Valentina Vezzani

She is Assistant Professor at the Department of Art & Design, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Madeira, since October 2014.
She was Programme Leader of Design BA between February 2017 and March 2019.

Since her experience as postdoc at the School of Design of
University of Leeds (UK) in 2013, she is involved in different national and international research activities and projects concerning design education, service design, collaborative processes, design for social sustainability and social innovation. In particular, her expertise is in facilitating creative and collaborative design-led processes, bringing together different age, cultural and disciplinary groups.

She is co-founder of PACO Design Collaborative, a Design-oriented network of holistic professionals (Milan based) where she contributes as service designer to educational projects, to foster social innovation, sustainable behaviours and new business opportunities. www.pacollaborative.com/

Since 2013 she is coordinator of several local and global design
jams aiming to disseminate the design thinking culture among
public sector and urban communities, to instruct non-designers to
methods and tools own of strategic and service design.

Current positions

  • Professor Auxiliar Universidade da Madeira
  • CoFounder Paco Design Collaborative

PhD Details

  • Title Colour Design Edu.System. For a systematic and creative approach to an interdisciplinary colour education in design
  • Field Design
  • Year 2012

Research Groups

Publications

Books
  • Pierandrei, F., Remotti, S., Anfossi, S., Vezzani, V. (2019). Design for change inmarginalized communities. A tool book for NGOs, social entrepreneurs and practitioners. Milano, Italy: PACO Media. Link
Book chapters
  • Vezzani, V. (2012). Color Education: Systematicity and Creativity. In M. Rossi (Ed.), Descriptive Geometry and Digital Representation: Memory and Innovation. Design Application. The Color (pp. 231-238). NewYork-Milan: McGraw-Hill.
International journals
  • Vezzani, V., Gonzaga, S., Bertolotti, E. (2019). Atlantic Wonder. Exploring Nature and Design in Madeira island, in The Design Journal , 22, sup1, 1603—1617. Link
  • Tang, T., Vezzani, V., Eriksson, V. (2020). Developing critical thinking, collective creativity skills and problem solving through playful design jams, in Thinking Skills and Creativity N.37. Link
  • Vezzani, V., Gonzaga, S. (2017). Design for Social Sustainability. An educational approach for insular communities, in The Design Journal, Vol. 20, Issue Sup1, S937-S951. Link
International conferences
  • Vezzani, V., Gonzaga, S. (2017). Social Sustainability Education. Experiences beyond the borders of traditionalism, in Proceedings of Senses & Sensibility 9th International Conference. Design Beyond Borders, Funchal, 66—74.
  • Vezzani, V. (2019). Learning from by drawing. Nature as model, in Proceedings of CONFIA 2019 – 7th International Conference on Illustration and Animation, Viana do Castelo, 265—274. Link
  • Vezzani, V. (2020). Fanzines Against Apathy. Empowering Young People Through Visual Narratives, in Proceedings of CONFIA 2020 – 8th International Conference on Illustration and Animation, 676—685. Link
  • Bertolotti, E., Vezzani, V. (2021). Walk, talk and draw: Fieldwork in nature to unpack the complexities of sustainability, in Cruickshank, L., Galabo, R., Perez, D., Gisclard, B., Bofylatos, S., Mortati, M., Valentine, L. and Hwang, J., 2021. Safe Harbours for Design Research. In: 14th International Conference of the European Academy of Design. [online] Lancaster: Blucher. Link
  • Tang, T., Vezzani, V. (2017). Fostering a culture of collaboration through playful Design Jams. In Proceedings of Senses & Sensibility’17: Design Beyond Borders and Rhizomes, UNIDCOM/IADE, pp.159-167. ISBN: 978-989-8473-23-3
  • Miettinen, S., Vezzani, V., Chivuno-Kuria, S., Pierandrei, F., van Wyk, M., & Vuontisjärvi, H.R. (2016). Open Design for Development and Youth. In Proceedings of Open-Design for E-very-thing Cumulus Conference 2016, Hong Kong Design Institute, Hong Kong.
  • Tang, T., & Vezzani V. (2014). Investigating the Potential of Design Jams to Enhance Sustainable Design Education. In Laakso, M., & Ekman, K. (Eds.), Proceedings of NordDesign Conference 2014, Espoo: Aalto Design Factory, 27th-29th August 2014. pp. 37-46. ISBN 978-1-904670-58-2 ISBN 978-1-904670-59-9
  • Vezzani, V. (2013). A creative and systematic colour education for designers. In Jachna, T., Lam, Y. Y., & Tzvetanova Yung S. (Eds.), Proceedings of the DesignEd Asia Conference 2013. Delimitation-Creating with Constraints, DesignEd Asia Conference Secretariat, Hong Kong, China, pp.127-133. ISBN: 978-988-16721-5-5
  • Vezzani, V. (2013). CDES – Colour Design Edu.System. An educational tool for a creative, systematic and interdisciplinary colour knowledge. In Proceedings of 12th International AIC Colour Congress, Bringing Colour to Life, Newcastle, UK, 8-12 July 2013.
Other publications
  • Vezzani, V., Bertolotti, E., Gonzaga, S. (2020). Shifting perspective. Atlantic Wonder platform to foster inclusive dialogue for regenerative development in Madeira island, in Geneva Forum 2020, 9th Annual International Conference on Rights of Nature for Peace and Sustainable Development.
  • Vezzani, V., Perzolla, V., Brackenbury, D., De Franceschi, N. (2017). New Technologies and Visual Traditions: A San Archive of Creativity at Strategic Narratives of Technology and Africa Symposium, Funchal, Portugal.
  • Miettinen, S., Tang T., Chivuno-Kuria, S., De la Harpe, R., Pierandrei, F., Remotti, S., Anfossi, S., et al. (2017). D2.3 Modelsand methods for preventing the youth marginalisation and creating localdialogue accomplished. WP2: Building service design concept with the youth/co-design workshops with the youth, researches, institutions and companies. Link