Design&Drinks is a monthly series of talks that brings together different design schools to share experiences, ideas, and perspectives on the role of design today. The meetings take place on the last Thursday of each month, at 6 pm, at Exploratório — Headquarters of Porto Design Biennale, a dynamic space dedicated to exhibitions, talks, workshops, and events that bring design closer to the community.

Each session features a conversation, followed by a get-together at the bar, providing an informal space for networking among participants.

In this session, the speaker is designer Sara Velez, a lecturer at FAL-UBI – the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Beira Interior, who will share her experiences and professional insights on contemporary design.

Sara Velez
She is an Assistant Professor of Design at the Faculty of Arts and Letters of the University of Beira Interior and a Researcher at iA* - Arts Research Unit, where she coordinates the designalab research group. She was Head of the Department of Arts (2021–2026) and Director of the Master’s in Multimedia Design (2021–2027) at the same university. She holds a PhD in Communication Design from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon. Her research focuses on the mediation of Communication Design, as well as the political dimension of design and its dilemmas, as exemplified by the chapter ‘Freedom and Communication Design: An Ethical Approach’ in the book *Ethics in Design and Communication, Critical Perspectives* (Bloomsbury, 2020). She served on the Strategic and Curatorial Councils of Covilhã, a UNESCO Creative City in the field of Design, for the period 2021–2025. Her book *Object-Information – Vilém Flusser, Design and Communication* is due to be published in 2026.

We count on your presence to strengthen this space for sharing, reflection, and socialising, bringing together the academic and professional design community in Portugal.