Afonso Nuno Ramalho de Pinho Borges

Designer, professor of product design project and researcher of objects of daily use.
Graduated in Communication Design from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, Master in Industrial Design from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, and PhD in Design from the Department of Communication and Art of the University of Aveiro.

Dedicated to the teaching of design project and contemporary design criticism, he is an Associate Professor at the Department of Communication and Art of the University of Aveiro, scientific coordinator of Design Factory Aveiro and member of the Design Factory Global Network. He has collaborated with the Master in Industrial and Product Design of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, with the School of Art and Design of Matosinhos and with the University of Beira Interior, where he was an Assistant Professor, member of the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, member of the Faculty Council and Course Director of the 2nd cycle in Industrial Design, having been responsible for the restructuring and accreditation of the courses in Industrial Design.

Integrated member of the research unit ID+, he is a team member of the projects Bosch Illiance WP4 Sensing Home, OliPush and OLIWPT, and was a team member of the financed project Design Obs. Towards a Portuguese Design Observatory: Models, Instruments, Representation and Strategies. He was an integrated member of LabCom, and was a member of the RED and Emades (C-Mast) projects.
Researcher of everyday objects, he is the author of articles published in academic publications such as Hundreds of years (UP:2022), Protecting the Memory of Objects from Nostalgia (Ritsumeikan:2019), The Hard Life: an experiment (Springer:2018), Normal: memory, invisibility and meaning in objects (UA:2015), of non-scientific articles such as Blur, The Thin Line (VSCO:2016), New cities, new challenges (Bikevibe:2019), and editor of publications such as Design Obs. Design Observatory in Portugal (UP:2022).

With professional practice in product design, communication design and identity at Box/Borges-Rato studio, in non-profit oneoff projects, within the coordination of Design Factory Aveiro, as well as in support of the partnerships established at the University, he has developed or collaborated in the development of projects for national and international partners such as Alliance Healthcare, Amorim Cork, Área Metropolitana do Porto, BA Glass, Clã, Fiamma, Finsa, Guialmi, Grilo Kitchenware, J. P. Sá Couto, Joalpe, Larus, Mota-Engil, Novartis, Optimus/Nos, Portgás, Porto Editora, Spal, Studio Andrew Howard, Teixeira Duarte, Vodafone and Wook. He began his activity in 1994, and from 1996 to 2001 he was General Design Coordinator at Porto Editora Multimédia, forming a widely awarded team.

