For Maria Figas, a designer based in Lisbon, Portugal, the current issues facing the world drive her to respond through design. “Understanding what surrounds us is the starting point for everything I create,” she explains. “We’re living in a time when so much is happening in the world: wars, climate change, poverty, and the rise of AI. A designer’s work can often feel insignificant next to it all, but I don’t think it is.” Figas discovered design through an assignment in her high school multimedia class when she had to create a magazine cover, and that introduced her to a medium to which she had been drawn innately. She went on to graduate with a design degree from the Lisbon-based Universidade Europeia. “My first job was at an independent publisher called Stolen Books, where I got to see how the creative process works in publishing,” Figas says. “Currently, I’m finishing my internship at FUEL, an agency in Lisbon that focuses on advertising and brands, while also taking on various freelance collaborations along the way. Understanding how the two worlds of independent editorial and commercial advertising work has helped me grow in ways I didn’t expect.” Connecting back to Figas’s beginnings in design through a multimedia class, many of her influences similarly inspire her with their usage of mixed media, such as designer Braulio Amado, Cash & Carry Studio and Porto Rocha. However, much of her inspiration comes from cultural and social movements that emerge in response to the world’s problems. “There’s a freedom in these movements that doesn’t exist in more institutional design,” Figas explains. “They aren’t bound by brand guidelines, which allows them to be more direct, more experimental and more striking in how they communicate. That boldness inspires me more than the object itself.”