Planeta Tangerina: Interview with Isabel Minhós Martins

Voilà, here it is — the more detailed post I promised about the wonderful Planeta Tangerina books, plus an interview with author Isabel Minhós Martins. Honestly, I think these are some of the most beautiful picture books being published anywhere right now, and you have probably begun to spot them on the internet more and more often.

The Portuguese studio Planeta Tangerina was founded in 1999 by four friends: Isabel Minhós Martins, Bernardo Carvalho, Madalena Matoso and João Gomes de Abreu. They started as a small design studio for cultural projects and slowly grew into a publishing house with a very particular voice — playful, philosophical, visually adventurous, and never condescending to children.

What sets their books apart is the closeness between text and image. Because the same group of people writes, illustrates, designs and edits, the books feel like single complete objects rather than collaborations stitched together at the end. Spreads use big bold colour fields, hand-drawn type, surprising paper stocks. Each title looks like it was made because someone really wanted to make exactly that book.

I asked Isabel a few questions over email. She wrote about how the studio chooses projects (a long, slow conversation, never a brief), how they think about young readers (as people, not as a market), and how living in Portugal — slightly off the main publishing routes — has shaped what they do. She also mentioned that the studio shares a small house with a garden, where most of the editing happens around a kitchen table.

If you do not yet own a Planeta Tangerina book, Os meus vizinhos and Cá dentro are wonderful entry points. Start with one and you will probably find yourself ordering three more.