Current positions

  • Professor Auxiliar Universidade de Aveiro

PhD Details

Research Groups

Publications

Books
  • Noronha, E., Borges, A., Oliveira, E. (2022). Design de Abrigos Temporários para Crises Sistémicas: A sala de aula como catalisador de conceitos. Aveiro, UA Editora – Universidade de Aveiro, ISBN: 978-972-789-753-7 Link
  • Borges, A.; Noronha, E.; Oliveira, E. (2022) Design de abrigos temporários para crises sistémicas: a sala de aula como catalisador de conceitos. UA Editora. 2022. Link
  • Borges, A., Silva, A. C., Modesto, A., Ricci, D., Providência, F., Ribeiro, M., Costa, N., Cunca, R., Costa, R., & Branco, V. (Eds.). (2022). DesignObs. Towards a Design Observatory in Por- tugal: Models, Instruments, Representation and Strategies / Para um Observatório de Design em Portugal: Modelos, Instrumentos, Representação e Estratégia. Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Belas Artes. ISBN: 978-989-98284-6-9
Book chapters
  • Borges, A. (2022) in Providência, F. & All (Ed.), Val de Barco Table, 25 Forms 25 Years of Design Thinking at University of Aveiro (pp.28-30), Aveiro: UA Editora, ISBN 978-972-789-745-2, DOI: https://doi.org/10.48528/ncdx-sm51, http://hdl.handle.net/10773/33570 Link
  • Pereira, F., & Borges, A. (2023). Metamorfose no design alemão? Simplicidade no trabalho de Dieter Rams e Konstantin Grcic. Em UD22 Proceedings Book: Metamorphosis 8th Meeting on PhD Design Research (1st ed.). UA Editora Link
  • Costa, N.; Branco, V.; Costa, R.; Borges, A.; Modesto, A.; Cunca, R.; Silva, A. (2023), Mapping Ecosystems Through Design—Reflections of the DesignOBS Project. In: Martins, N., Brandão, D., Paiva, F. (eds) Perspectives on Design and Digital Communication III. Springer Series in Design and Innovation , vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06809-6_22 Link
  • Costa, N.; Branco, V.; Costa, R.; Borges, A.; Modesto, A.; Cunca, R.; Silva, A., (2021) Infusing data literacy in design education: maturing a distributed design observation approach in Portugal, In: Martins N., Brandão D. (eds) Advances in Design and Digital Communication. Digicom 2021. Springer Series in Design and Innovation, ISBN: 978-3-030-89734-5, http://hdl.handle.net/10773/33145
  • Costa, N.; Branco, V.; Costa, R.; Borges, A.; Modesto, A.; Cunca, R.; Silva, A. (2021), Design Infrastructures: proposing alternative strategies for countries with a lower maturation of design culture in Advances in Human Dynamics for the Development of Contemporary Societies, Proceedings of the AHFE 2021 Virtual Conference on Human Dynamics for the Development of Contemporary Societies, July 25-29, 2021, USA, New York, July 25-29, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80415-2 Link
  • Costa, N., Costa, R., Borges, A., Branco, V., Cunca, R., Modesto, A., & Silva, A. C. (2021). Mapping the research thread of design PhDs: a PhD citation analysis of the Portuguese Doctorates. In R. J. Howlett & L. C. Jain (Eds.), Design for Tomorrow (Vol. 2, pp. 203–216). http://hdl.handle.net/10773/30627 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Modesto, A., Silva, C., & Cunca, R. (2020). TOWARDS A DESIGN OBSERVATORY: THE CASE OF SCHOLARLY DESIGN RESEARCH IN PORTUGAL. In Proceedings of the Design Society: DESIGN Conference (Vol. 1, pp. 827-836). Cambridge University Press. Link
International conferences
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A.,and Ribeiro, M.(2023) Towards a Design Observatory in Portugal – results, reflections and future steps, in De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., Spallazzo, D. (eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.314 Link
  • Costa N., Costa R., Branco V., Borges A., Silva A. C., Modesto A., Cunca R., (2021), Representação e literacia dos dados: o caso das empresas de design em Portugal, 10th Information Design International Conference (CIDI), 18-22 October, Curitiba, Brasil, pp.1108-1107, https://www.proceedings.blucher.com.br/article-list/cidicongic2021-357/list#articles Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Ana Catarina, S., & Modesto, A. (2020). Towards a Design Observatory: crafting a distributed approach. Cumulus, 8-11 June, pp. 3121–3136, Italy, http://hdl.handle.net/10773/30629 Link
  • Borges A. & Vicente J. (2018) The Hard Life: A Pedagogical Experience in Industrial Design, in F. Rebelo & M. Soares (Ed.) Advances in Ergonomics in Design, vol. 777, Proceedings of the AHFE 2018 International Conference on Ergonomics in Design (pp.561-571), July 21–25, Springer, Cham USA, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-94706-8_59, ISBN: 978-3-319-94705-1, Online ISBN: 978-3-319-94706-8 Link
  • Sousa, A., Sarmento, T., Borges, A. & Mendonça, R. (2019) Affordance, a Concept for a Measurable Design – Fitness furniture, a case study, Proceeding of Design Revolutions IASDR 2019 International Association of Societies of Design Research Conference, 2-5 Sept, Manchester, UK: Manchester School of Art of Manchester Metropolitan University Link
  • Borges, A. & Vicente, J. (2019). Industrial Design Course in a Low-Density Region, in E. Bohemia & All (Ed.) DS95 Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education E&PDE 2019, 12-13 Sept, Glasgow, UK, University of Strathclyde, DOI: https://doi.org/10.35199/epde2019.59, ISBN: 978-1-912254-05-7 Link
  • Borges, A. & Moura, C. (2019) Protecting the Memory of Objets from Nostalgia, in K. Yaegashi, R. Valusyte, A. Biamonti, H. Anzai (Ed.) Meanings of Design in the Next Era, Proceedings of 4D – designing development / developing design (pp.217-219), 21-23 Oct, Osaka, Japan: Rustimeikan University, ISBN-978-4-600-00239-8 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Modesto, A., Silva, C., & Cunca, R. (2020). TOWARDS A DESIGN OBSERVATORY: THE CASE OF SCHOLARLY DESIGN RESEARCH IN PORTUGAL. Proceedings of the Design Society: DESIGN Conference, 1, 827-836. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/dsd.2020.327 Link
