We’ve long been overdue with our “in conversation with” series.
Inusitado is a Portuguese stationery brand founded in 2017 by Ana Brandão and Joana Bernardo in Porto, celebrating the intimate relationship between paper and design. With sustainable and handcrafted production, the brand offers unique pieces that invite reflection and creativity, exploring the texture, scent and interaction of paper with different materials. Valuing both tradition and innovation, Inusitado proposes a sensory and functional experience that transforms the act of writing and drawing into moments of inspiration.
PM – What inspires you beyond your work? What are your hobbies or interests outside the creative field?
Ana: Everything inspires and influences me: the everyday, people, and all their diversity. I love observing what surrounds me, noticing small details such as shadows and colours in the most unexpected places. Travelling, discovering new cultures, meeting different people and customs is what truly fascinates me. I love walking in nature or through the city, freely and without commitment, with no apparent destination — that’s my refuge.
Joana: Observation. People-watching. Observing and allowing myself to be inspired by movements, ideas, conversations, and experiences created through a sound, a book, a film, a hug, a piece of art, an object, a situation — an interaction.
PM – What is your favourite place to find inspiration or unwind? Is there a landscape or environment that inspires you?
Ana: The sea — the salty scent of the ocean, the saltwater, the sound of the waves, the vast blue stretching all the way to the horizon. The smell of the sea gives me a feeling of coming home and tranquillity, and taking a swim always revitalises me.
Joana: At home, on my balcony. The sea and silence are my foundation for unwinding. Followed by a mix of conversations around the table, in good company, with snacks and a glass of wine.
PM – Do you have a morning routine or ritual that helps you start the day with energy and creativity?
Ana: I like to start my day with an Americano, savouring it slowly, preferably on the balcony. It’s a moment of pause where I can organise my thoughts and prepare for what comes next.
Joana: I start my day at home, with a beautiful cup of coffee and the silence I need to wander through my ideas, visualise and organise the day ahead. From there, I seek inspiration — whether through a podcast (usually about creativity or entrepreneurship, which fuels that “let’s make it happen” energy), Instagram accounts that bring lightness and simultaneously spark the urge to create boldly, and the notebook that’s always nearby for thought sketches or organisational notes.
PM – Is there a special story behind one of your creations? Could you tell us a bit about it?
Ana: The story behind our “Saudade” notebook is unique. It emerged during the pandemic, a time when we were all confined at home, missing the people closest to us and our everyday lives. That was when the idea for “Saudade” took shape. Using leftover papers we had been collecting, each notebook was meticulously made and numbered, representing not only the longing for our people but also the transformation of waste into something new. “Saudade” thus became not only a functional object but also a tangible expression of our emotions.
Joana: Besides our “Saudade” notebook and everything it represents, I really love the approach of our “time to” postcard collection. We reserve a blank 11 × 15.5 cm space for dedicating words. The right postcard for each person — where we want people to dedicate time to words translated into the handwriting of the sender, to be remembered later. We’ve already created some “time to” moments: celebrate, magic, love, fly and enjoy. A message that exists, yet leaves space for it to become truly ours.
PM – If you had the chance to collaborate with any artist/writer/designer in the world, who would it be and why?
Ana: If I had the opportunity to collaborate with any artist, in another life I would love to collaborate with Helena Almeida, the visual artist. Not only for her artistic brilliance, but for her profound connection with themes such as identity, the female body, and the relationship between space and time. I identify with her artistic language — the form, the colours, and the themes that challenge us to look beyond the surface and invite exploration.
Joana: One of the people who inspires me is Joana Astolfi — from her multifaceted, versatile and multidisciplinary vision to the detail of her compositions. How various parts become a whole, and how the whole is the result of the relationships between those parts. The storytelling that emanates from her work and the creative process behind it fascinates me.
PM – One song?
Ana: I go through phases — there are times when I become obsessed with a song or an artist, listening compulsively. However, when I discover a new song I love, or revisit an old one, I quickly shift focus. At the moment, “Walk on the Wild Side” by Lou Reed has been a constant on my playlist.
Joana: Hans Zimmer’s music, for its ability to transport and collapse us into another emotional space.
PM – One book?
Ana: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Joana: Books like Conversations on Love, The Midnight Library or Inside the Magic Shop — books that question our perspectives on human relationships, with ourselves and with others, which are and always will be the foundation of everything.
PM – One film?
Ana: Shoplifters, by Hirokazu Kore-eda.
Joana: Dead Poets Society stands out for the way it values dreams, feeling and living. “And medicine, law, business and engineering are noble pursuits necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love… these are what we stay alive for.”
PM – One colour?
Ana: At the moment, in my work, I’ve been choosing terracotta. But when it comes to dressing, I tend to choose black.
Joana: White.
PM – One place?
Ana: The sea.
Joana: Studios.
PM – One person?
Ana: My grandmother.
Joana: All the people who have — and pursue — the desire to create something.
PM – One of your pieces?
Ana: The 1/365 set.
Joana: The 1/365 collection — an Inusitado piece, and the brand’s most sought-after product. It reflects what we envision for Inusitado: versatility and adaptability to each person. It adapts to the individual, to the moment, to the pace of life.
PM – A piece by a colleague?
Ana: Coral Garden by Vanessa Barragão.
Joana: The works of João Bruno Videira, who reinvents the use of raw materials and crosses languages between textiles, furniture, design and art. The use of traditional techniques and materials in a new approach and language resonates with me, and I identify the same purpose in Inusitado.
PM – Is there any experience or trip that has had a significant impact on your creative process? Where and why?
Ana: The experience of working in different fields while developing Inusitado simultaneously has had a major impact on my work and creative process. The diversity of areas I’ve been in is the key element. I started as a designer in a fashion brand, later worked in a communication agency, and now I’m in the luxury jewellery and watchmaking sector. This mix of fields and interests plays an important role in my creative process, influencing where I seek inspiration and shaping the outcome of what I create. Each professional experience brings new challenges and perspectives that enrich my work and allow me to explore different creative approaches.
Joana: From every trip, I always bring something back. The scent or colours, the feeling that place gave me, and especially the “dolce far niente” — so hard to find in my everyday life. It gives me space to absorb and observe better, to create associations between projects I have in mind and what I’m experiencing, in an unforced way, as if storing or cultivating new tools and ideas. A database, a library that I draw from in the future and that forms the basis of my creative process.
PM – What are your methods for dealing with creative block?
Ana: For me, the key is to stop and disconnect — to completely change context. Going for a walk or simply switching to a different project are my strategies. After that, I can return to a notebook and begin organising ideas on paper.
Joana: Maintaining creativity. It’s something that happens every day through content research and different forms of consumption, and also involuntarily, by absorbing new references and experiences in daily life. Knowing how to stay close to content and/or people who inspire me, whom I identify with, who challenge me and push me to create. Taking time to rest, recover, disconnect and then redirect my focus to the themes I want to explore. I’m someone who likes to have several projects happening at once, gathering ideas over time to develop. The main point is balance — between the moments when you’re highly creative and the times when you need to let go, not pressure yourself and make space. Always believing that creativity is something you nurture and build. Experimenting without fear of failing, because it’s in that process that we reach what we’re searching for — creativity.