Ignacio Urbina

I am an industrial designer, educator, and curator. I am a Professor and Chair of the Industrial Design Department at Pratt Institute in New York. I specialized in Bionics at the Laboratório Brasileiro de Design Industrial and earned a Master’s degree in Product Engineering from the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil (1993).

I worked as a designer and researcher in Florianópolis, and after returning to Venezuela in 1994, I contributed to the creation of the Centro de Arte La Estancia in Caracas. I was a faculty member (1996–2010) and General Director (2005–2009) at Prodiseño – Escuela de Comunicación Visual y Diseño. In 2007, I served as Coordinator of Industrial Design at the National Secretariat of Design and Architecture.

In 1999, I co-founded the design studio Metaplug, leading projects such as the Museographic Device Design Team for the Andean Amazon Pavilion at Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan. I have directed numerous product design projects and have been a visiting professor at national and international universities. I have also served as a jury member for various design awards, including the Observeur du Design Awards in France in 2014.

Currently, I develop projects independently in Brooklyn and serve as editor of the platform www.di-conexiones.com.