Inside the notebook: Miguel Moreira

The time has arrived to see what Miguel Moreira is made of. We will have a sneak peek into some of your most personal objects. How does that make you feel?

At first, I didn’t give much importance of what could come from my notebook pages and that it could even be a contemplation object for anyone else, as the very personal object that it is.

Do you consider your notebook a personal and intrinsic object? How’s your relationship with this object?

If you have a free relationship with it, it’s an object that can really represent your idiosyncrasies and the best parts of yourself. On the other hand, if you look at it just like another boring job, something merely descriptive, I think it can have a totally different character.

How’s your relationship with these objects?

My relationship is of a great esteem, I love to keep them by collecting them in piles on my shelves, revisiting them from time to time as I’m in need for inspiration.

We can see you have a lettering crush. Do you usually draw, or write more?

My letters are mostly drawn, so I would say I definitely draw more. When I want to actually write something more private, I also do my best to write everything in a lettering that only I can understand. I always loved to draw anyway. When I tend to write more is always in a diary format, like a running diary or something similar. I also write poetry and love to highlight some parts of my days on these pages.

Do you collect them? Can we see them?

Yes of course. I keep everything, from fifth and sixth grade even. I have a deep connection with these materials, so I don’t think I would ever get rid of them. 

How important is the role of paper in your work?

Paper for me is very important. I like to start thinking in a project on paper first, rather than jumping to digital right away. I need to draw what I’m thinking and let my pen flow. The exercise of being creative on paper is different from being creative on your computer because on your computer the options are endless. On paper, it’s only you and your thoughts — and rather than seeming like a limited way of working, it’s actually a very freeing exercise. Paper works as a vehicle for thought, and that’s what does the trick for me. It’s in thought that everything is born.

At what stage of your creative process do you tend to grab your notebook more than any other tool?

I grab it every time I start a project, there’s really no other way. Everyone finds its own way of expressing themselves. I am totally aware there are designers and creatives that don’t necessarily use pen and paper, but they still have their thoughts put together when expressing themselves digitally.

Do you usually share your notebook with others, or is it something highly secretive?

I had a phase when that wasn’t relevant at all, in some boring classes I actually wrote all over the notebook covers by writing random stuff, but as soon as I got in my architecture degree, I looked at it almost like a cult object. The first time someone touched it, I was really annoyed. As the time passed I started to understand I didn’t need to take this so seriously and now I actually love to see other’s perspective on my own pages.

If I decide to make a doodle in the middle of that page right now, will you let me or would I upset you?

Of course not, you can touch it as you wish, be my guest. There is stuff you can’t control.

But loosing it, on the other hand, would it be different? 

I lost a mishmash one recently, a dotted one. It was a good one, almost full. It had logo developments and final sketches, and loads of experiments.

And lastly, we believe paper has a bright future ahead. How do you think paper fits in a world that’s constantly going more and more digital?

For me this question has ups and downs. There are times I think it will thrive, mainly because of the people I interact with and my group of friends, but they are also a very filtered group of people that are very close in likes and dislikes. On the other hand, on other interactions that run away from my daily life, such as a brief debate I had recently with a friend of mine from computer science, the esteem I have for paper and pens doesn’t make any sense to him. Some weeks later, to my enjoyment, that same friend was telling all about the new pens he was going to grab! 

Is paper a niche product in the future? 

It will perhaps become a niche product, just like some objects from the past such as vinyl discs. In my view, the main benefit from this is that the ones that value it will become eager costumers. Vinyl discs today aren’t bought by everyone, but the ones that do, are avid collectors. In the future, notebook buyers will probably be the same, frequent and enthusiastic buyers.