MR‾D : BIO

STUDIO /BIO

Miguel Rios
Miguel Rios received his Fashion Design diploma in 1987 from CITEX, in Porto, right after completing his Drawing course at AR.CO, in Lisbon. After working as a designer and consultant for the Portuguese clothing industry, in 1992 Miguel Rios decided to take a step forward in his professional career. In that year he received a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Luso-American Foundation for Development and thus managed to complete his Masters degree in Design from the Domus Academy in Milan. At this institution, Miguel Rios passed with distinction writing his dissertation on the topic Il corpo Dinâmico. “The central topic addressed in this dissertation – the body in design, in architecture, in the performing arts and in technology - continues to be an object of research in his academic and professional work to this day, since over the course of his career, Miguel Rios has always divided his attention between design and art. This is how Miguel Rios continues his education, whether by attending courses, such as the Course of Professional Development – Wearable Technology at the University of Florence, or by regularly going to conferences, fairs, galleries and exhibitions in different sectors of the arts and design world. Between September 2008 and September 2010, he was in charge of the Design and Technology module in the Masters course in Design at the University of Aveiro.

Following his stay in Italy, Miguel Rios worked with the designer Owen Gaster in London. But it was in Portugal that he established his professional roots and started working, still at a fairly young age, as a consultant for the Portuguese Design Centre (CPD). For this institution, Miguel Rios curated some very important exhibitions and projects, which included Meeting Point, Urban Nomads for Year Zero, on display at the 1st edition of experimentadesign; Arkhétypon, displayed in Lisbon and Barcelona, at Primavera del Disseny (Spring Design Festival); Urban Warriors Maximum Security, a pioneering European project which incorporated different technological systems into the clothing of urban citizens, presented at the USE(r) Design Conference in Lisbon in 2003; and Des+gn, presented during Design Week in Milan. In the literary arena, he was invited by that institution to organise the Textile Design, Fashion, Footwear and Home Textiles section for the book BEST OF, 180 produtos de Design Português (BEST OF, 180 Portuguese Design Products) and was also invited to head the Editorial Board of the Manual de Gestão de Processos de Design (Manual for Managing Design Processes), aimed at SMEs in the clothing sector, published by IAPMEI. Alongside this, and at the invitation of the ModaLisboa Association, Miguel Rios was responsible for the ties between this Association and Portuguese brands and businesses in the textile sector, becoming the ITV Coordinator. During the same period, he coordinated the young talent competition Sangue Novo (New Blood) and its related promotional events, as well as being jointly responsible for the showroom of the event + Portugal, held in Barcelona.

In 2002, Miguel Rios founded the office Miguel Rios Design | MR-D.

Throughout the history of the Miguel Rios Design office there have been several projects where new technologies have been an integral part of the product, either because of the characteristics of the materials selected or because of the incorporation of technological devices into the clothing, endowing it with new properties and functions. In particular, the I-Garment – an intelligent uniform for fire-fighters fighting forest fires, developed in partnership with the information technology company Ydreams and the Telecommunications Institute, for the European Space Agency, ESA (2003); the design of all categories of uniforms for ANA, Aeroportos de Portugal, S.A.; the Protect Urban Pro project, which was awarded 1st Prize at the Design Competition for Individual Protection Equipment, organised by the Technological Centre CITEVE; and the office’s own projects: System 2k07 – a bag | assembly kit made up of seven components which can be used to construct six types of containers - BOX, MINI BOX, LAPTOP, POCKET, PORTFOLIO and STREET; the Drizzle System protection system; and the System (re)Active bag | assembly kit, which builds on its predecessor, the System 2k07, with a strong commercial and formal / functional evolution component, though still based on the concepts of modularity and DIY which underlie the whole System line. The System 2k07 is part of the permanent collection at the MUDE – Design and Fashion Museum and the System Project received the 2009 Sena da Silva National Design Award, in the Fashion/ Textile category.

In 2009, feeling that it was a logical step in the office’s evolution, Miguel Rios made his début in the vast world of furniture design, introducing (SUM)one: a full-size multifunctional object defined as a table with storage and two seats. This item, which was entirely manufactured in Portugal, is the result of a sequence of exercises in appropriation involving architecture, art and design. In 2010, following Miguel Rios’ interest in furniture and as part of the Empty Cube Project, by the curator João Silvério, MR-D presented Project Pirson to the public: “Je pourrais aussi regarder la chaise comme un object (parmi d’autres)... ”, a chair based on the leitmotiv of the relations between art and design, with a theoretical/conceptual context which can be summed up in the study of mind maps of impossibilities versus the functionality of the object.

TEAM
Carla Rocha | MSc
Working with Miguel Rios Design since April 2006
Worked as a designer in LARUS - Desgin Urbano, Aveiro, 2005-2006
Member of the MERCEDES-AMG team in Affalterbach, 2004
MSc in Industrial Design from the Faculty of Engineering, Porto, 2001 - 2003
Graduate in Design, from IADE, Lisbon, 1996 - 2000

Telma Barrelas | designer
Working with Miguel Rios Design since February 2007
Worked as a designer in RECER, 2005-2006
Worked as a designer in Bleach Design, 2004
ICEP Award for Young Designer 2002 contest
Post-Graduation in Museology and Museography at FBAUL, 2007
Graduate in Industrial Design, from ESAD, Caldas da Rainha, 1999 - 2004

Patrícia Aguiar | designer
Working with Miguel Rios Design since February 2011
Artist residency – Azores Combo
Worked as a designer for Bleach Design in the collection Objects, 2004-05
ICEP Award for Young Designer 2002 contest
Attendance in the specialization in Product Design at the Faculty of Architecture of Lisbon, 2009-2010
Graduate in Industrial Design, from ESAD, Caldas da Rainha, 1999 – 2005

Tiago Araújo | Assistant
Working with Miguel Rios Design since December 2009
Professional desgree in Marketing/Public Relations /Advertising at Magestil, Lisboa 2003-2006

Ng Yuet Ming, Judyanna| PhD MA
Working with Miguel Rios Design since February 2005
Senior Teacher in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University since 1995
PhD in Fashion Design, from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HK, 2004
MA in Fashion Design from the Domus Academy, Milan, 1993
Higher Diploma in Fashion and Clothing Technology, from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HK, 1980

STUDIO
Creative and Executive Director
Miguel Rios
Management Cell
Miguel Rios |
Carla Rocha | Project Manager
Tiago Araújo | Assistant