I’m Pedro Palavra, a designer born in 2003. I work between industrial design, 3D, visual communication and motion. Mostly on things people walk into, pick up, or end up talking about afterwards. I came to design through drawing, and through taking things apart to see how they had been put together. That is still more or less the method.
Four disciplines,
one foundation
Drawing is the foundation under all four: a way of thinking, observing and questioning before an idea becomes an object, a space or an experience.
Industrial design
Objects, furniture and equipment. Materials, manufacturing, and the 3D that gets them made.
Strategic design
Research, concepts and systems thinking: designing with the people who will actually use the thing.
3D visuals & motion design
Image-making, animation and storytelling. Showing something convincingly before it exists.
Experiential design
Events, spaces and interactions. The parts people are still talking about on the way home.
From drawing
to design
I studied Design at the University of Aveiro, with an Erasmus at Köln International School of Design. Along the way I joined the board of the students’ union, the AAUAv, and represented the university as an ECIU Ambassador, which turned into an education in running things at scale.
I now work at United By, in equipment and spatial design, taking projects from concept and 3D modelling through to production. Alongside that I co-founded Sketch Fest, a festival built on the idea that drawing is a good reason to get people into the same field.
Let’s make
something
A product, a space, an experience: if you are making something and would rather not make it alone, tell me about it.
and if you would rather know who you are writing to first