André Santos Finds Joy In Paper

“Grab your tools, let’s have fun,” reads Estaminé Studio’s motto. The Portuguese design studio, whose work focus is on papercraft, illustration, and lettering, was launched in 2016 by paper artist André Santos. With an emphasis on papercraft (in all its versatility), the studio’s creations include both 2D and 3D models, all cut with great precision and attention to detail.

“Papercraft is the design field that fulfills me the most,” stressed Santos in an interview with The Design Kids. But it took him some time and creative experimentation to discover this. “I always liked handcrafting, but I didn’t know it was what I really wanted to do with my career until my Master’s Degree,” he explained.

“The turning point was an MA project where Andrew Howard asked us to design several shop windows randomly assigned to the class,” he went on to say. “I spent dozens of hours hand-cutting many sheets of that kind of paper. Sure, It was a painful process but I found it quite pleasant and the handcrafted feel of the output was really nice.”

After experimenting some more with paper, he discovered a new approach to design. And little by little, he was developing his skills and attracting clients. “It took me two years and a few personal projects to improve my papercraft portfolio to the point where I finally built up the courage to make a tough 2018 new year resolution: take on Estaminé as my full-time job,” he says. Clearly, his intuition was right.