MR‾D : BIO

STUDIO /BIO

MIGUEL RIOS
Miguel Rios (Lisboa, 1965), received his degree in fashion design at CITEX, Oporto, and was granted a scholarship by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Luso American Development Foundation in 1992, which enabled him to take a Master’s degree in Fashion Design at the Domus Academy in Milan. He worked for Killer Loop in Italy and for the designer Owen Gaster in London. On 2002 Miguel Rios founded the Miguel Rios Design studio.

Miguel Rios has received awards in Portugal and Spain for his design work with the Portuguese clothes brand Donastea. He has published several articles in Portuguese art & design catalogues and magazines, where he focuses on the importance of introducing design in companies and, particularly, on the theme of clothes as objects and their unquestionable evolution due to the individual’s increasing adaptation to, and use of, the technological world. In addition, Miguel Rios is responsible for the new image of the assistants of the cultural institution Culturgest (2002) and designed the uniforms for Tap Air Portugal’s Male Ground Staff in 1991/1992.

Miguel Rios has been a consultant with the Portuguese Design Council (CPD) since its foundation in 1990. He was a consultant for the CPD project “Designers for companies”, among others, and he has been the commissary / curator for several exhibitions and pioneering activities organised by this Centre, namely the section on fashion design of the exhibition Meeting Point, Urban Nomads for Year Zero, on display during the Experimentadesign99 Design Biennial in 1999, and the conceptual and industrial aspects of the Arkhétypon exhibition in Lisbon, which was later shown at the Primavera del Disseny Design Biennial in Barcelona in 2001. He organised / commissioned and developed products for the Urban Warriors Maximum Security pioneering activity in Portugal, whose aim was to encourage active cooperation between companies and designers in order to create integrated products and raise awareness of the importance of security in towns. This initiative was presented during the 1st Design USE(r) Congress in Lisbon in 2003. Also in 2003 he was responsible for the Textile, Fashion, Shoe and Home Textile Design section of the book BEST OF, 180 Portuguese Design Products. In 2006 he commissioned the exhibition Des+gn mais, showed at the Design week 2006, Milan. His most recent work for CPD was to develop, as managing editor, the Handbook of Design Process’s Management for SMEs in the Fashion cluster (awaiting release).

He has also been part of the ModaLisboa – Lisbon Fashion Week project between 2002 and 2005, where he coordinated the Young Blood Contest and was responsible for the relations between the association and the Portuguese industry through his position as ITV Coordinator.
In 2002 the Miguel Rios Designer studio proved that they always keep up with the application of the most important technological innovations for uniforms by giving technical support and advice for the manufacture of uniforms in Nomex® for the Portuguese and Angolan Police. They have also acted as consultants for the definition of a bullet and trauma proof waistcoat for anti-riot and law and order maintenance operations for the Angolan police force.

At the same time, Miguel Rios Design studio has carried out extensive research on I – Wear & Smart Products, Micro architecture and Macro design conceptual and formal issues in the past years, and is now developing a range of this type of products.
In 2003, as a result of a joint project with Ydreams – an information and communication technology company – and the Portuguese Institute of Telecommunications, Miguel Rios won its first project for the European Space Agency (ESA) with a project for an intelligent uniform for fire-fighters to fight forest fires called I–Garment.

In 2004, the studio was chosen to create and develop the new design for ANA, Portugal Airports Authority, S.A. company’s uniforms, applied to all categories.

Since September 2008 Miguel Rios is responsible for the subject of Design and Technology at the Master in Design Degree from the University of Aveiro.

His pieces are part of the permanent collection of MUDE - Museum of Design and Fashion.

TEAM

Carla Rocha | designer
Working with Miguel Rios Design since April 2006
Worked as a designer in LARUS - Design 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 graduate in Museology and Museography at FBAUL, Lisbon
Graduate in Industrial Design, from ESAD, Caldas da Rainha, 1999 - 2004

Francisco Costa | designer
Trainee at Miguel Rios Design since January 2010
Graduate in Fashion Design, from CITEX, Oporto, 2007 - 2009
3rd Place in the Young Creative Chevrolet competition, 2009
Frequency of the 1st Year of Fine Arts, FBAUP - Oporto, 2007

Tiago Araújo | Assistent
Working with Miguel Rios Design since December 2009
Professional Course in Marketing / Public Relations / Advertising from Magestil, Lisbon, 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 | Assistent