Studio retreat — Lisbon, Portugal

Three Weeks Away From the Studio

In September 2025, the entire AVF team set up shop in Lisbon for three weeks. It wasn’t a team-building retreat or a conference. It was a working residency: a change of scenery to break the cognitive habits that form when you always work from the same place.

What We Found

Lisbon has a connection to mural typography, azulejos, and transitional architecture that’s impossible to ignore. We wrapped up the residency with two completely rewritten identity proposals, a new color system, and references that we still use today.

What Changed

We incorporated two weeks of remote retreats each year as a permanent practice for the studio. Changing cities isn’t a luxury—it’s creative infrastructure.