Interior Design & Deco in Marbella

 

“At Cristina Mota Inclusive Design, we use Design as a tool to empower people. Inclusive Design is about creating products and/services that make people’s life easier by allowing them to live an independent quality of life”.

 

How can I help you?

Whether you have a company or are a service provider, and you want to reach a further 10% of the population, (400,000 people),  then you will need my services.  If, for instance you have a hairdressing salon, on a 3rd floor with no lift, then you are failing to cater for people with mobility impairments. In this case the law says that you can make reasonable adjustments, or provide your service in a different way. In this case you can arrange to go to the persons home to cut their hair.  But its advisable that you advertise this service on your webpage, on social media, and all graphic work, flyers, business cards etc.

A different scenario could be that you are opening a new restaurant, then I can do a Design Appraisal which means going through plans for layouts, circulation plans to ensure that everything is DDA compliant. Access to the restaurant, via bus, car or train, step-free entrance or a ramp that is::….. door widths, lighting, space for a wheelchair user to use the restaurant and move freely in. Make sure toilets are accessible, that the font you choose for the menu, and text size and colour has a good contrast with the background colour, and so on. There are many aspects that need an expert and this is where I come in.

Or it could be that you are starting a new business in tourism and you want to cater for people with impairments, or the Elderly, who may have less good vision, may not have good balance walking, or use a hearing aid, then you will need to be aware of all the legislation. If you have architects plans, I can do a Design Appraisal, to make sure they are inclusive.

 

What is a Design Appraisal?

A Design Appraisal is done by an expert, and consists of verifying that entrances, windows, hallways, etc are within the correct 

About Cristina Mota

Ana Cristina Carvalho Mota is a Portuguese Product Designer with more than 30 years of experience, of which the past 12 years she has dedicated to Inclusive Design.  Born in Angola, (Africa), of Portuguese nationality, lived in Coimbra, (Portugal), Aberdeen, (Scotland), The Hague, (Holland) and finally decides to study Design in the UK.   She completes her B.A Honours Degree in “Furniture and Product Design” at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication and moves to Portugal where she starts her career working for various design companies. She is offered a position as Industrial Designer in one of the top Graphic Design studios in Portugal, (Atelier Henrique Cayatte), where she was responsible for designing the stands for the various Book Fairs, both abroad (Frankfurt) and in Lisbon.

 

Two years later she comes across Novodesign, the biggest Design and Architecture  Studio in Portugal, and joins the team of 100 Designers and Architects in the studio, and her responsibility is to Design Accessible Stands for public institutions.  Finally, she decides to set up her own company called “Letsdesign”. For 5 years she runs it and takes on projects from big clients. She focusses on working for important customers, such as Sintra´s County Council, Designing multi-use, Accessible Kiosks, signage for Sintra´s  Library  and  for the Knowledge Pavillion, used in the Expo in Lisbon, organised and put together events, such as “Internet.pt”, their 3^rd Anniversary, amongst others.

 

At the same time lecturing at I.A.D.E. (Institute of Art and Design) in Lisbon where she introduces the importance of Accessible Design. Her passion in this area of Design grows and she feels the need to learn more and specialize in this field, so in 1996 she moves to the U.K. to do an M.A. in “Design Research for Disability” at the London Metropolitan University.  Whilst doing her Master she manages to get a job as Director of Consultancy at the “Centre for Accessible Environments” (C.A.E), where she is responsible in ensuring that her clients are presented to the most suited consultant in his/her field and that Access Audits, Design Appraisals, Walk and Talk Audits, are done and presented to highest quality possible.

 

After one of her many visits to Spain, she sees the potential in the field of access, so decides move to Andalucía, the community with the highest number of people with disability. Working for Pedro Peña, Blackshaw Interior Design, Pulse Interior Design and Concept Building before deciding to go freelance. Cristina works from Marbella, where she has been living for the past 8 years.  Has experience as invited speaker at the Accessibility Event at the Aveiro University, invited member of Jury for final year Industrial Design course in Ourém, Portugal, and most recently been invited to do a talk on the “Present and Future of Accessible Design”, at the “Construacción Seminar on Bio- Construction”, that took place in Granada, targeted at Hotel owners, Construction companies, Architects, and all those interested in the Environment.

 

Design Awards that I have won?

 

I have participated in several design competitions. Although I have only won one award. This was an award for our LED lighting furniture, organized by Osram, where I entered the competition with a friend and we won it.

For the Forbo linoleum Design Competition, I designed rotating table mats for glasses/bottles made of linoleum. Out of about 300 participants worldwide I was nominated as one of the final 6 nominations. My design was also made and exhibited in the Furniture Design event in Verona, Italy.

I was nominated for the final with my bronze artwork that I entered to the Design Competition for and by the deaf blinds, organized by Sense in Scotland. I designed bronze tiles with waved reliefs on the surface which have several applications. These tiles can be used as a puzzle so that the deaf blind people can feel the relieved surfaces to fit each tile with each other, or these tiles can be used as a tile decoration in the kitchen, toilet or bathroom…depending on the user´s choice.

After my M.A. I worked as kayak builder for 6 years. This company was a small family-run business that built kayaks for professional sportsmen who competed in tournaments like the Olympic Games. We produced kayaks with materials like glass reinforced plastics.

I managed to get this job via a specialized organization that helps the disabled people to find a job or internship. The organization works with the governmental authorities. If I could get any job that I wanted, what would it be? Due my bad eyesight I can only sit behind the computer a few hours a day (2-3 hours or so)..I love to do modeling in 3D, using autoCAD etc. Ideally, I´d  like to work as Product designer, and preferably improve smaller products on the market.

 

Hobbies

What do I need to be able to teach design? I need a translator/ interpreter. He/she must forward my stories because my voice sounds very different and not everybody understands what Im saying. And this translator too will communicate with me using sign language.

How do I feel when you work on Inclusive Design projects? I feel myself useful to society. For me design was and is always my biggest interest because I often discover badly designed things….it is  necessary to pay a lot of attention to design and styles.  I’d be happy to pass on my Design knowledge onto the new generation!