Design that diverged—sort of.
An introductory article. Hi, I’m João David Nogueira.
The Design’s Connection
I believe in impactful sharing, so this text is personal and extensive. If you bear with me to the end, thank you in advance.
Design is intrinsic to life: it is about finding solutions. Making things — drawing, dioramas, bricolage — has always been in my DNA. At 23—as I write this, I’m 38, indeed time flies—I opened a restaurant and gallery in Lisbon. That space was my first true canvas, teaching me to craft an environment, care for people, and understand the impact of a thoughtfully designed space on the human spirit.
The Anatomy of Perception.
I studied Communication and Cultural Sciences at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Lisbon. It instilled a broad approach to culture and grounded me in semiotics and linguistics. These concepts reinforced my drive toward meaningful design, decoding communication, and understanding how people perceive their diverse contexts.
Not Lost in Translation.
After directing my first documentary in Lisbon, I moved to Brighton, UK, seeking a nurturing environment to explore visual communication. This led to the television distribution of my essayistic narrative. For the next 15 years across two countries, my career evolved along two parallel streams: balancing corporate roles while continuing as a creative filmmaker.
In the corporate world — at Airbnb, BNP Paribas, and Hiscox — I learned to anchor empathy within structured environments. As a filmmaker, I honed my visual literacy, ensuring a creator’s perspective intertwined with business logic.
Today, I apply this cross-disciplinary foundation to UX/UI design and product strategy. Combining lateral problem-solving with enterprise frameworks allows me to find human-centric solutions that linear design processes often miss.
Design beyond design.
Design is intrinsic to life, but it never exists in a vacuum. It is shaped by our tastes, experiences, and idiosyncrasies.
Beyond accolades or skills, I want to share the passions and circumstances that brought me here today.
Designing Outside the Shell.
I love gastronomy, hospitality, and culture — especially when they collide to create a great experience. As a designer, hospitality is my chosen niche.
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Opening a restaurant at 23 was driven by an entrepreneurial hunger to make a living from my passion. Reflecting on it, I wondered why this interest grew so strong. Was it my Portuguese heritage? Or watching my father close sales in carefully chosen restaurants to make transactions more human? These factors played a part, but there was more.
Growing up, sensory sensitivity to unusual scents and flavors made me hesitant to try new foods. Raised as an observant youngest child, I turned to drawing, painting, and building to express the beauty I saw in the world. Yet something was still missing.
For years, my specific preferences — like only drinking a specific brand of water for its texture and smoothness — were mistaken for pretentiousness. In reality, I was navigating intense sensory experiences and learning to step out of my shell to explore the world.
To me, a flavour carries history. Hospitality — the act of sharing love, care, and great moments — became the language that brought me out into the world.
In recent years, I gained clarity: these sensory differences are traits of neurodivergence, specifically ADHD. While it brings challenges, ADHD also offers unique strengths. It is the framework of my mind’s inner workings, fueling a challenging trait into a wonderful path full of passion. Thus, I come to you carrying not only the experience of these cross disciplines and — quite frankly — cross paths of my past but as the visual artist, product designer, ADHDer, filmmaker, discoverer of gastronomic wonders, hospitality designer, and the hospitality and culture lover that I am today.
My passion for hospitality grows from a desire to share that same deep delight found in a single, rich experience — woven with flavor, texture, and heritage. Outside of design, exploring culinary arts and gastronomy is a true joy of mine.
Viewed through a Portuguese lens, the evolution of European cuisine is particularly compelling, enriched by its historic tapestry of Arabic, Asian, and African influences. Shaped by modern global connections and culture, gastronomy in Portugal is entering a vibrant new era.
Led by an innovative new generation of chefs, classic Petiscos — these days, in Portugal, they’ve really become more “Tapas” than “Petiscos” — are being reimagined across modern signature dining spaces. While I aspire to lend my own creative expression to this space, I cherish most the moments spent enjoying these meals alongside my family and my dog, Mori. Ultimately, food offers a meaningful window into how communities live and connect.
Unapologetically Human
The Manifesto: “What’s next?”
No matter how our tools evolve, design will always remain centered on humanity. Like many disciplines that have shaped society, design exists to resolve real human needs — whether in SaaS, B2B, Health, Tech, or Hospitality. At every step, our moral compass reminds us that we are designing for people.
Bypassing formulaic templates and articles, I want to give you a genuine preview of what my Medium writings will cover. My current focus areas include:
- Tech & Design: Articles centered around design principles and their intersection with hospitality.
- Adapting to today with ADHD: Constructive, non-medical, and grounded personal insights on navigating ADHD within product development, design, and hospitality endeavors.
- Case Studies & Ideas: Detailed notes on the concepts, frameworks, and solutions I build.
My work and writings are crafted to be genuinely experienced and felt. My goal is to empower individuals to express themselves without apology, and nothing brings me more vitality than fostering authentic human connections.
My next article—and officially, first real article—will be an essay about my interpretation of what I call the Tactile and Sensorial Digital Design.
Thank you for finding me and follow for more.
