Hello, I’m Clara Vieira Rodrigues, a design researcher, entrepreneur, and design activist. 🙂

Sixteen years after founding and successfully growing the design and innovation studio, Claan, — graduated company from the Creative Industries of the Science and Technology Park of University of Porto (UPTEC) — I have founded a social venture, DESIGNEDIN (D!N).

I am an Artificial Intelligence researcher at ID+ researching on the relationship between children and AI and the deployment of creative, ethical and responsible solutions. I am a columnist on child-centered design, digital literacy and tech parenting at PÚBLICO newspaper and a mentor at NEW INC, the New Museum of Contemporary Art NY incubator for art, design and technology.
I am a passionate volunteer who has founded the Portuguese chapter of the Designing for Children’s Rights global non-profit association. I’m committed to promoting children’s rights and driving positive change in society.

I’ve studied interaction design at the Willem de Kooning Academy of the University of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam, Netherlands. I’ve lived in Vienna and freelanced at Siemens Austria. Later I joined, in 2011 the International Acceleration Program Startup Chile and lived in South America. I have been sharing expertise in creativity, entrepreneurship, and digital creative design teaching and as a keynote speaker at universities and events.

During the first lockdown in 2020, I gained a new perspective while deeply reflecting on my role as a designer, a mother, and an educator. With the kindergarten closed I’ve used design methodologies and daily co-design and co-creation activities with my child. We drew, built things, made stop-motion videos, and experimented with different materials and I helped other parents online do fun and meaningful art and design activities with kids. This time became an opportunity to bond and tap into our children’s imagination, providing an enjoyable escape from the world’s happenings.

By closely observing my daughter’s daily life, I started to realize that the world around her wasn’t designed with her best interests in mind. Sometimes, she struggled to fit in as she couldn’t understand or interact with the city. This made me question: What might a world designed for children look like?

I’m genuinely interested in how design can enhance life and empower children, parents, designers, entrepreneurs, innovators, educators, communities, and society as a whole. Through intentional design I create meaningful solutions based on a kid’s and teen’s first approach.

Kids are the present and the future of great design

Children make up almost 30% of the world population and 100% of our future. They are active, creative, social agents and DESIGNEDIN beliefs in the power of design to uplift our society and shape a future where they thrive.

Driven by the ethos foundational principles of the well-being of children and the commitment to a sustainable planet DESIGNEDIN is specialised in design services and innovation dedicated to children and other stakeholders such as museums, institutions, companies with specific needs or challenges on this field.

Contact me if you’d like to collaborate or schedule a consultation.