Nini Andrade Silva is an award-winning designer for hotel interiors.  But she is so much more than just a designer.

As she says: “I don’t have one job. I have a career. And it revolves around creation and creativity.”  Which is why, when she works in an area (she is based in Portugal but works worldwide) she gets more involved that just with the project at hand.

Nini’s style has been given its very own label in the industry: Ninimalist. It is minimalist, but with soul (she says).  “Design is not what you see, but what you feel. Before I start on a project, I would walk around the town. I want to feel the pulse of the place, talk to the people, feel the energy. Then I will incorporate all that into the design,” she says.  Her trademark is to marry her designs and the landscape, or aesthetics and feelings.

Which ties in nicely with the other part of Nini that I admire.  Nini also started a charity called ‘Girl of the Pebble’.

Girl of the Pebble foundation was initially set up to help children in need in Funchal, Portugal (her hometown), but as Nini’s work took her around the world, so to have the funds from the charity gone global. In Brazil, she has helped to set up a school for kids.  She gets involved in this way in every community she works and it has me wondering what designers can bring to a place beyond just their clients designs.

More about the inspiring Nini.

images from mutante magazine, jalou gallery, fickle Cattle, and eageriseager by creative commons.