The call for UDD Design alumni nominations to participate in the next version of this award, which will take place in 2024, has begun.

Actitud Diseño (Attitude Design) is an initiative led by the School’s Alumni Network, headed by the Director of Development, Continuing Education and Alumni, Daniela Reyes, with the support of an Advisory Committee led by the Dean, Alejandra Amenábar. It recognises those alumni who have developed outstanding and inspiring professional careers in the most diverse manifestations of the discipline, from signature design to the corporate world. The idea of recognising our graduates’ talent started in 2021 as part of the reflection within the faculty about the maturity and complexity achieved in the first 20 years of the school’s trajectory. The aim was to highlight the work of our graduates, whose number at that time was close to 1300.

«With this objective in mind, we convened a group of alumni, with whom we worked to shape the project. We were particularly interested in mapping and identifying our graduates’ different fields of action. The spirit of Actitud Diseño has always been to invite the whole community to participate, gather everyone’s opinions, and allow us to be surprised. What we did was to create a space to make the talents of UDD Design visible», explained Daniela Reyes.

In its first edition, the initiative reached more than 400 people who nominated their favourite designers, resulting in more than 100 nominees, of which 72 had more than one nomination in the available categories: Talent, Public Responsibility, Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Innovation and Global Vision. «After the nominations, we invited all those graduates to complete their nominations, achieving 54 effective nominations. We did a one-to-one job of contacting them and following up with them. It was very satisfying to see the alumni’s positive reaction when they found out they were nominated,» she added.

The award

In 2022, a national and international representatives jury selected the 21 Actitud Diseño UDD award winners. The ceremony was held at Universidad del Desarrollo, where former Design UDD students were recognised for their work and contributions to society. The event took place in the Aula Magna. It was attended by prominent figures such as Federico Valdés (President of UDD), Alejandra Amenábar (Dean of the Design School), Daniela Reyes (Director of Development, Continuing Education, and Alumni Design), and directors of various majors.

During the first award ceremony, Alejandra Amenábar, the highest authority of the school, expressed her satisfaction with the number of applications received. She found reviewing the projects and learning about the endeavours of the applicants to be very inspiring. According to her, the variety of work presented has helped improve society and motivate the faculty to continue producing excellent professionals. The Design School is committed to preparing designers for an ever-changing world, and the applicants reflect this commitment.

New edition

Actitud Diseño has set the objective to enhance the platform for promoting designers in the future. As a part of this initiative, each profile shared on the website will represent an actual portfolio of projects. To achieve this goal, Actitud Diseño has already initiated a new call for 2024, through which anyone can nominate their favourite UDD designers and help in their recognition.

Daniela Reyes explained, «Every year, we will include the portfolios of new graduates in this collection. Our goal is to create a record of our graduates’ achievements and present their profiles to a wider audience.»