National conferences
  • Guerreiro, A., & Borges, A. (2023). Design líquido metamorfose na prática contemporânea de design. Livro de Atas UD22: Metamorfose – 8o Encontro de Doutoramentos Em Design, 290–303. https://doi.org/10.48528/pbag-9511-21. UA editora Link
Other publications
  • Guerreiro, A. (2019). Relatório de Estágio Pedro Sottomayor Design Industrial. Universidade da Beira Interior. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/9349 ‌ Link
  • Borges, A. (2015) Design normal: memória, invisibilidade e significado nos objetos (Doctoral dissertation), Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal, http://ria.ua.pt/handle/10773/14237 Link
  • Whicher, A., Borges, A., Silva, A. C., Modesto, A., Ribeiro, M., Costa, N., Cunca, R., Costa, R., Branco, V. (Eds.). (2022). Exploring the Portuguese design ecosystem: workshop report. Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto, ISBN: 978-989-98284-5-2
  • Borges, A., Silva, A. C., Modesto, A., Fernandes, M., Ribeiro, M., Costa, N., Cunca, R., Costa, R., Branco, V. (2022). Observatório de Design em Portugal – Representações (A. Borges, A. C. Silva, A. Modesto, M. Ribeiro, N. Costa, R. Cunca, R. Costa, V. Branco, eds.). Porto. ISBN 978- 989-8944-64-1
  • Borges A., Silva A. C., Modesto, A., Ribeiro, M., Costa R., Costa N., Cunca R., Branco V., (2022) REDE#03: reunião de escolas de design, Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa, Dezembro 2021, ISBN: ISBN 978-989-8944-65-8. http://hdl.handle.net/10773/34347 Link
  • Silva, Ana Catarina (org.); Whicher, Anna (org.); Borges, Afonso (org.); Modesto, António (org.); Costa, Nina (org.); Cunca, Raul (org.); Costa, Rui Carlos (org.); Branco, Vasco (org.); Ribeiro, Marlene (org.). 2022. Exploring the portuguese design ecosystem: workshop report.
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Modesto, A., & Silva, A.C. (2021). Diplomados em Design em Portugal (2002-2020) (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5728036 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco,V., Costa,R., Borges,A., Cunca, R., Modesto,A. & Silva, A.C.(2020). Design doctorates undertaken in Portugal (Version 2) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4559415 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Modesto, A., & Silva, A.C.(2021). Bibliografia dos doutoramentos em design (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5727951 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Modesto, A., & Silva, A.C. (2021). Empresas e diplomados em Portugal – visão diacrónica 2010-2019 por NUT II (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5728054 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Modesto, A., & Silva, A.C. (2021). Empresas de Design em Portugal (visão detalhada, 2018, SABI) (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5728078 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Modesto, A., Silva, C., & Cunca, R. (2020). Towards a Design Observatory: crafting a distributed approach, in Research@UA, pp.58, https://www.ua.pt/file/61865
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Modesto, A., Silva., A. (2020). Design doctorates undertaken in Portugal (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3701614 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Silva, A.C., & Modesto, A. (2020). Towards a Design Observatory: crafting a distributed approach. In Research@UA (Vol. 10, p. 56). Link
  • Silva, A. C., Branco V., Costa R., Costa N., Borges A., Cunca R., Modesto A., Silva A.C., (2020) REDE#02 – Reunião de Escolas de Design, Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave, Barcelos, October 2019 Link
  • Borges, Afonso; Silva, Ana Catarina; Modesto, António; Costa, Nina; Cunca, Raul; Costa, Rui; Branco, Vasco. 2019. REDE#02: Reunião de Escolas de Design. http://hdl.handle.net/10773/33236.
  • Borges, A., Silva, A.C., Modesto, A., Cunca, A.R., Costa, R. & Branco, V. (2018), REDE#01 Reunião de Escolas de Design. Aveiro, UA Editora. ISBN 978-972-789-564-9.
  • Borges, Afonso; Silva, Ana Catarina; Modesto, António; Cunca, Raul; Costa, Rui Carlos; Branco, Vasco. 2018. REDE#01: Reunião de Escolas de Design. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/7619.
See all 18 other publications

Scientific, artistic and cultural production

Technical work
  • Branco, V., Costa, N. & et al. (2019) Relatório de Progresso sobre o projecto DesignObs – Para um Observatório de Design em Portugal: Modelos, Instrumentos, Representação e Estratégias [PTDC/ART-DAQ/32445/2017]
Scientific events organization
  • Branco V., Costa R., Costa N., Borges A., Cunca R., Modesto A., Silva A.C., (2021) Member of organizing committee of REDE#03 – Reunião de Escolas de Design, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, December 2021.
  • Branco V., Costa R., Costa N., Borges A., Cunca R., Modesto A., Silva A.C., (2019) Member of organizing committee of REDE#02 – Reunião de Escolas de Design, Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave, Barcelos, October 2019.
  • COSTA, Rui (2019) – Organizer of REDE#02 – Reunião de Escolas de Design,IPCA, Barcelos, Portugal, 31 October 2019.
Other relevant cultural production
  • Branco V., Costa R., Costa N., Borges A., Cunca R., Modesto A., Silva A.C., (2021) Organizer of exposition “Observatory of Design in Portugal – Situation”, Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon University, Lisbon, December 2021.