You made your way to NYC from Portugal, what was it that brought you to New York?

I ended up here accidentally! I got a scholarship to do my last semester of studies at the School of Visual Arts of NYC, and ended up staying here to intern for my teacher Luke Hayman, from Pentagram. Fast forward 10 years and I’m still here.

Is there anything you often miss about living in Portugal?

Quite a lot. First, my friends, although we are part of a generation where most of us ended up emigrating due to the economy recession. I miss the food too!

What is your favorite Portuguese thing? Favorite American thing?

Small country. Big country.

Flintstones Push-Pops: orange or purple?

Orange

Favorite image scale-ratio?

11 x 17

With a wealth of styles to pull from, how do you keep a grasp on what is essentially you?

I used to desperately try and perfect my style or whatever would make my work *unique* but I reached a point where I got bored of doing the same thing over and over again and started experimenting and try other stuff. I guess that experimentation and range of styles is what makes my work interesting to other people, but also interesting and fun to me.

How do you keep your digital self and physical self separate? (How do you maintain a healthy balance away from digital media?)

I work out almost every morning (although it doesn’t look like it), leave work by 6:30/7 and try to not hang out with graphic designers or anything that reminds me of work, lol.

How did your time at Businessweek influence your method of creating today?

Businessweek was this magical place where I had the freedom to explore and experiment, along with a bunch of other talented people. The pace of the magazine was super fast, so it felt spontaneous, exciting and not precious. That made me see design in a different way and it changed the way I normally work.

Can you comment on the cultural trends in NYC and how that influences your work, and the programming at Sixth Street Hunted House?

I feel like NYC has way too many cultural trends, and that’s what makes it inspiring and exciting to live here.

As for Sixth Street Haunted House, it was more about filling in the gaps. Like, oh wow no one is doing a lecture about Cats the musical and how messed up it is, so let’s do that in our space.

How does SSHH inspire new work?

SSHH is a project by me and my partner Nick Schiarizzi. We were complaining about the lack of weird independent art spaces in NYC, so we decided to start our own. We didn’t really have a plan, and that ended up being the most inspiring part of it—to figure out how to make something real without having to be an over-branded precious thing or a silly startup.

We wanted a space for people to go to and learn, show art, buy art, meet new people, do stuff, put stuff for sale, play music...whatever.

What is one thing you would never change about yourself?

My love for watches! Kidding, this new watch is gonna be the first one I wear in like...15 years? Love it though. Thank you for this collab.