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Gli studenti internazionali di Relational Design: Marília Traversim Gomes

Da São Paulo (Brasile) a Catania per studiare Relational Design e poi a Milano per un importante opportunità di stage: Marília Traversim Gomes ci ha raccontato la sua esperienza – personale e professionale – all’interno del master.


What brought you to Italy?

In 2015 I came to Italy to visit my sister, who had recently moved to Sicily. At the time I worked as an assistant-editor in a big publishing house in Brazil but I wasn’t happy with it. As the editorial market slowly collapsed, I felt that my job position was getting more and more precarious and I couldn’t see any improvement or professional growth in the near future.
The trip to Sicily came right when I was thinking about the future, forced to accept the fact that I needed a change. Like everyone else I fell in love with Sicily – with its colors, the flavors, the people, mount Etna and the sea. “This is a place where I could be happy” I remember telling my sister, who suggested that I actually came to live there for a while. And so I did: I took this big leap of faith and started over.


How did Relational Design came into the picture?
I found out about it by searching online for design courses and events happening in Sicily. At that point I already knew that I wanted to live in Catania, it was just a matter of finding something that kept me busy and inspired! I particularly liked the fact that Relational Design not only allowed me to see how design was made across the ocean, but also gave me the opportunity to travel around Italy and to experience different aspects of this culturally and historically rich country.
It was just what I was looking for and now that is almost over I can honestly say that I had a great time! I just wish it was longer… I am not ready to say goodbye.


If you had to describe Relational Design in one word, what would it be?

Dynamic. Every month is completely different from the other: new subject, new teacher, new city, new students – new everything! In every module I learned something new, met new people,  made new friends and built a deeper bond with those that were already there since the beginning of this journey.


What was your favorite moment and why?
Since I come from an editorial background, I really enjoyed visiting Internazionale and Zero. It was really interesting to observe how magazines work in a different country. On an academic level, I loved the workshops in Palermo and in Amsterdam, because I had never studied service design before and everything was new to me.


Has the master changed you in any way?
Of course, it gave me a different perspective in a lot of ways. Professionally, it showed me different ways to make good design and how to mix and match different areas of knowledge and resources. On a personal level, it allowed me to experience a very international environment and to meet a lot of different people, with backgrounds very different than mine. I was able to share a bit of my culture with my colleagues and learn a little bit of theirs. Now I can say I have friends all over Italy.


What are you doing now or what are planning on doing in the near future?
I recently moved to Milano to work as an intern at Subito.it. Before doing the master I don’t think I would have been able to get the position. Relational Design played a really important part in the interview!
I plan on continuing to work as a designer in Italy. I don’t know exactly where this adventure will take me, but I am really happy about how far I have been able to go.

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Nuovi continenti, nuovi orizzonti, nuove opportunità – Gli studenti internazionali di Relational Design

Cambiare non solo città ma addirittura continente per inseguire i propri sogni e cogliere nuove opportunità: questa è la storia di Mirielle Esther Robles, architetto, volata da Panama a Milano per studiare Relational Design.

What brought you to Italy?
Being honest: my whole life dream, at first! I always wanted to come here just to be able to go around and learn the language. Then, the opportunity to work for an incredible project (999 domande) presented itself and it came with new professional experiences and an incredible team of people to work with, whom I can now call friends!
So far it’s been positively challenging: learning new things about the culture, the city, the people and being able to absorb it has made me a new person somehow. Milan is an amazing city! There is always something happening and as a design capital it keeps you always inspired!

 

What was your idea of the master before actually attending it and what do you think now that you’re at the end of the path?
At first, you focus yourself on the content or the topics of the workshops and modules but it’s only when you start to relate with the other students – and most importantly with the partners and companies you met in the process – that you discover the real thing: Relational Design is mostly about relationships and the people surrounding you and how much you can learn from them!

 

If you had to describe Relational Design in one word, what would it be?
Mobility!
It’s amazing how things change even from city to city (or even in between offices and work methodologies) and for me this is the best way to learn.

 

What was your favorite moment and why?
My favorite workshop in terms of activities was Creative Printing (Editoria Creativa: Analog vs. Digital) with Print Club Torino. And in terms of learning, Design for Urban and Social Innovation with PUSH in Palermo. But the thing I loved the most was being able to travel to a different city every month and to be able to discover it with my pals (and this is also what I miss the most now that it’s over!).

 

Has the master changed you in any way?
Yes! This experience had been a life-changing one, all of it!
After years of working properly on companies it hasn’t being easy to re-learn how to manage yourself in the way of discipline and time, and even now I’m still working on it which is good! Personally, I’m sure I’ll keep for the rest of my life the friendships that were born during this time, and this is unmeasurable!

 

Last but not least: what are you doing now or what are planning for the near future?
Thanks to the Master and the Erasmus+ Program I got an internship with Basurama in Madrid so I’m moving there soon! It is very exiting because I will get the opportunity to enlarge my professional experiences on a whole new level and I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t have been possible if I’d stayed back home in Panama.