FOLIO / ABOUT / LISBON
Photograph by Tomé Duarte, Lisbon, 2024
№ 003 — ABOUT
Iris Navarro. Designer, writer, reluctant programmer.
I was born in Madrid, trained as a book designer in Barcelona, spent most of my twenties in publishing houses learning what a paragraph is, and moved to Lisbon in 2019 with the intention of staying for six months. I have been here ever since.
Most of my work sits between two worlds — editorial and interface. I design books that live online, magazines that exist as websites, identities that have to survive a phone screen. I program when I have to, which is more often than I'd like; I've learned to enjoy it.
I take on four to six projects a year, usually with founders, editors, or small studios. I work alone, from a rented room with a northern window. I don't keep regular hours. I write in the mornings and design in the afternoons, mostly because the light is better that way.
IV — TIMELINE
A working life, dated.
2019 —
Independent, Lisbon
Design practice working with publishers, founders, and small studios on editorial and brand projects.
2017 — 2019
Art director, Field Studio
Led brand and editorial work for clients in fashion, publishing, and hospitality.
2014 — 2017
Designer, Alba Editora
Book design for a Spanish publisher specialising in 19th-century literature in translation.
2010 — 2014
BA / MA, Elisava, Barcelona
Graphic design, with a master's in book design under Enric Jardí.
V — SELECTED PRESS
Words written about the work.
THE NEW YORK TIMES · 2024
"The best Aperture has ever looked on a screen."
IT'S NICE THAT · 2024
"A designer who treats websites like printed objects — carefully set, properly bound, worth keeping."
MONOCLE · 2023
"Navarro's Driftline identity is the rarest kind of rebrand — one that sounds like the thing it's for."
EYE MAGAZINE · 2022
"Quietly ambitious, Navarro is redefining what a personal design practice can be in 2022."