Between 2016 and 2023, Bráulio Amado published a book compiling the various visuals he’d made over the course of each year. Those annual workbooks came to reveal a lot about the Portuguese designer and illustrator – not necessarily because of the contents, but in terms of the journey he’s been on with these books. Above all, it was his decision to stop publishing them last year that says the most, indicating his desire to keep his practice grounded in the present rather than looking too far back or forward.

“You’ve probably realised by now that when I start things, I don’t necessarily think about the future,” says Amado, who is based in New York City. “It got to a point where I did seven of these, and I’m like, ‘Wait, am I going to do a book every year?’ It’s weird. It was something I had to promote ever year, and it became less exciting to put the book together because I was just looking at old work.”

Amado’s work is predictably unpredictable. There are some recurring details: a tendency towards crumpled or twisted forms; loud palettes; warped, for Ben Howard, among other places. But beyond that, there are few consistencies – and there’s a sense that that’s exactly how he likes it.