Ds WAY is Diana Matoso alter ego since 2007. Diana is I since 1981. And Ds blog is the Way to all ways.
In 2005, as soon as I delivered my uni papers and got my degree in Design by Lisbon’s Faculty of Architecure, I moved to London, where I freelanced as a graphic, web and motion designer while working in part-time jobs during the day and VJing at clubs in the night.
In 2007 I started “squatting” which allowed me to focus on what I loved doing such as, collaborating with all sorts of artists and creative projects, exchanging work and time for unique experiences and learnings. Living in an artistic community, filled with creative people, consistently manifesting dreams & change together, inspired me to create a new way, Ds WAY.
By 2010 I had so many collaborators without a website that I started using Ds WAY as a collective name and web host of an “online jam” where anyone could comment, register, create their own profile or even website. There was also a shared blog filled with tutorials, videos, art, residencies… where everyone could post and share their interests, work or call out for collaborations. The idea was to create a network of international creative minds, capable of developing and giving support to sustainable projects whenever they were located. Quite a few connections were made and Ds WAY was hosting over 20 websites showcasing performers, musicians, artists, architects… meanwhile serving as a learning platform for anyone wanting to self publish and co-create change.
Life changed, I changed
Unfortunately, it kept being mainly me behind the matrix wheel and in 2015, the whole website and host got hacked while I was off the grid and all was lost… the weight of building it all again overwhelmed me and I have never even rewed the domain or bought a host space ever since.
Before that, in 2013 I moved back to Portugal, in search for my childhood natural germs and started a journey of self-rediscovery.
So, after 2015 events, I drifted away from the online world into my own youniverse and slowly created a blog with a few of my work which I called Ds 💜works. Currently, it’s still my most updated portfolio but soon will become my most personal journal while Ds WAY will become again my main professional work showcase together with collaborations, visual library, research, and shop.
I have also developed other lines of work and interests and have been posting about it sporadically around other blogs which I aim to connect with this one so that again, Ds WAY can be all ways.
Ds WAY has been many ways but has always kept Ds 💜
Born 💜tivist, licensed designer & experimentalist at 💜.
Visual explorer since analog times, I’m in constant REcreation of my own 💜titudes, expressing them through mixed media poems and visual crafts. My work is a visual collage of both analog and digital pieces, [re]crafted, [re]played, [re]mixed and [re]used but never quite the same.
Ds Way 