiful things of his own. This outlook is one that has served Diogo well, as for the past 20 years he’s worked at the head of some of Lisbon’s most prominent graphic design studios, including (but not limited to) RMAC of the late Ricardo Mealha, Alva, alongside Bráulio Amado, and Solid Dogma, where he has spent the past seven years of his career.

But now, Diogo has made the decision to carve his own, independent pathway. “When working for so long in a studio environment with routine client constraints, at some point you begin to attach to yourself – it’s not always healthy,” Diogo identifies. “The only way to reinvent ourselves again and circle back to what we are and what we believe in, is to put ourselves in a spectrum of discomfort.” Rather than beginning his studio however, Diogo sees this move more as a “statement of independent work”. To mark the move, Diogo has launched a new website, which celebrates his past 20 years of work.

Featured on the website are some of his defining projects, listed in no specific order. One such project is Diogo’s on-going collaboration with the Lux Frágil, an institution Diogo sees as “more a cultural platform than a club”. Starting his relationship with them in the early 2000s and having forged a close creative connection, this gave Diogio what he describes as “the courage to do things that no one was doing in the clubbing scene”. In a particularly genre-bending series of posters for the club, Diogo collaborated with his aforementioned Alva colleague Bràulio. Combining both of the most exciting aspects of their distinctive styles, the posters gradually become more and more hectic, ending up as a near indecipherable, yet irresistible visual cacophony of letters, shapes and doodles.

Another extended collaboration Diogo identifies is his work with Festival Iminente, a festival for emerging artists curated by Portuguese graffiti artist Vhils. As the project is spotlighting emerging artists, Diogo has always felt able to play with the concept of his designs and is free to try out new avenues each year. A particularly experimental year for the collaboration was 2021, where Diogo created lettering that appeared as if carved from rough rocks, or hardened volcanic sediment. Laid on a background of block blue and neon green, it would be impossible not to take a second glance if walking past one the street.

Diogo isn’t entirely certain of what his new venture may look like. One thing is for certain, and that’s that he doesn’t want to work alone – “together we are better!” – he explains. “Maybe I’ll open a studio with people better than myself? I have enough room to grow and learn." For now, however, Diogo is set on first and foremost getting out of his comfort zone, “and regaining the pulse and perspective of what’s at my core”.